Got To Be Real

Well, hello there Landing Crew, and thank you so much for tuning into episode 41. If you’re week is going anything like my week - wow. Congrats, you’ve made it this far, you are killing it. Let’s have a little fun, eh? This podcast exists to help you as you make decisions for your home, your  small business space, and even your dream mansion one day in the future, there are so many little things to think about and when you make the decision to hire and work with an interior designer, their biggest job is keep you looking at the bigger picture with every micro decision you make. And this podcast strives to do that for those of your who are not working with an interior designer - for whatever reason. Or maybe you are working with a designer and you can’t get on the same page - I got you. There are so many reasons you might chose not work with a designer, whether its because you think your project isn’t big enough to warrant an interior designer, you feel like you don’t have time to find one, maybe you feel like you can’t afford it or maybe you’re literally just in the dreaming and scheming phase and you really won’t be renovating or building any time in the near future, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have access to really critical ways of thinking and things to consider as you explore the fantasy world of design.

Today we are going to talk about one particular, major concept that is critical to understand if you want to keep your DIY projects from looking like DIY projects. We’ve all had that awkward moment when someone comes over and sees a creation we poured our hearts into & they scrunch up their face and say those dreaded words “did you make that yourself?” 

And even if you are working with a professional contractor or a builder, the design choices you make - and direct that professional to execute, are a reflection of your knowledge and understanding of architecture and interior design. 

There is one thing in particular that’s a dead giveaway that someone didn’t do their design fundamentals homework. I guess its less of a thing and more of a philosophy. And hey -  there’s definitely nuance here, and I’m going to break down this idea and I’m also going to let you know when you CAN break this rule. But I promise, if you integrate this idea into your design thinking, your game is going to feel completely leveled up - like rather than guests asking you if you did something yourself, they’re going ask for your architect’s number - and spoiler alert - you don’t have one.

Let me explain - this is a concept that every architect and designer gets hammered into their heads maybe the first or second semester of design school but it’s not something that I have seen really permeate the general renovation and DIY culture and its time to shed some light on it, I say.

Because even though there have been times when I feel like the philosophy I’m going share with you can be pretentious in nature, I do think that there’s an important backbone behind it.  And I’m going to talk about the pros and cons of this idea because, I think that people who tackle projects themselves, don’t stick to these principles for good reason and we’ve gotta talk through it.

So what I am talking about is the concept of architectural authenticity. This is the idea that structural architectural elements and building materials which include columns, floor joists, ceiling beams, structural concrete masonry units, and brick should only be used when they are truly a part of the building structural system. 

If these terms are unfamiliar to you, congratulations - you probably aren’t professionally involved in the construction world. So let’s do a glossary overview - the term “column” is more commonly referred to as a post or a pillar, sometimes I hear people call them poles if they’re thin - this a vertical load beading element that is part of the bones of a building - if you’ve ever created any kind of a fort with pillows and blankets, you know that finding something to serve as the vertical structural element is critical, whether it’s a sturdy chair or a tall bed frame, is like the most important part of getting fort started. 

Column sizes, how many are needed, and how far apart they are spaced  are all calculated by a structural engineer. A common question I hear both from clients and my students is - “can we move or remove the column?” And, the short answer is yes, but the longer answer usually ends up being no - because you can certainly move a column, but in doing so the structural skeleton of the building will need to be recalibrated, which usually includes adding structure somewhere else, which can be an unexpected cost. So for instance if you have a column in between your living and dining room, and you want to create an open plan space by moving or removing the column, you’ll have add a larger structural ceiling element to span the void created by removing that column. That larger ceiling beam, in some cases might have to be big - like so big it obstructs your beautiful open view in your kitchen / living room  to the point where they still feel like two separate rooms. In some ways it’s like whack a mole - every action has an equal reaction. And this reworking comes with a cost which typically ends up ending the conversation around moving or removing a column from any project. I’m trying to think - in the 15 years I’ve been working how many times a column has actually been removed or move. There has to be once instance but nothing is coming to mind. How many times we’ve spent hours discussing the possibility of moving a column - that happens maybe every two projects.

