ART HOUSE:
AN INTIMATE LOOK AT SUPER-COLLECTOR CHARA SCHREYER’S HOMES, Page 6
inside REMODELING FOR HOW WE LIVE NOW
S EP T E M B E R 28 , 2016
PHOTO COURTESY OF MATTHEW MILLMAN
A S PEC I A L S EC T I O N TO T H E A R K N E WS PA PER
NATURAL BEAUTY
TIBURON NATIVES TURN A LOVE OF BEACHCOMBING INTO A BUSINESS, Page 16
Designer Cathleen Gouveia on indoor/outdoor living and eco-friendly elegance. Page 3
DRESSED FOR SUCCESS At home with Karen Johnson of Main Street’s Madison boutique. Page 10
PERSONALIZED TO PERFECTION A designing teen creates serenity using a chill palette and a no-clutter policy.
THE COOKING KIT CRAZE Is it here to stay? How the services work and taste, and if they’re worth it. Page 23
JOCELYN KNIGHT PHOTO / FOR THE ARK
Page 21
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HER WINNING WAYS: Interior decorator Cathleen Gouveia designs rooms for the way we live
COURTESY OF DAVID DUNCAN LIVINGSTON
Cathleen Gouveia transformed a dark and low-slung attic into a lofty bedroom with a sand-blasted white-oak ceiling, sleek ship-inspired built-in storage and a fully retractable door system that opens the room to a broad new deck.
BY GRETCHEN LANG
glang@thearknewspaper.com ——— The room was a horror. That’s what interior designer Cathleen Gouveia said to herself when she first saw the top floor bedroom at the San Rafael showcase house. “No way,” she told the showcase organizers. The ceilings were low, the doors stuck. She just couldn’t work with this space, she thought. “It was a dank, dark, horrible space,” she remembers. But then she got an idea. Cathleen Ann Gouveia, award-winning interior designer and Tiburon mom, principal of Cathleen Gouveia Design, is emerging as one of the Bay Area’s most imaginative interior designers as well as a fierce advocate for her profession. Now a three-time winner of the American Society of Interior Designers design excellence awards, she has designed high-end spaces for clients throughout the Bay Area and award-winning rooms for showcase houses in San Francisco, Marin and Napa. She was named a San Francisco Chronicle “style-maker” in 2011 and is set to take over as president of the ASID California North chapter this fall. Jerry Jacobs, a former ASID president and current Tiburon resident who recommended Gouveia for the post,
info For more information, visit gouveiadesign.com.
says he was impressed by her courage. “Cathleen has proven to be focused, energetic and always committed to working for our mutual cause, the improvement of our interior-design profession,” Jacobs says. “I anticipate exciting plans and achievements during her term as president.” Gouveia travelled a long road, with many twists and turns before finding her home in Tiburon and a career as a designer. Born in Akron, Ohio, she moved frequently on the East Coast with her family. At first, while an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University, she thought she wanted to be a journalist. After graduation, she joined the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi as an account executive in New York City. She worked there for 12 years. It was there, she remembers, that she read an article on color and how it affects people, their moods, even their appetites and sleep patterns. “I thought, ‘I need to help people create three dimensional environments they can walk through,’” she says. She decided to go back to school at the School of Visual Arts in New York, then transferred to Rhode Island School of Design. She graduated three years later, as one of
RISD’s first students to receive a master’s degree in Interior Architecture and Design, she says. In the 1980’s, while mountain biking with a friend, Gouveia rode through the small town of Tiburon. She came home to tell her then-boyfriend, Robert, now her husband, that she wanted to move west, though it would take until 1999 until she did so. “I just had it in my heart that I wanted to come back here,” she says. The West offered a fresh start with a fresh sensibility, she says. With good weather almost year round, designers can create spaces that include the outdoors. “The design has a more fresh aesthetic out here, much more influenced by nature rather than history,” she says. That aesthetic suits her. Her designs are clean and wellstructured. “I try not to over-design spaces,” she says. “I believe that there should be a lot of use of glass, metal. All of the organic elements that make a space feel like it belongs to the earth.” Gouveia says she also appreciates the innovative architectural styles of the West. Where East Coast design often focuses on the adapted reuse of older buildings, she says, West Coast architects are free to do more ground break——— See DESIGNER, PAGE 4
ON THE COVER: Chara Schreyer’s Eichler home on the Belvedere Lagoon features mid-century modern art and furnishings. PHOTO COURTESY OF MATTHEW MILLMAN
{w w w.thearknewspaper.com}
Owner: AMMI Publishing Co. Inc. Publishers: Alison and Arthur H. Kern, akern@thearknewspaper.com
Editor: Heather Lobdell Advertising: Henriette Corn Feature writers: Michelle Aschwald, Gretchen Lang, Heather Lobdell and Diane Smith Photography: Jocelyn Knight Production manager/Graphic design: Chelsea Dederick Copy editor: Diana Goodman
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JOCELYN KNIGHT PHOTOS / FOR THE ARK
Cathleen Gouveia worked with contractors to raise the attic bedroom ceiling from eight to 14 feet high.
