A Live-in Garden (continued)
On Vashon Island in Puget Sound, nursery owners Sylvia Matlock and Ross Johnson’s sleek mini-house melds seamlessly into the dramatic foliage of their woodland garden.
Photo: John Granen
Sylvia Matlock’s advice for successful living in 750 square feet? “Enjoy each others’ company.” Savvy design helps too. The house’s soaring ceilings and oversized windows and doors lend a sense of airy volume despite the small footprint. Even when the doors and windows are closed, the house is drenched in light, a pleasant change from the old cabin. The doors fold wide open and effectively disappear, blurring the boundaries between indoors and out for a sense of spaciousness, air and light. Yet when cold winds blow in off Puget Sound, the little house feels cozy and snug, with its patterned fabrics, wooden interior doors and wood-burning stove.
Space-saving strategies abound, among them is the Rais fireplace tucked into a corner of the living room. It can be used for cooking and has room beneath for storing logs. Glossy Brazilian basalt flooring runs through all the rooms, creating an illusion of expansive floor space. A black leather loveseat by Le Corbusier is sized for two, and built-in window seats provide efficient seating in the conservatory. But not all the furnishings are diminutive; it’s just that the bold, dramatic notes don’t take up floor space. The curvaceous light fixtures by Resolute and Anta are surprisingly large, and two pairs of antique wooden doors are commanding.
The limited space, no larger than the living/dining room area in many homes, works not only because Johnson and Matlock enjoy each other’s company, but because every detail was meticulously planned. Despite such attention to detail, there’s been room left for happy serendipity, as when chipmunks pop up and down through the grid in the salvaged concrete porches, a use never considered during the porch’s previous incarnation as shipyard welding tables.
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