So I mentioned ceiling beams just now - so let’s define those. Ceilings and floors are often built using lumber joists and beams that form a grid to create the skeleton of the ceiling. Ceiling joists also support walls to stop them from toppling over like a house of cards, and  in many cases they help to keep the roof up. Beams are the large more load beaming components and joists are the smaller intermediate supports.

Similar to columns, the size and placement of joists and beams are calculated by a structural engineer or architect and each one plays a role in the overall support structure of the building. If you were thinking about adding a or move a stair case, the ceiling floor joists would need to be recalculated to make sure they were supporting all elements including your new stair.

Okay what about concrete masonry units or CMU - these are what most people refer to as cinder blocks, and they are often an integral component of foundations and load bearing walls. Sometimes you’ll even see these sealed or glazed as the finished wall in more industrial feeling spaces. In fact I have pretty vivid memories of staring at brightly painted CMU walls all through elementary school.

And then of course there’s brick - you guys are really smart and don’t need me to tell you what brick is but one thing we should discuss is that prior to the  industrial revolution even into the early 1900’s brick walls were stacked up extra thick and used as load bearing walls. Today, that would be considered a huge waste of time & resources - with the invention of steel and the aforementioned CMU, but you’ll find load bearing brick walls in plenty of older homes. 

Okay so - all this to say - these are things we see in our everyday lives, in the buildings we live and work in, where we drop our kids off at school, in stores, and gyms and at the DMV - but no one really focuses too much any of these structural components and that’s not a bad thing, most of the time they’re covered up anyways. But it has resulted in some of the importance and function of these elements being taken for granted, and therefore sometimes, emulated, represented, and straight up faked in all kinds of instances.

I’ve seen countless faux brick walls on various how-to’s, I’ve seen home make overs that add exposed ceiling joists on top of finished drywall to “warm up” a room. I’ve seen columns added to a room to create symmetry and framing-  that’s a big one that’s got some complexity to it, I’ll circle back on that. And this is the mortal sin of architectural authenticity - faking structure. It will get you eye rolled out of professional office settings, lectured out of school studios, and gossiped about at industry gatherings. 

So what’s the big deal, right? I have often taken the side that this point of view can be far too rigid, pretentious, and academically oriented to really matter to the people who inhabit these buildings in the end. And yet I find myself coming back to this anytime I see a tutorial online that suggests doing something like painting a brick stencil on your living room wall. 

We have to look at the why of this concept to really understand what’s going on - psychologically speaking. There are many interior designers, decorators, DIY tutorials, and home owners that are guilty of breaking these rules. And a lot of times when these rules get broken, there’s an important intent behind it. There might be a need to bring balance or symmetry into a room  that feel off kilter  or lacking a focal point, or including some kind of warmth and texture that doesn’t feel frivolous- and it wouldn’t feel frivolous if it looked like it was a necessary part of the building. There’s a problem that needs to be solved and for some reason the idea of displaying structure seems to solve it in some peoples minds, only the structure doesn’t exist. 

There are many charming architectural features that we LOVE seeing from adorable brick walls, elaborately carved gargoyles, impressive flying buttresses, gorgeous brick arches with decorative center key stones, traditional column capitals with story telling entablatures above, to precious iron mullions that separate tiny panels of decorative glass. It’s all exceptionally gorgeous, and I would agrue, there’s an important role that these architectural devices play in our hearts and minds because they really engage us in an active play with nostalgia. Whether it reminds us of a special time or place  in our lives, or it’s the mere fantasy of a bygone era we never got to experience - these architectural devices feel cozy, familiar, even brining a sense of safety. But, each and everyone of these elements was invented for a specific functional purpose. They are like markers in time in terms of construction technology - they have all out lived their purpose and when you see these elements in new buildings, they are completely decorative in their use. And if, as we love to say, form follows function, what are we doing adding these old time dinosaurs to our brand new buildings? It’s kinda like -  you can use a type writer if you like, but there’s a cool whole world of advances in the computer technology - you may want to check it out.