Designer, continued from page 3
———
ing, experimental work, creating interior spaces that challenge her. But that doesn’t mean she has totally abandoned her East Coast roots. “I definitely like the relaxed California lifestyle, but part of me is very much rooted in my East Coast background, the formal traditional classicism. I try to bridge both of them and infuse them into my work.” When Gouveia sits down with a client, she tries to find out as much as possible about the client’s lifestyle and how they want to interact with the interior space, she says. “I ask ‘Where’s the Christmas tree going to go? What’s going to happen on Fourth of July?’” she says. “You need to understand that so you know how to design the space.” Local clients, she says, often want a house that has a well-travelled, European look. For that, she scours antique stores and art galleries, artisans and showrooms both locally and abroad for the finest collectibles, rugs, bespoke furniture and art to accent her interiors. “Locally, people want to try to create a house that looks like it’s been collected over time, not like you ran out and bought it at a retailer.” Occasionally, however, designers run into conflicts with clients who hire an interior designer to locate these objects and then try to buy cheap knock-offs independently so that they don’t have to pay the designers’ mark-up. Gouveia finds this infuriating. “It’s more than a problem,” she says. “A lot of people are leaving the trade because of it. We go to school for this. We’re trained for what we do.” Gouveia says as the new ASID California North president she hopes to institute changes in the way interior design work is billed that would do away with margins on objects and raise hourly rates instead, “so we don’t have to compete with the client.” David “DJ” Johnson, vice president of membership at ASID headquarters in
Washington, D.C., praised Gouveia’s work bringing the problem to the attention to the public. “She’s been a fierce advocate for getting people to understand what designers do,” he says. Gouveia has had to get creative when it comes to juggling motherhood and interior design. In 2005, her son, Ryan, was born into the designer life, visiting antique shops and galleries in his stroller and spending long hours at designer showcase houses. “They called him my designer baby,” she says. Ryan, now 11, attends Del Mar Middle School. Gouveia has won three ASID interior design awards, her first for the bedroom at the San Rafael designer showcase house in 2011. That project remains the one she is most proud of. Her big idea, she says, was bringing the ocean to the cramped dark space she was given. Knowing the house was owned by a shipping magnate, Gouveia says she imagined what it would be like to stand on the deck of a ship at sea with the sunlight seeping through the fog and the wind in her face. Making that vision a reality, however, required some elbow grease. She ripped out walls, raised the ceiling and built a bathroom. Most remarkably, she insisted on building a deck outside the folding glass doors, something other interior designers working on the project said could not be done. With the help of friend who was an engineer, the deck was eventually built. Six weeks later the room was a breezy, ocean-themed wonderland with folding glass doors that opened to an ipe deck surrounded by trees. The design brought light, air and even a view of the bay into the space. “The nature that was outside transformed it,” she says. Contributing writer Gretchen Lang of Belvedere covers the environment. She spent 15 years abroad writing for newspapers including the Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune.
