Mueller Rooms

Mueller houses are newer than the bungalows we often work in, and this one had been finished by the builder in a way that photographed well and lived stiffly. The front room was a sofa facing a television. The kitchen faced a pantry.

We turned the kitchen toward the yard, rebuilt the front room around a hearth and a table, and replaced the lighting, which had been doing too much of the decorating. The palette is leather, oak, and plaster.

Seven months for three rooms sounds long. It included a beam, a new opening, and a summer where the stone was late. The weekly notes say so.