This Home’s Art Storage Area Is What Bob Ross Would Call a "Happy Accident"

When a mid-construction change left a gaping hole in the wall, M.O.Daby Design filled it with a rolling cart.

Jun 28, 2024 - 17:17
This Home’s Art Storage Area Is What Bob Ross Would Call a "Happy Accident"

When a mid-construction change left a gaping hole in the wall, M.O.Daby Design filled it with a rolling cart.

A view from the loft. Large sliding glass doors allow the sunken living room to be opened up to the outdoors connecting to both the south yard and west patio at our Not Precious project.

Our Focus series shines the spotlight on the details: the extraordinary materials, spaces, and ideas that take great projects to the next level.

By day Elizabeth is a civil engineer, but in her Portland, Oregon, home, she’s a multihyphenate artist exploring mediums like kinetic sculptures, screen printing, and fiber art. When she approached M.O.Daby Design to create her house, she requested a loft-style space she could use as a workshop and craft studio.

The house sits in an established neighborhood filled with 1940s Cape Cods and bungalows from the 1920s and ’30s. As with many of our projects, we wanted to respect the scale of the neighborhood, even if it was a contemporary house, & make sure the house read pleasantly from the street in the context of the houses around it. Kinetic screens are utilized here to enclose the carport & allow the homeowner to attach outdoor art.

Elizabeth hangs some of her artwork on a metal screen enclosing part of the carport at her Portland, Oregon home.

Photo by Erin Riddle of KLiK Concepts

Raw, common timber materials were used in rhythm to create a warm and casual canvas for the sunken and double height living space in our Not Precious house.

The loft-style residence is inspired by warehouses, says Elizabeth.

Photo by Erin Riddle of KLiK Concepts

The residence is driven by her interest in natural materials, interactive elements, and flexible spaces. "We didn’t want the it to feel alien to the things happening inside it," says M.O.Daby Design founder Matt Daby. A palette of plywood walls, concrete forms, and metal reflect Elizabeth’s favored crafting materials.

As an artist & engineer that explores the beauty of natural objects and scenes, the homeowner tasked us with creating a building that was not precious - one that explores the essence of its raw building materials and is not afraid of expressing them as finished. We designed in opportunities for kinetic fixtures, many built by her, to allow flexibility and movement. The result is a building that compliments the casual artistic lifestyle of the occupant as part home, part work space, part gallery. The spaces are intended to be interactive, contemplative, and fun.

The rhythmic stair railing, which also displays Elizabeth’s artwork, is made from two-by-fours: "Nothing was a purely aesthetic decision," says Matt Daby, founder of M.O.Daby Design.

Photo by Erin Riddle of KLiK Concepts

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