Cathleen Gouveia in front of the San Rafael Decorator Showcase home.
COURTESY OF DAVID DUNCAN LIVINGSTON
Reclaimed ipe floors extend from the balcony through the bedroom to the new bathroom under the eaves. The Venetian plaster wall finish brings to mind the glisten of water.
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SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
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life is beautiful
New book opens rare window into Tiburon art collector’s homes BY HEATHER LOBDELL
hlobdell@thearknewspaper.com ——— The idea for “Art House,” a lush 220-page book that will be published Oct. 20 by Assouline Press, kicked around for years before Tiburon art collector Chara Schreyer and her long-time collaborator, interior designer Gary Hutton, got down to business on it. But two years ago, after completing work on a new contemporary home that seems to soar over the Los Angeles skyline, the good friends finally were ready. “The time was perfectly right,” Schreyer says. “That house is a work of art itself.” In fact, each of Schreyer’s homes — there are five — is a work of art. The homes include a mid-century modern manse in Tiburon, a custom Eichler on the Belvedere Lagoon, a San Francisco high-rise penthouse and two homes in Los Angeles. “Art House” provides an intimate and decadent armchair tour of all of them. In 150 photographs by Matthew Millman and text by Alisa Carroll, this book makes plain the depth of Schreyer and Hutton’s nearly 40-year collaboration. Though Schreyer’s homes are quite individual, they share a common thread — they are all informed by Schreyer’s art scholarship and Hutton’s cultivated eye. Each of the homes serves as a de facto gallery for a prodigious modern and contemporary art collection that has put Schreyer on the ArtNews list of the Top 200 art collectors in the world for the past 15 years. Hutton and Schreyer both know art. Hutton studied studio art at University of California at Davis in the 1970s, where he focused on sculpture. After graduating and, he says, “not being able to find a job as a sculptor,” he earned a graduate degree in environmental design at the California College of the Arts. He did a student apprenticeship at Gump’s and worked at the San Francisco Design Center for a couple of years before landing his first design job. “Gary brings conceptual thinking to design because of his background in fine art,” Schreyer says. “At Davis, he studied with Wayne Thiebaud, Manuel Neri, Robert Arneson and others.” Schreyer earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in art history at University of California at Berkeley. Her early passion was Renaissance art, specifically Madonna and child imagery. But her interest soon shifted to modern art. Her first major art purchase was two Georgia O’Keeffe paintings. One of those, “Pelvis VI,” hangs in her bedroom in Tiburon. Though Schreyer and Hutton were both active in the Bay Area art scene during the 1970s, that wasn’t how they met. It was because of a San Francisco restaurant called Today’s. In 1978, Schreyer met friends there for dinner. When she walked in, she was awestruck. “It was one of those real ‘a ha’ moments in life,” she says. “I was just blown away by how well the space was done.” It turned out a twenty-something interior designer named Gary Hutton was responsible for the restaurant’s brilliant aesthetic. “The phone rang and it was Chara,” Hutton recalls. “She introduced herself and told me that she had a project to discuss with me and we made an appointment to meet at her house in Tiburon. I remember driving my little red Volkswagen up to that house and thinking, ‘Holy cow! This is completely intimidating!’ But Chara was so gracious and did everything to put me at ease.” Hutton signed on to help Schreyer with a home she was building in Healdsburg. They’ve been working together ever since. The Healdsburg house was Hutton’s first residential design project and a catalyst for a career that has included major projects throughout the country and abroad, as well as an eponymous furniture collection. Hutton recently designed the new San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. Schreyer was born in post-war Germany. She and her
At top, Frank Stella’s vivid 1962 “Honduras Lottery” creates a focal point in Chara Schreyer’s Tiburon living room. Gary Hutton designed the curvaceous nouveau wingback chairs and many other furnishings in Schreyer’s Tiburon, San Francisco and Los Angeles homes. They met after Schreyer visited a restaurant Hutton designed. Left, Gary Hutton and Chara Schreyer have collaborated on homes for nearly 40 years. MATTHEW MILLMAN PHOTOS
Holocaust-survivor parents immigrated to the United States in 1952. The family landed in New York, lived in Detroit briefly, but settled in Los Angeles. When she started school there at age 5, she spoke Yiddish and German, but no English. “I learned by immersion,” she says. “My dad came to school every day with me for two weeks and stayed the day. He knew no English either.” Although she didn’t grow up visiting museums or in a home with fine art, Schreyer was exposed to good design and architecture. Schreyer’s father and uncles founded Shapell Industries and developed housing communities throughout Southern California. She fondly remembers walking model homes with her father on weekends.
