A family of four, a 700-square-foot barn, and a bowling lane table

By Barbara Thornburg

Where many see junk, Corey Gash envisions design possibilities. The window display artist convinced his family to leave its comfortable, two-bedroom town house in Orange last year for a run-down barn in Costa Mesa that once housed chickens and, later, a boat-building operation.

"The first time I saw it, I thought it was an amazing space with great bones. I'd always wanted to live in a barn," says Gash, who has fond childhood memories of feeding the chickens during summer vacations at his aunt's farm in Colorado. Partner Krista Wallace wasn't quite as enthusiastic. "At first I thought, 'No way. I couldn't live there,' " she says. "The place was a shambles -- filled with old wood and spiders. There wasn't a bathroom -- just an outdoor shower -- and I had just found out that I was pregnant."

Now, repurposed materials and furnishings give the remodeled 700-square-foot home a loft-like openness and a soulful style. Here, the entrance wall is composed of wood reclaimed from a church roof.