Bill Ellzey Book Case

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Many years ago Scott and I traveled to the eastern Sierra Nevada, south of Mono Lake, for a gathering of professional photographers. There we had the pleasure of meeting  Bill Ellzey, a photographer based in Crestone, Colorado. One night as we sat around the campfire telling stories, Bill mentioned that he had built a strawbale house. Scott and I perked up our ears at this because we had recently begun reading about strawbale construction and wanted to know more about Bill’s experience. He had brought a photo album showing his house, so the three of us spent several hours pouring over the pictures and talking.  He was the first person we actually knew who had built and lived in a strawbale house!

When we began researching in earnest, we saw Bill’s house featured in one of our strawbale books. One photo really struck a chord with me, and that was of a bookcase Bill had built. My favorite thing about it was the irregular spacing of the shelves. Some were long and narrow, others short and wide - each space seemingly sized to fit a specific item, including a very large space to accommodate a painting.

I absolutely fell in love with that bookcase and told Scott I wanted something similar to it in our house. Ever since, I’ve been thinking about and designing our very own "Bill Ellzey bookcase," and last weekend we finished it. Using oak plywood and Home Depot vine trim, plus flexible LED light strips, it is better than I ever imagined it could be, and I thank Bill for the inspiration.

A preliminary plan with notes

Because we wanted the plaster wall to show, the bookcase does not have a back. This meant we needed to provide some means to prevent the bookcase from racking from side to side (or from falling over if the Teasdale Fault suddenly becomes active). We drilled holes through the plaster to the two by six studs, then screwed braces to the wall. These braces are aligned with the top of the bookcase and with a middle shelf. These are screwed to the braces, which prevents the bookcase from moving.

Almost everything was built on the floor to ensure the shelves were in the correct place. This made it possible to easily keep shelves parallel, and, best of all, we didn't need to work over our heads.

Next, we set the bookcase in place and screwed the top and middle shelves to the braces. Here you can see the brace under the top shelf.

The oak plywood is 3/4 inch thick, which is too thin to look like the original Bill Ellzey bookcase, so we added two-inch oak boards to the front of each horizontal and vertical element. Not only is this more esthetically pleasing, but the wide trim makes it possible install unobtrusive lights.

The trim around the adjacent door and all of the baseboards is vine trim purchased from Home Depot. We used a thinner version of the same trim on the bookcase.

During a search on the internet, we discovered these flexible LED light strips. You can cut the strip to various lengths with scissors. Peel the tape off the back and they stick to any surface you wish to illuminate.

 Our very own (partially filled) "Bill Ellzey bookcase."

More Lights

The last interior lights are now hanging in the kitchen above the counters. I purchased these at Home Depot four years ago when we first began working on the garage. They were on sale and I couldn’t resist. When we chose the lights for the living room, we made certain that the light that was to hang over the dining table would match these pendants. The plan was a success...and, after sitting in boxes for four years, the lights actually worked once we had them up.

Looking toward the living room

Looking toward the entryway

Ceiling Choices

Like moths to a flame, Scott and I are also drawn to light.  As a result, we decided early on to make the interior of our house as light as possible. In order to achieve this goal, we needed to consider not only the light fixtures, but the reflective nature of the ceiling surfaces as well. The kitchen and the sun room have been of particular concern because we undoubtedly will spend a great deal of time in these two rooms.

For the kitchen, we selected light fixtures that would illuminate the work areas; add depth, dimension and interest to the environment; and, at the same time, provide gentle light to fill the room. We chose light fixtures for the sun room that would allow us the option of filling the room with light when we were entertaining or directing just enough light onto the pages of our latest good read.

We also wanted the ceilings to reflect as much natural light into the rooms as possible. The architectural plywood we used to cover the insulation was extremely reflective, but we never planned for it to be a final surface since it didn’t have the “look” that fit with the natural character of the house. After several false starts we decided to return to a material we have fallen in love with - bamboo. A thorough internet search led us to Creasian Bamboo where we found a product that was beautiful, reflective, and reminiscent of the straw underpinnings of our entire house.

Using a staple gun, we attached the bamboo panels to the plywood ceiling and then fabricated the battens which prevented the panels from sagging and, at the same time, covered the seams. Here is the finished ceiling in the the sun room.





Had we known we would eventually be using these bamboo panels as the ceiling surface, we most certainly would have tried to place the light fixtures in such a way as to avoid the intersection of battens and  lights. This would have saved us the many hours of time spent on detail work, but that’s the way it goes when you are making things up as you go.

Here I am tracing the arc of one edge of a light fixture.

Using a grinder to shape the edge of a batten to match the curve of a fixture.





The kitchen ceiling with several battens in place.









In the end, I believe we achieved our goal of creating spaces with good light that incorporate reflective ceiling surfaces. It looks good too.

Let There Be (Some) Light

Nearly one year ago, in preparation for putting the roof on our house, Scott and I had to make decisions about exterior and interior light fixtures. It seemed like an odd time in the building schedule to be choosing finishing details, but there was a good reason.

You see, in traditional construction, plumbing and wiring run through the stud walls. Not so with our straw bale house. We wanted no penetrations of any kind through our exterior bale walls. This meant that our electrician needed to run the wiring from the inside floor where they arrived by underground conduit up a post and above the ceiling before we could add roof or walls. (See more in post entitled Roof, Rain and a Looming Deadline.) Hence the unusual timing.

I had no idea choosing lights would be such a time-consuming task. The location of each light was plainly marked on the plans.How difficult could it possibly be? I began collecting piles of timber frame design books. Pouring over every photograph I searched for light fixtures that would illuminate our beautiful tongue-and-groove ceiling and, at the same time, shed plenty of light on activities below. Track lighting appeared to be the principal choice, but it looked too industrial for our tastes. Eventually I put the timber frame books aside and just started turning the pages of Susan Susanka’s Not So Big House books. Every time I saw an appealing fixture, I put a post-it note on it. Soon Scott and I narrowed out options then headed to Thomson Premier Lighting and Appliance Center here in Logan. There, Jeff Thomson helped us find exactly what we wanted.

When Scott was in Torrey in October, he and Trent (our electrician) installed lights and fans in the main living area. This will make it much easier to work inside when we head south again next week.