Originally published on CaliforniaHomeDesign.com
For those of you that don’t know, kit-houses were all the rage in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Prior to the Great Depression, people could literally order a house out of a Sears catalog, get the parts shipped to them, then DIY the building right onto their plot of land, Ikea-style. This Glen Ellen remodel, overlooking a beautiful tract of valley in Sonoma County, California, was just one of those houses.
Even with its relatively unassuming history, design firm SFOSL LLP managed to make a true modern vision out of what was essentially a mail order home. With an upside-down floor plan (public functions upstairs, private downstairs) and siding from a one-hundred-year-old barn, the Glen Ellen Remodel comes alive as an outdoor getaway: fresh, transcendental and awe-inspiring.
This was originally an Ikea version of a home—just ordered and put together on a plot of land. It sure doesn’t look like that now.