Schreyer remains very close to her father, Max Webb, who is now 99. “I was always a collector,” she says. “As a child I collected dolls and stamps. That evolved into art. Collecting is obsession organized.” When Schreyer began collecting art in the late 1970s, she focused first on American modernists. Early purchases included work by Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dov and Joseph Stella. She expanded her reach with work by other 20th century masters such as Marcel Duchamps, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Andy Warhol, Sol LeWit and Man Ray. After her first marriage ended in the mid 1990s, Schreyer shifted focus to more contemporary art, including American photographers such as Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Cindy Sherman and Larry Sultan. She continues to expand her collection with work by emerging 21st century artists Gedi Sibony, Rachel Harrison, Glenn Ligon, Christian Marclay and others. Schreyer serves on the boards of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Hammer Museum. “I am always reading, looking and listening. I’m interested in a work when it speaks to my interest, is historically relevant, or pushes art history forward,” she says. “There are many collections within the collection — historically avant-garde, photography, new media and more.” “Chara has boundless intellectual curiosity and energy to match,” Hutton says. “She is also one of the most fair and generous human beings on the planet. Her philanthropy is truly as astounding as her art collection.” ——— See ART HOUSE, PAGE 8
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SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
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Art House, continued from page 6 ———
Schreyer raised her two daughters in her modern house in Tiburon. She bought it in the 1970s and she and Hutton have redesigned it twice. “When we begin a project, there may be a piece or two that we know for certain will go into that house,” Hutton says. “That doesn’t mean that the piece will stay there. There are only a handful of pieces in Chara’s collection that have never moved, either because the location is completely perfect for the piece or because the installation was so difficult that no one has the strength or energy to move it!” The mood of Schreyer’s Tiburon home is generally serene, but is, at turns, also shocking. Schreyer’s “disaster room” is a space that explores trauma and tragedy. “I always have a room, it seems to be, that holds works
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
of crisis and disaster. Because I am a child of Holocaust survivors, it’s always in my consciousness,” she says. Schreyer’s other homes, including a 1963 Eichler on Belvedere Lagoon that serves as a guesthouse and gallery for modern art, are also chronicled in beautiful, leisurely fashion in “Art House.” They are a feast for the eyes. The next year will be a busy one. She will participate in a major book tour, but she claims she is not in the market for more houses. “No more homes!” she says. “I am all done.” But anyone who knows her knows that she’ll never be done collecting, and as her art collection continues to grow, well, there could be another home. Or two. We can only hope. Heather Lobdell of Tiburon has worked as an editor and writer for several home and garden magazines.
