How much is built of cerused French oak?
DG: The wall unit, closets, bed, night tables, and desk are all in cerused oak. The wall unit has shelves on the living room side and closets on the bedroom side. It replaced a Sheetrocked stud wall, which was just a divider. In a space this small, a wall has to be put to work. We made a list of every book and object the owner wanted the unit to contain, took the measurements, designed around them. AH: We made the unit as deep as we dared 29 inches. Obviously we had to be careful it didn’t swallow up too much floor space. What other materials did you use? AH: All the walls are grasscloth, even the bathroom’s. It’s very tactile, like the oak. We purposely deployed the same handful of materials again and again, because in a small space the visual message has to be simple and straightforward, or it quickly becomes chaotic. You can’t jam in a lot of ideas or you wind up with a mash. You need a single overarching design narrative. We try to tell one story. Who are your design heroes? DG: Fr
