You're Invited

to join me on my tour of the home of Calvin Florian & Kelly Hart...

image via Calvin Florian

I came to meet Calvin Florian as I was taking pictures of homes around my neighborhood for a post on just that. Standing in the middle of the driveway, I heard a polite voice come from a car window behind me as I surreptitiously snapped an image with my iPhone camera. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the voice was that of Calvin Florian, one of the homes owners and the author of a blog I linked to about the home's building process. Long story- but over a series of emails I came to explain to Calvin one of the things that I would like to do with this blog is to show my readers the inside of houses I like. Within our communication, its automatically apparent that they love architecture as much as I do. Calvin and Kelly were both EXTREMELY gracious in inviting me (and my camera and my blog) over to their home for a tour.

Please enjoy!

image via Calvin Florian from Peach magazine

The Exterior Of A Warm & Fuzzy Contemporary:

Like so many homes in America, the exterior is hardy board. A friend of the couple's, DJ/artist John Otte, individually painted each hardy board panel. His hand is faintly apparent in the washes of subtle grays & browns.

Pretty cool, huh.

John's mom owns the Inman Park contemporary art gallery Whitespace whose redesign by Brian & David won them a 2007 AIA Georgia Design Award.

Calvin & Kelly hired Brian & David.

Those guys are joint principles of the Atlanta based architecture firm bldgs. The duo's presence isn't just in the visual, either. Brian & David specified the panels of hardy board siding be set slightly away from the home to allow water to pass through and dry out, whereas conventional siding sits tight to the surface. Brian actually worked on much of the house along side Calvin, when do you ever hear that happening!

The First Floor Interior Of A Warm & Fuzzy Contemporary:

I arrived at the home about 6:30 PM, early enough to experience the beauty of the warm light that comes inside houses facing west at this time of evening. Calvin met me at the door, along with the couple's 2 dogs, Astro & Sweetie. He took me into the living room, a glorious expanse of cubist forms in varying stages of illumination reaching simultaneously towards the sky. Kelly shouted a friendly hello from her office above us. Kelly filled the entire house with a near curated collection of Heywood-Wakefield furniture that she gathered from around the city, Calvin stays out of furniture.

Me: Is seems like the architect had a strong vision from the get go, did he? What was it?

Calvin: He did. But we knew we wanted to be able to communicate throughout the home, we wanted all the spaces to relate and not exist as separate volumes. So he translated that.

Me: Is it weird to live with so many windows? In other words, is it odd to feel so exposed?

Calvin: It definitely took some getting used to. That's one of the things we didn't really anticipate. If there's one thing I think I would have done differently, it would be to build something a little more modest. I mean, I grew up in a house without stairs, so this is a lot.

Me: (in my head) Well, I am sure am glad that you did NOT build something more modest.

I hope these images give you a sense of the light filling the home-its radiant.

This is one of the cats looking out on the front yard from the screen porch. Calvin said that he sits there a lot, a little confused by the barrier. Calvin & Brian hung the screen tautly with staple guns & ladders, there's not a chair rail so that the view remains unobstructed.

The cabinets & countertops are IKEA, as are the breakfast table & its chairs. Calvin mentioned that they might change the countertops down the road, but I think they look fabulous. Calvin demonstrated the genius of IKEA engineering slamming a cabinet door only to have it bounce quietly back into position. I concur.

Throughout the house, David & Brian included strong horizontal planes of simple planed wood in the form of recessed shelves like these and desks (there is one in the kitchen, not shown). I forgot the type of wood, but its really beautiful and helps to counteract the loftiness of the ceilings.

See that.

I could present this image to you as an abstract and turn it anyway imaginable- it would remain interesting.

See the light.

I wish I had a wide lens camera, but I don't and to me this image best captures the sculptural quality of the structure.

=Awesome.

first floor's half bath

Calvin designed the shelf, maybe he's the lost child of furniture craftsman George Nakashima. That's a pretty good close up of the wood to give you an idea of the impressive grain. Note the window. They're everywhere.

