How ‘You’ Is Your Eichler?

Owners who personalize their homes with imagination—lighting, décor, collectables
By Dave Weinstein
CA Modernist
"You must, in an Eichler home, expand and express yourself," said the late Matt Kahn, Eichler Homes original design consultant. And he did just that in his own Eichler home (above) on Stanford campus. Among his many expressions of self were the colored‐glass panels (pictured above), which can add drama and mystery to virtually any MCM home's visual presentation. Photo: courtesy Ira Kahn

For many people, their Eichler is more than their home. It's a collectable work of art.

People who feel this way, not surprisingly, are often artists themselves, or at least creatives who like to make a mark on their personal surroundings.

Well, go ahead. Follow the lead of the late Matt Kahn, a famed designer, Stanford professor, a man who furnished interiors of Eichler model homes and even taught art appreciation to Joe Eichler's staff.

 

CA Modernist
Recessed lighting hiding behind plants in an atrium provide a glowing touch of mystery in a Monte Sereno Eichler. Photo: Dave Weinstein

Matt, who lived in an Eichler on the Stanford campus for more than 50 years, famously called Eichler homes "insistently permissive." He also put it like this: "You must, in an Eichler home, expand and express yourself."

Certainly there are classic ways to furnish your Eichler, from the 'fill‐it‐with‐masterpieces‐from‐the‐mid‐century‐modern‐repertoire' to the 'oh‐heck‐let's‐just‐bring‐in‐some‐soft‐and‐comfy‐sofas‐and‐easy‐chairs‐and‐hang‐family‐photos‐and‐Uncle‐Fred's‐oil‐paintings.'

That works. But how about bringing in some drama and wit, maybe by playing up or playing with such Eichler themes as openness, nature, contrasts between light and dark, and modernism itself?

 

CA Modernist
A Sputnik lamp provides a fun and optimistic image recalling the thrill of mankind's first encounters with outer space. Photo: Dave Weinstein

"We like light," one Mountain View homeowner told the Eichler Network, as she showed us through her home, which had several added skylights. This love for light is a common sentiment.

Eichlers are all about the play of light throughout the day, with sunlight flowing in through walls of glass and through the atrium, the brightness contrasting with the warmth of wood paneling and wooden beams.

Some of the loveliest lighting effects in Eichlers can be obtained by simply leaving the homes alone. But colored‐glass panels (Matt Kahn used these in his own home), recessed lighting behind plants or other furnishings, and clever placement of furnishings or objets d'art to catch sunlight or moonlight through skylights or windows can all add drama.

 

  CA Modernist
The master bedroom of the Jones & Emmons‐designed all‐steel X‐100 Eichler is separated from the living area not by a wall but by a sliding metal‐chain curtain. Photo: Dave Weinstein
  

Curtains and screens can be used to filter light to create varied effects. A few years back visitors to the San Mateo Highlands 'Eichler Home Tour' could enjoy this effect when visiting Joe's all‐steel X‐100 home there, where a scrim‐like curtain walled off a bedroom from the main living area.

To play up their homes' modernist heritage, many owners go beyond Eames chairs to enjoy such retro, mid‐century themes as Space Age or Tiki—generally and wisely in small doses. We have yet to find an Eichler given over entirely either to outer space or Polynesia; fortunately the themes get along well with other more sedate looks from the period.

We've seen quite a few Eichlers that bring in iconic objects that evoke the playfulness of the 1950s and '60s, including jukeboxes and pinball machines. Not only do these decorate a home, but they also function as centers of activity. A rock 'n' roll party, anyone?