Tag: Interior Design

Pine Floors and Shiplap Shine in Joanna Gaines’ Family Farmhouse

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

joanna gaines shiplap

Naturally, the people who helped make “shiplap” a household name have plenty of it in their own home in Waco, Texas. Design duo Chip and Joanna Gaines, best known for HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” as well as their own home decor brand Magnolia, opened their doors to Architectural Digest to give us all a peek at their personal style.

The way Joanna tells it, she isn’t necessarily obsessed with shiplap as a universal design strategy – she just happened to move into a historic farmhouse full of it, and it influenced her style as a result. Now, the word is practically synonymous with her name, and strongly associated with her easygoing, livable but fastidiously curated aesthetic.

Joanna tells AD she was determined to make pine one of the most important elements in the home, digging deep to get to the original flooring. You can see in the photos how beautifully it has aged over the years – a key feature of the species.

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“So, when we originally bought the farmhouse, I think it hadn’t been updated since the ’80s, so there was carpet everywhere and the ceilings were dropped really low. We wanted to get this thing down to almost the bare bones to figure out how we could make it work for our family.”

“We took out three or four layers of flooring to get to the original pine floors and then had to rework all the spaces. My master bathroom was once the hallway. The entry was actually the mud room. What was the front side of the house is now the back. So, the house was completely flipped. I love that, though. I love being given a space and then having to be creative and work within that box.”

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You can see more photos of Chip and Joanna’s home in Joanna’s book Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave.

Loving the look of shiplap? Check out our collection of tips, tutorials and inspiration.

The Perfect Compact Studio: A Pine Room Within a Room

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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Finding creative ways to make the most of small spaces is a perpetual architectural puzzle, one that must adapt along with the times as our needs and expectations change. One clever contemporary solution is the room-within-a-room, in which a compact multipurpose volume is placed within a larger space. Not only does it eliminate the need to modify the existing space with interior walls, which can make it feel smaller and darker, it offers a variety of functions and more privacy than the average open-plan studio apartment.

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Corine Keus Architect demonstrates how that can be done with a series of handcrafted studios designed for traveling directors, actors and artists-in-residence at the Netherlands National Theater. Made almost entirely of pine, the volumes have been inserted into six self-contained spaces within the historical building, which was built in 1916. Built in place and easy to deconstruct, these new studio volumes can be removed almost effortlessly when they’re no longer needed, barely leaving at trace in their wake.

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The beautiful simplicity of the pine plywood, with its clean lines and unadorned planes, contrasts with the historic architecture and adds warmth, texture and pattern to each of the white rooms. The studio volumes contain all necessary amenities, including kitchenettes, a sleeping platform, closets and lots of additional storage. The only other furniture required is a table and chairs for dining and working, and clutter is easily contained within all those cabinets.

Pine Studio

This project is packed with inspiration for small space design, and also shows how a material as humble and simple as plywood can make a big impact. It’s easy to see how cold and impersonal these rooms might have felt with just a bit of furniture and a built-in kitchenette. Instead, the result is cozy and one of a kind.

Shiplap Fever: How to Nail This Rustic Interior Design Trend (Literally)

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

joanna chip gaines shiplap

If you’ve ever watched Chip and Joanna Gaines’ popular HGTV show ‘Fixer Upper,’ you’ve heard the term ‘shiplap.’ But what does it actually mean, and how can you reproduce its look at home? First things first: shiplap is a type of wooden plank that’s milled or sawn with a rabbet on opposite sides of each edge, so the planks fit together neatly, nestling in like puzzle pieces. Shiplap siding produces a beautiful rustic effect reminiscent of sheds, barns and old farmhouses, with subtle horizontal lines stretching across the resulting wooden surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EixfsDZDENA

It’s a popular (and, some might say, vastly superior) alternative to drywall for interior wall finishings, and it can be painted or left natural depending on your intended effect. If you have some experience, you might be able to DIY a shiplap accent wall or even install it throughout an entire room, but you can always hire a knowledgable contractor to nail the look you’re going for (pun intended!)

What is shiplap NOT? Well, sometimes Joanna Gaines calls things shiplap that really aren’t. The word ‘shiplap’ doesn’t describe any old wall with wooden siding. There are lots of different ways for siding to fit together, like tongue-and-groove or simple sheathing. The way shiplap fits together is what makes it special, particularly because it helps to produce a strong, stable wall surface. But, as you can see in the tutorial below, it’s possible to fake a shiplap look with thin planks of a soft, smooth wood like Eastern White Pine.