The Second Floor Interior Of A Warm & Fuzzy Contemporary:

living/dining viewed from 2nd flr mezzanine

living/dining viewed from 2nd flr mezzanine

Above-one of my favorite shots because it demonstrates the Rubik's cube like playfulness of the house: twist it, turn it-there's infinitely more possibilities/perspectives waiting for you to notice them.

Me: Wow. The surface of the desk is especially beautiful. And I love that artwork, I love how it looks like a polaroid in the way its printed.

Calvin: Brian actually finished that desk himself.

Me: Really? That's impressive and rare.

Calvin: He did the mantle,too. And I took that shot myself, I thought they needed to be on a large scale. I would like to hang a bunch of them together somewhere.

Me: So fun.

Calvin: One of the things we take for granted is how many views we have in this house. You can stand in one spot and see out the to front yard, up at the trees, around to the back...each with its own perspective.

Full bath that Calvin noted was friendlier to men than women. Fair enough.

Might be worth sporting a bikini top to enjoy a view of the tree tops while sudsing up.

side entry (& kitty) viewed from 2nd flr mezzanine

Charming bedroom

The views of the trees beyond the windows hang on the wall like art. To the left of the bed (and my shot) there's another long vertical window, continuing the collection. The side table recalls the work of Japanese American designer Isamu Noguchi. Don't think he did any exactly like that, but sure he would feel right at home in the Florian Hart urban oasis. Below, the bedroom's yellow hues punctuated by another built in desk.

living/dining viewed from 3rd flr mezzanine

Neither of us is smoking, but can't you see we're getting high (couldn't resist)...

a cozy bedroom

When we walked into this room, we became automatically aware of the lower ceiling height- its cozy. Calvin said this is one of their favorite rooms, that it was comforting. I imagine that every now and then its nice to have privacy within your glass walls, especially when privacy comes in polka dot.

master bath

master bath

master bath

Kelly had gone on a bike ride while Calvin gave me the tour. The couple gets so many requests that they have taken to taking turns as the guide. She met up with us on the back porch-

Me: So would you do it again?

Kelly: No. It was hard, really hard. All the decisions to be made, I would often come home and have to work until 11 o'clock. We had a contractor that poured the foundation in the wrong spot. We moved in the day of the tornado in Atlanta. Literally, we finished moving in the last box and the rain started. We're sitting in the basement of the house hoping the storm didn't rip the whole thing away. If I did it again, I would do a modular house.

maybe like this one?

NOTE: This is not a woman unduly complaining. All the conflicts Kelly & Calvin encountered in their build are so ridiculous in number that its comical: robbery, tornado, a truck load of rocks getting dumped (& left) in the yard-you couldn't even make this stuff up...Calvin maintained a blog on the building of the house that literally reads like a soap opera, I hadn't looked at it in depth in a while when I visited them and I had forgotten all the drama they endured. Check it out.

Calvin: Its funny though, I bet in some culture some where in this world that tornado is a sign of good luck.

Kelly throws him a skeptical glance.

Calvin: No, seriously. I have this friend at work who told me...some saying, I'll ask him.

Me: Well-you know they say its good luck when a bird drops on you. Same thing, right?

If the adage about the bird is true, these folks are in for a hit of serious luck.

And they deserve it.

On my way out, I thanked them both and told Calvin I would send him a link to the post when I put it up. Do you know what he said back to me-you don't have to post anything if you don't want to.

Me (in my head): Yeah, right, Dude. Of course, I'm posting this.

And so concludes The Claire Watkins Architectural Tour: Version 2:0.

EYE CANDY by bldgs

click here to see the office

click here to see the glass house

click here to see their website

P.S. I detailed the above conversations as best I can recall, not verbatim. I'm sure if I had repeated them verbatim that Calvin, Kelly and I would all appear much more witty & intelligent than revealed by my writing here. Some things are hard to reproduce & get lost in translation- you know how it is. Plus- how lame would I look showing up to these nice people's house with a recorder.

Calvin & Kelly: if I misrepresented anything big time, please let me know before I embarrass myself. And thank you again for your generosity in showing your home.

:-)