Miranda July's buttery yellow kitchen.
Photo: Nico B. Young
Like her narrator crawl on all fours, Miranda July is undergoing renovation. She has been documenting the construction of her home in Echo Park, Los Angeles. The house is a two-bedroom house directly behind the writing studio I've rented for decades since I moved into it late last year. “It's like a new life, but it's built on a very solid part of my old life (the art part),” she wrote in January. “I think the art part is structurally trying to replace what the married life used to be.” And perhaps because her personal and artistic lives have doubled, her new home He became a character in the story of her new novel. She will become her own neighbor, and her artistic life and family life will be arranged in parallel. ” new yorker I have written. July's journey to reclaim a rug she found on her Facebook Marketplace took her to a vibrant New York location times profile.
But it was the butter-yellow kitchen cabinets that caught our eye the most. The space was designed and built by 24-year-old artist and relatively new builder Nico B. Young, who handcrafted the cabinets. We interviewed Young to learn more about the renovation process, tackling a project of this scale for the first time, and what it was like building a kitchen for Miranda July.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you get into this kind of work?
During the pandemic, I was attending art school at home, which inspired me to create a studio space in my parents' backyard. Without any knowledge of architecture, I built a 10 x 10 shed and became obsessed with furniture making. Over the past few years, I've been making a lot of lamps as a creative project.
How did you end up working with Miranda?
I met Miranda because my girlfriend was her nanny for two years. Basically, she posted on her Instagram story a few months ago, “Does anyone know a handyman in Los Angeles?” And my girlfriend was like, “Yeah, Nico's a handy person.''
And she had just moved into a new house.
She had been renting this house in Echo Park since moving to Los Angeles, keeping it as an office and studio. I knew she was separating from her husband Mike and looking for a place to live for her, but there are two houses on this property, hers, and suddenly the rent for the room in the back went up. She was like, “Oh, that's a really great situation.”
This is the kitchen before renovation.
Photo: Nico B. Young
The floor fell apart.
Photo: Nico B. Young
Did it start with a complete renovation?
At first I was like, “I need someone to help me fix the gate and paint the cabinets.” However, this house was not really attractive. It had recently been undergoing renovations and was just finished looking like a prefab from Home Depot. We walked around the house and discussed what we could do to get it back on track. In the end, I sketched out the kitchen design, discussed it with her, and started building all of these cabinets.
The cabinet is pre-finished with epoxy resin.
Photo: Nico B. Young
And all this was done on rental.
I hope she buys it, but there's a chance she won't, and the idea is that in a year the landlord will sell it, kick her out, and demolish the building. I don't think that's going to happen. But it's been a constant fear throughout this project, as the landlord has come to visit and seen the construction going on. The landlord doesn't know about it yet.
What was your vision for the kitchen?
She didn't really want tile countertops, she didn't want stone, and stainless steel was too expensive. But there's an artist from the Netherlands that I really love, Joep van Lieshout. He was famous for creating mobile homes and living units made entirely of continuous, colorful fiberglass in the '90s. It makes sense to use this type of material, which was used in boat construction, in a waterproof kitchen. I sent her an example of his work and she said, “Wow, this is my dream.” Then she started thinking about how to emulate that style in a slightly different way.
How did you make it?
I had this book by Atelier Van Lieshout. This book contained a manual on how to make their creations. They mix pigments with resin, and I learned how they do this. I had used a different type of resin, epoxy resin, but instead of fiberglass, I just applied the resin over plywood. I applied primer and butter yellow paint, and finally mixed in butter yellow epoxy. This was his four part mixture of epoxy resin, hardener, 3% epoxy white pigment, and his 5% Home Depot paint to get the color. I applied a base coat because it would end up being semi-transparent so I didn't want the texture of the wood underneath to be visible.
Mr. Young's workshop in July.
Photo: Nico B. Young
How did you decide on the colors?
She had this yellow chair in her house, an old stepladder-shaped enameled steel chair, and when Miranda pointed to it, I thought, “Yes, this is perfect for the kitchen.”
I also liked the little electrical outlet peeking out.
Thanks. This is something I have done before in my sculpture and lamp work, hand carving small outlet plates.
Outlet details.
Photo: Nico B. Young
$100 sink.
Photo: Nico B. Young
Were you nervous taking on such a big project?
Well, I was completely naive and didn't expect it to be such a big project. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to treat the surface with resin. At first it didn't seem that difficult, but by the second month I felt like: That's it.. I was so into it that I told Miranda it would only take a month or two, but it took four months. She was patient.
Were there any unexpected obstacles?
The big hurdle was getting the appliances and building the rest of the kitchen around the appliances we got. I've been searching Craigslist and OfferUp for weeks for quality used appliances. The budget for the project was fairly low and there wasn't much to talk about other than trying to keep it as low as possible. I bought a refrigerator for $400 and a really nice, fancy stove for $400, but it was broken so I fixed it myself. The sink was a cast iron enamelled sink and cost $100. Once I found an appliance I liked, I could build my kitchen around it.
Miranda was in the studio all the time, so she was able to come in every day while I was working and discuss designs with me, always giving me feedback. Her 3D mockup of the kitchen design was missing. After removing the original cabinets, they rearranged them around the room to create the feel of an actual kitchen. Originally, when I started building cabinets, the kitchen layout was completely different. She had already built about eight cabinets, which were still usable and she was able to move some things around.
How much did it cost in total?
The materials cost, including equipment, was only about $6,000.
How was Miranda as a client?
She was great. Miranda is funny. But it was also a very stressful time for her to be on this press junket. She would record the audiobook and then come home and I was the only person there. I was in her room every day for four months as a witness to this stage of her life.
What did you think when you saw your cabinet featured in New York? times?
It's interesting to be a supporting character in her life. I was still working in the kitchen when journalists were around. Naturally, it came up and I told them a little bit. Part of her book is about renovating hotel rooms, and mentioning this renovation project was relevant to the story.
The completed kitchen.
Photo: Nico B. Young
Do you think you will do more projects like this in the future?
I'm trying to figure out how to make a living as an artist. I think I'm drawn to furniture and carpentry because it's a sculptural process and a clear way I can serve others. Miranda has a garage in the basement of her house and during the course of her project I had to build a workshop to make these cabinets. She said, “If you're going to keep using the garage after this project is over, I won't be using it.'' It's about a mile from my house, so I still go there every day and work in her garage. I'm currently building a workshop so I can make more things.