I think bricks are the best and most intriguing example of this. As I mentioned, bricks were used to provide the actual structure for the walls of a building. Today there are much more efficient methods of structure such as steel, so any time you see bricks on a new building - you can bet your bottom dollar it’s decorative. This includes the skin or cladding on the outside of a building - sure the bricks provide a layer of weather protection, but they aren’t what the building is actually made of. They are literally just the outfit that the building is wearing to make people feel good and enjoy looking at the building. Which isn’t a bad thing, but can’t we push forward and use the construction elements present today to build new and innovative decorative elements? One exception I can think of where bricks are still used functionally is for a fire place, where they are providing protection from the soot and heat of the fire, so take that for what you will.

Another example is one of the biggest trends to sweep home decor in decades, which I predict is swiftly on its way out is ship lap. Now, shiplap is a real building material in older homes, its a variation on lathe and plaster -  and this trend started because the idea was to expose and restore the wood element of the existing shiplap, rather than covering it up with drywall - which is genius, and beautiful. But once we began applying new wood on top of drywall in new homes, in an attempt to fake shiplap, that’s when the beauty of it all starts to sour.

Wood, in general is another important topic to talk through, although slightly different from the structural components, wood is one of the most commonly emulated materials in all of interior design. There’s plastic laminate that looks like wood, vinyl flooring that looks like wood, porcelain tile that looks like wood, fabric that looks like wood, even metal, that looks like wood. Humans love wood. And I want to be clear on why this occurrence of emulating wood is so prevalent - it’s two fold. Wood can be expensive. Depending on the species and cut, you can spend a pretty penny on anything that’s truly wood, which I think there’s still a connotation that wood is simple humble, accessible - buts a premium building material. Things like laminate and vinyl will always be cheaper than real wood. Secondly, wood can be high maintenance to take care of. It’s porous, doesn’t play well with water, can stain and discolor easily, it dents and chips and can’t really take a beating. I say all this to acknowledge that the prevalence of faux wood comes from a very reasonable line of thought - we want the warm look with a lower price tag and simple maintainance plan. And honestly I think this is an instance were there are plenty of products that look like wood but aren’t and still look good - there’s the term faux bois which is a French term and the use of wood as a pattern can be very chic, it’s really all about the quality of the patterning - if you see that the pattern is repeated in very small sections,  and it looks like there isn’t a lot of variation in the pattern - it’s just the same little section repeated over and over again - that’s when these types of products start to look cheap.

And I wanted to circle back to the idea of adding columns in a space. I’ve worked on projects were we did this - if there is a rogue single column in a room, it can make a lot of sense to build a sibling column that creates a mirror image so that it doesn’t stand out so much - and in that instance, I think it can be acceptable. It’s not my first or go-to solution, I think there are more interesting work arounds like making the column have a feature material, you can cover it in chalkboard paint or mirror or something just a little different, but there are times when it makes sense to create a non-structural column for the sake of design balance, but I just want to reiterate that this is the exception and not the rule.

Okay So if we follow this line of thinking down the rabbit hole, architectural authenticity - nothing is fake. This means no decorative brick walls, no adding columns just for columns sake - no applied wood beams in the ceiling.  Then the question becomes, what do we do inside? Because modern means of construction are so focused on efficiency and cost effectiveness, they aren’t always exactly something to be displayed for their beauty, and most walls and ceilings are simply masked with dry wall and painted. You get a plain old white box. And trust me, this is by design. The mid century modernists who worked to strip away all the unnecessary decorative elements in a building helped to streamline the construction process as well, and less decoration means less work for churn and burn developers.

