Atomic Ranch by Michelle Gringeri-Brown

Author:Michelle Gringeri-Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781423600022
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Published: 2010-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

either people really get it or they don’t understand it at all . . .

to me it’s a groovy ’60s bachelor pad—

kind of Dean Martin visits The Jetsons.

Facing: The ’60s built-in gas stove has a pull-out drawer for the four burners. The white Formica counters are original as well.

Above: The curved wall behind the bed was refaced with walnut-patterned Formica, and the vertical block was freed from its drywall covering.

The shutters came down and carpet came up on day one, followed by grinding and polishing the concrete slab—a two-week process. In the kitchen, the couple’s crew did some investigation and discovered walnut-patterned Formica under the turquoise and white paint. That helped set the tone for the renovation: “Whenever in doubt, go original,” says Johnson.

Not all of the Formica survived the architectural archeology, though: partition walls in the kitchen and master bedroom had to be resurfaced, and new kitchen cabinet doors needed to be made. Gough found fifteen sheets of the discontinued walnut-color laminate warehoused in St. Louis and had them shipped out.

The home’s cement block walls had been dry-walled prior to Goodrich’s tenure, or in the case of the kitchen, covered with thin faux bricks; the crew spent much time bringing the block back to close-to-original condition. “Once they popped off the decorative brick in the kitchen, they had to take a chisel and go down the mortar lines of the cement block and tap out the excess mortar,” explains Gough. “That took two guys two weeks to do.”

After a renovation of about six weeks, the couple turned to the fun of furnishing. “When we first moved into the Kappe house I was at that stage where our home was IKEA-ville,” says Gough. Then about ten years ago, she went to a 1960s furniture auction in Los Angeles.

The homeowners consider the concrete floors to be an art gallery for their various area rugs. A long sectional couch bought on eBay is separated for use in the living room; the white vinyl was in good condition, so just the cushions needed re-upholstering.

“That was my first real exposure to an entire warehouse of ’60s furniture. It just hit me that I had to re-create that kind of look in my home,” she says. “We pretty much knew that’s what we’d want to do in the Laguna house, too, but make it more of a swinging bachelor pad with the low couch and sparse furniture. The look was driven by the concrete floors and glass walls; it was a no-brainer for me.” Phase two will involve restoration of the windows now blocked by the bedroom closets and rebuilding the freestanding closets shown in the original plans—this time in walnut instead of the specified teak and Formica. A second bath added by Goodrich off the kitchen near the carport will stay.

“A round house is so unique,” Johnson says. “We’re all raised to live in boxes and it’s taken me a couple of months to get the intuitive feel of a round house. When I

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