If you love this look, you’re in luck: shiplap is usually pretty easy to source from your local lumberyard or home improvement store, and your contractor can easily order some if it’s not available locally.  Shiplap walls are one of those areas where Eastern White Pine really shines, and that’s not just us tooting our own horn!

Need some shiplap inspiration? Here are some gorgeous shots of shiplap in action found under the #shiplap tag on Instagram. Top photo via Joanna Gaines’ website, ‘Magnolia Market.’

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Curving Pine Plywood Partition Sets Off a Vaulted Interior in Barcelona

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

pine partition main

Providing both a separation of space and an earthy sense of groundedness in a stunning vaulted space, this raw pine plywood partition curves around the central living space of an apartment in Barcelona, Spain. Local architect Raúl Sánchez of RAS Arquitectura was charged with renovating the formerly dingy subterranean interior into a bright and livable home worthy of its seaside location, and it definitely looks like he succeeded on that point.

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The space is just 600 square feet in total, and was totally undivided, with no private rooms. The renovation defines separate living areas without cutting off the gorgeous ceilings and their textural concrete supports, and the pine gives it a characteristic warmth to keep all that white from looking too clinical.

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“The laminated pine dividing the walls highlight the items in the center of the space, while contrasting with the white surfaces of the existing walls,” says the architect. “This is the serene canvas against which future users will splash the colors and textures of their furnishings and belongings.”

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“When we removed the worksite floodlights in early summer we found that natural light filled the space and bounced on the walls nicely, creating a very pleasant and comfortable humidity-free space which seemed much bigger than its meager 55 square meters.”

Hot Kitchens: 4 Modern White Pine Plywood Cabinet Designs

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

compact budapest apartment

Who knew that ultra-affordable kitchens could look so good? Conventional cabinetry is undeniably beautiful, and Eastern White Pine is an ideal material to work with, not only because of its malleability and natural beauty, but because it costs less than many other varieties of wood. But you can go even more budget-friendly with pine plywood, without losing any style points. In fact, raw plywood plays a big role in minimalist modern interior design, favored for its Scandinavian-style simplicity.

Flinders Lane Apartment by Clare Cousins

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flinders lane kitchen

We love the way the pine floors of this London apartment seem to extend right up the faces of the cabinets thanks to their pine plywood faces. Clare Cousins Architects left all of the wood in this home in its natural state to emphasize its textural patterns and encourage visual cohesion.

Maison Renovation by M-Architecture

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M-Architecture renovated this old apartment in Brussels, opening up its facade with generous installations of glass, flooding the interiors with natural light. The smooth pine plywood cabinets in the tranquilly simple kitchen add to the brightening effect.

Compact Budapest Apartment

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The use of a wall-sized pine pegboard in this ultra-tiny apartment in Budapest is a clever choice, providing modular, customizable storage and display options in a space where every inch counts.

Pale Pine Beauty by Made Architecture

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Simple notches in the trim make it easy to open these pale pine cabinet doors by Made Architecture while keeping the faces entirely hardware-free for a minimalist effect.

Carved Japanese Chapel is a Masterwork of Intricate Wooden Design

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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Beautifully carved wooden elements have been common in architecture for millennia, including the antique Eastern White Pine columns, capitals, corbels and other millwork and decorative trim found in so many colonial homes. These flourishes are typically used sparingly, so seeing them take center stage in incredibly intricate interiors makes quite an impact. Check out this gorgeous wedding chapel, located at the Ana Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hiroshima, Japan.

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Nikken Space Design collaborated with a kimono designer to come up with the botanical patterns lining the walls and ceiling of the chapel, containing its rows of pews within a shell of lace-like wooden lattice. The complex design is supported by an arched framework measuring 20 feet high by 62 feet long.

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100 hand-carved wooden panels bear the patterns illustrated by the kimono designer, including leaves, flowers, butterflies and billowing clouds. When sun streams in through the floor-to-ceiling window connecting the pulpit to the garden outside, it projects the pattern onto the floor.

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“Hiroshima is often known for the ‘Genbaku Dome’ and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and one of the most popular destinations for overseas tourists to Japan,” say the architects. “For this reason, in planning the chapel, we were highly conscious of the fact that we were not simply designing as a commercial facility but a showcase that would let the rest of the world know about Japan’s peaceful spirituality, history, traditional arts and crafts, and its refined workmanship.”

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We’d say that goal has been achieved! This chapel is unforgettable, and it’s easy to see why couples would be eager to book it as the setting for their wedding ceremonies. It would be great to see similar woodworking trends catching on in the States, marrying traditional craftsmanship and American motifs with contemporary architecture. (Hint: Eastern White Pine would be an ideal material for this!)