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<\/a><\/p>\nWhy and what, you might ask, are these things here? Hint – not purely decorative:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n So, why the pulleys?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why the wires?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because this staircase, does this:<\/p>\n Yes, Easterdown has a drawbridge staircase that comes apart and moves out of the way to make one big room.<\/p>\n ‘One big room’ was first thing I told Mike Hope and Leila Westrope of Roderick James Architects<\/a> that I wanted the house to have.<\/p>\n Because we weren’t very experienced reading architects’ drawings and even though I knew we had a first floor, somehow we didn’t register that those dotted lines on the architects’ drawings represented a staircase. Until the frame went up.<\/p>\n I stood with Mike Hope and Mike Roberts\u00a0(Whiteway Carpenters<\/a>) and said, “Is there going to be a staircase here? I thought we were going to have one big room?”<\/p>\n Mike Roberts said, “Why don’t you have a drawbridge for a staircase? You already have a bed in the cabin that is on pulleys and becomes a ceiling”.<\/p>\n Mike Hope was enthusiastic that we should continue the cabin’s theme into the house.<\/p>\n And in that moment, the seed that Mike H. and Leila had planted, to live in a house full of\u00a0fantastical transforming furniture<\/a>, put down its roots and began to grow.<\/p>\n Frequently asked questions are:<\/p>\n How did you find someone to make, design and install this for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Would you believe Bell Ringing? We are fanatical campanologists and in our group of bellringers is a woman who does prop making and commissioning for English National Opera and Opera North. I asked her how she would get this designed and commissioned and she said “Talk to Theatre Royal Plymouth Production Services (TR2)<\/a>. They have a complete scenery and prop making workshop.”<\/p>\n Up until we talked to TR2 we had struggled to convince any staircase designer to make a staircase that moved. At the initial meeting, Jason and Sebastian of TR2 pointed out to us that they had never made a staircase that DOESN”T move.<\/p>\n What kind of wood is that?<\/strong><\/p>\n Horse Chestnut. Because it has such beautiful markings, it has lots of soft spots where the knots are and is rarely used for structural wood. But I filled the treads with lots and lots of clear epoxy resin, making them like small ‘River’ tables. Strong and beautiful!<\/p>\n
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