Their outside influences
If you’re lucky enough to live close to water, make sure to pay attention to the flow of coastal breezes and light through your living space.
AFTER living in Tokyo, American Barton Corley is accustomed to small spaces, as is his Japanese wife Mai Hirai.
So when it came time to remodel their little over 100sq m three-bedroom, one-bath home in Mar Vista, Los Angeles, they were more concerned with how they wanted to live with their daughters Leah, four, and Enna, eight.
“When I first met them, they described to me how they lived in Japan, and it wasn’t specific,” says architect Talbot McLanahan, who spearheaded the modest remodelling project.
“They didn’t tell me ‘We want our house to look like this.’ It was more about how they wanted to live each day.”
The couple purchased the traditional home, which was advertised as a fixer upper, in 2009. Because the rooms were small and compartmentalised, they tore down the wall between the kitchen and living room and remodelled the kitchen.
Years later, however, the interiors of the home still felt dark and confined, and the family grappled with feeling disconnected from the outdoors and the neighbourhood they love.
After waiting years to remodel, the couple knew what they wanted: a formal dining room, a sunken gengkan room in the entry where shoes are removed, and an outdoor bathtub. “We take bathing seriously in Japan,” says Hirai.
As non-native Californians – Corley is from Missouri and Hirai was born and raised in Tokyo – the couple also knew that they wanted to take advantage of indoor-outdoor living.
“Our kids are constantly running in and out of the house,” adds Corley.
And at a time when their neighbourhood is dotted with newer two-storey Modernist boxes, the couple did not want their new home to overwhelm the neighbourhood.
“We are seeing a lot of speculative development around here,” says McLanahan who lives nearby. “It’s refreshing to keep things one storey.”
To open up the interiors, McLanahan removed the walls at the two corners of the house and extended the corners to create a dynamic roofline.
She added 45sq m, including a master bedroom extension in back, and a new master bathroom and outdoor soaking tub.
At the front of the house, a new dining room now serves as a multipurpose room that can transition from dining to homework to play time.
It’s hard to hide on a corner lot, so McLanahan chose to embrace the location.
“Everything has to be beautiful from all sides on a corner lot,” she explains.
“I wanted to call attention to the addition by tilting the roof up and providing a clerestory that allows light in during the day.”
McLanahan covered the exterior of the house with board and batten siding and painted it a grey-brown colour – Dragon’s Breath – by Benjamin Moore that appears to change according to the time of day.
In the new master bathroom, McLanahan continued the exterior siding indoors to ease the abrupt transition from outdoors to inside.
Inside, industrial windows are installed high to provide privacy and give the house a warm glow when it is illuminated at night.
Western red cedar beams, widely used in Japan, are installed over the breakfast nook to highlight the home’s front window.
The beams extend outside the window, providing shade for the family’s occasional rice ball sales.
The new master bathroom is a testament to Japanese minimalism with a limited palette of wood, hand-poured concrete saddlebag sinks, white tile and plaster. Like a traditional Japanese bath, the outdoor tub is a straight shot from the indoor shower.
But ultimately, the architect looks to nature, not tradition, as her guide.
“You can make such a difference just by adding coastal breezes and light,” says McLanahan, who grew up on the coast of Massachusetts.
“So much about living there was about the coastal breeze,” she explains. “If I didn’t have that smell, I felt like I was too far away from the water, and something wasn’t right.”
It was an instinct that inspired the Corley-Hirai remodel. (Next up for the family? Saving for the large landscaping job that lies ahead.)
“The first thing she did when she came to the house was sit quietly and observe the light and breeze,” says Corley. “That simple move has enhanced the way we live.” – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service