One of the first things you should do - especially if you live in an older home, is to assess the structural bones in your space. This may include having an engineer come and do a wall probe, you could actually have a beautiful structural brick wall hiding away behind layers of plaster - and by all means - expose that beauty! If you have carpet or any other kind of lay down flooring you can pull up an inconspicuous corner in the back of a room and see what kind of sub-flooring is below -  you might be surprised, there are so many homes with beautiful hardwood floors that were covered up in the 80s. If you have these existing architectural elements, imo it’s your duty as a home own to display them. People are literally faking them in new build construction so if you have something authentic and original in your house, treat like gold, polish it up, and display it. There are so many people who will rip everything out of their homes in the attempt to start with a blank canvas but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater please! If you’re dealing with a newer building, it’s all good - there might not be anything to unearth but that gives you a clear conscience about moving forward with decorating with wild abandon.

The amazing thing about the time we are living in is that we have so many options when it comes to material choices - you can incorporate any color of the rainbow into your home in so many different ways. And materials are being created and innovated on everyday. If you are loving the wood look, but want to try something other than the reclaimed, ship lap look - consider other kinds of wood that are more unapologetically decorative. Tambouring is a great example of this - this is a material that is flexible in natural - usually small half round wood dowels that are glued to a paper backing. Tambour was used in storage furniture to create sliding track doors , but its coming back as wall and cabinet finishes today. Wood tambouring looks refined and playful at the same time, but it’s so delicate that there’s no way anyone would mistake them for a structural element. You can also look at decorative wood panels that are carved or routed to have more sophisticated and intentional shaping, including geometric patterns, perforations, and thin square slats.

Any of these panel types will work on the ceiling as well - Instead of building out beams that aren’t there, you can cover the entire ceiling in these wood panels so that there is a significant amount of warmth across the entire ceiling plane - without emulating structure!

Okay here’s an idea that might blow your mind - have you heard of this thing wallpaper? Okay I’m joking but seriously, there are so many types of wall coverings available today, you can use something as simple as a geometric pattern, or a bold botanical mural, to non paper materials with real depth and richness like felt or cork. And wallpaper comes in a peel and stick option that is great for renters or anyone who likes to changes things up regularly. In fact I think if you use a wallpaper that has a wood pattern to it, and you intentionally turn it on it’s head a maybe use an unusual color or even a metallic just to be clear you’re not trying to pretend it’s really wood, you’re just taking inspiration from it - that’s a great use of faux bois.

And if adhering a textile to the wall isn’t quite your thing, consider the option of curtains. Installing a ceiling mounted drapery track along a wall with an extra long, double full sheer or colorful drapery can transform a room in ways that you have to see to believe. And please do not misunderstand - this is not that same thing as hanging up a single blanket on a wall a la a college dorm, I am talking about permanent hardware, and lush flowy textiles that span from floor to ceiling. This is such a dramatic and sophisticated look, and if you’ve ever seen the lobby of the Delano hotel in Miami, you know what I’m talking about and if you haven’t - I will link that in the show notes.

And I’ve said this before and a I’ll say it again, don’t be afraid to experiment with colors through paint. The world of warm neutrals can bring a lot of the same coziness of wood without the trying-to-hard vibe.

You can also reach into the bag of tricks from the earliest of interior designers and create a wall of mirrors.  Not only will this double the visual real estate of your room, it effectively erases the wall itself. And if floor to ceiling mirrors isn’t in the cards for you, you can still set up a series of framed mirrors to have a similar effect - just remember to stick to odd number of mirrors for a complete look.

And of course, you can show off a beautiful collection of art, or get one quickly through Etsy -  just to have something to liven up your walls. You can’t go wrong with an oversized statement piece that takes up half the wall, but other options that look great include a three piece series, all the same size and frames, or of course the beloved asymmetrical gallery wall. 

Okay - so I’ve said my piece on authenticity today and if anything I want you to walk away with an appreciation for our built environment, what it is you’re looking at and why its’ all there. Maybe the next time you see column you’ll knock on it to see if it’s hollow inside, or maybe you’re rather not embarrass yourself in public like I do, your call. But - when you make choices for your space - they matter both for your own enjoyment of the space and as an expression of the story of the building itself. Until next time, stay grounded.