Glow from the Soul - Page 2

“I thought, ‘When I age, now I can age in place,’” he recalls. There was another attractive asset to the home: every room was paneled in lauan, commonly (though not accurately) called Philippine mahogany.

“I was hoping [the Eichler I chose] would have the mahogany,” Reiling admits of his Eichler odyssey. “It’s just beautiful. To see single pieces of ten-foot-tall Philippine mahogany is just a glorious sight to behold. I said, ‘This is a place I could really call home.”

Having found a roomy, four-bedroom residence that not only offered shelter but also could comfort his soul, he bought it and set about experimenting with methods to restore the paneling.

“I said, ‘This is within my ballpark. I can totally handle this,’” Reiling recalls. “I just knew from my training at RISD how to deal with wood like mahogany.”

After refining his technique, the retired architect has settled into an annual routine.

“My practice is when it’s time to turn the heat on for the fall, that’s when I’ll redo the walls,” he explains. It’s a three- to four-step process that begins with dusting with a standard, store-bought microfiber cloth moistened and attached to a Swiffer mop.

After it dries, this is followed by another round with the same type of cloth dipped in Old English brand lemon oil. As a final step, Reiling lightly sprays Orange Glo furniture polish onto the paneling, applying it with microfiber cloth mounted on a Swiffer.

Some years, he takes the extra step of coating the baseboards in somewhat thicker Klean Strip boiled linseed oil. It’s a remarkably simple, albeit time-consuming, but spectacularly effective procedure.

“Same process works—you either put water or you put oil on them,” he says with no small pride in his always-brilliant paneling.

Eventually, Reiling’s Rancho San Miguel neighbors began admiring his walls of beauty when visiting for neighborhood association meetings. And, naturally, they soon started inquiring about his technique. 

“We’re that kind of neighborhood: we sort of lend each other assistance,” Reiling says with equal pride. “A lot of it happens on NextDoor—‘Who’s a good carpenter for this?’”

It’s a camaraderie that goes back to that thing about what a home can do for one’s soul.

“That’s why CA-Modern means so much to me,” the prematurely retired designer admits of sharing his secrets with Eichler Network readers. “It’s like a resource and an outlet for my current ambitions.”