Advertisement

Maximiliano’s spaghetti wall: How it was cooked up

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

As walls go, it’s a bold one: the red spaghetti wall inside the new Italian restaurant Maximiliano in Highland Park. David Freeland, principal of the firm FreelandBuck, said the material is simple 1/8-inch medium-density fiberboard, or MDF, that had been spray-painted red and etched with a computer-controlled router to emulate the lines of handmade pasta.

Modeling software called Grasshopper used algorithms to create the graphic pattern, and the router cut the MDF just 1/16-inch deep, shaving off the red paint to reveal the natural brown of the MDF. “Each line is different,” Freeland said.

Advertisement

Though industrial equipment was needed to create such a large-scale installation, DIYers could apply the concept on a smaller scale using hardware store materials — child’s room art, perhaps?

For more inspiration, walk east from Maximiliano. FreelandBuck also designed the urbanscape coloring the wall of Cafe de Leche, below. The coffeehouse, less than a mile away, serves as the other bookend for the renaissance of York Boulevard. L.A. at Home will have a roundup of design developments in the neighborhood next week. In the meantime, you can read Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila’s review of Maximiliano, in which she likes the tagliatelle on the plate as much as the spaghetti on the wall.

ALSO:

Schindler remodel in Inglewood

Mini modern house in Echo Park

Wrapped in steel screens in Venice

Advertisement

— Craig Nakano

Maximiliano photo credit: Nils Timm

Cafe de Leche photo from FreelandBuck

Advertisement