Clockwise from top left, Schreyer’s custom Eichler-designed home in Belvedere features mid-century modern furnishings and art including an oil and black crayon canvas by Larry Rivers and Kenneth Koch in the living room; Robert Gober’s 1984 “Deep Basin Sink” hangs provocatively on a sand-blasted oak wall in Schreyer’s Tiburon living room; The white master bedroom in Schreyer’s Tiburon home features panoramic views and some favorite works by women artists including Louise Bourgeois, whose 1969 “Harmless Woman” sits on the dresser and Eva Hesse’s 1965 “Top Job,” which hangs on the far right wall; Schreyer purchased this Los Angeles hills home because it had a space for an untitled steel and plexiglass sculpture by Donald Judd. MATTHEW MILLMAN PHOTOS
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white magic
Boutique owner Karen Johnson finds calm in 1950s cottage on the Belvedere Lagoon By HEATHER LOBDELL
hlobdell@thearknewspaper.com ——— When Karen Johnson comes home to her cottage on the Belvedere Lagoon, the owner of Madison, the bohemianchic women’s boutique on Main Street, finds sanctuary in an all-white palette. “I’ve been decorating in all white for the past 25 years,” she says. “Being in fashion, I have so much color and pattern around me all day, I like to come home to a quiet and serene environment.” Johnson and her husband, Steve, moved to Belvedere in 2000 and bought this 1950s cottage in 2004. Johnson remodeled the house and added 500 square feet to create an open family room/dining room that’s mostly windows and looks out to the water. “I love light and being able to see the changing weather, seasons and wildlife on the lagoon,” Johnson says. “It’s like an ever-changing canvas. Last week we watched an otter family frolic in the lagoon amongst egrets, pelicans and herons.” Johnson comes by her retail and decorative wizardry naturally. Her mother, Eva, owned a successful chain of 10 Bay Area shops, so she grew up in and around the business and soaked up her mother’s elegant style and business acumen. “My mother was always my muse, showing me style, an incredible work ethic, boundless energy and a real passion and creativity for the business,” Johnson says. Johnson opened her first shop, Accents, in Mill Valley in 1989. She sold it 10 years later and splashed onto the Tiburon scene with Main Street’s Citrus in 2001. Five years later, she sold Citrus to a college girlfriend so she could focus on raising her young daughters, Nicole and Sydney. “I wanted to try parenting without the constant juggling act that comes with owning your own business,” she says. After years of being a mostly full-time mom and dabbling as a freelance stylist and jewelry representative, Johnson found her way back to retail. In 2012, she introduced the Tiburon Peninsula to Madison, a boutique just down the block from Citrus. Its easy, breezy style makes it popular with women of all ages. “I realized I needed a home base for my creativity,” she says. “I constantly had people asking me where they could buy the clothing and accessories I was wearing.” Johnson jokes that her Madison business plan is “buy one for herself, three for the store,” but admits there’s a lot of truth to it. “I buy the things that I love, not for a label or a trend. And I could not get excited about selling things that I wouldn’t want to wear myself or wouldn’t admire on someone else,” she says. Long before she opened her first shop, however, the Southern Marin native was expressing her creativity through decorating. “As a child, I incessantly made illustrations and redecorated my room and my mother’s house,” she says. Johnson describes her decorating style as beachy, but notes that it’s moved through the years from “funky beach to a more sophisticated St. Bart’s look.” ——— See JOHNSON, PAGE 12
JOCELYN KNIGHT PHOTOS / FOR THE ARK
Top, Karen Johnson works with lots of color and pattern at Madison, her Main Street women’s clothing store. Middle, Johnson’s home is designed for indoor-outdoor living. The family room doors are often left wide open to a large entertaining area next to the Belvedere Lagoon. Bottom, the family room’s sink-right-in seating is slipcovered and washable. Johnson enhances the beachy feel here with apothecary jars filled with shells and shell photo frames.
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Johnson, continued from page 10 ———
While Johnson’s palette is monochromatic, rooms are warm and not at all boring, in large part because she layers with rich texture and meaningful, often sparkly, accessories. “I love to incorporate things that mirror and reflect the light, much like the reflection on the water of the lagoon,” she says. “I think beings a Pisces, a water sign, might be part of its attraction.” Contrary to what you might expect, an all-white interior isn’t necessarily fussy. Most of the white fabrics Johnson uses are washable and bleachable. And white doesn’t fade, which makes it a smart investment in a home that receives bright sunshine all year round. “My environment and its aesthetic have always been important to me as an expression of my travels, my experiences and things that are near and dear to me,” she says. “But that being said, I also love for my environment to be liquid — always evolving and expressive of what inspires me at that particular period of time.” Johnson builds rooms the way she builds outfits, using elements that coordinate and connect to one another, sometimes matching, sometimes giving balance, sometimes contrasting loud and quiet, but always with the goal of creating comfort and heightened beauty. “Don’t force things, just wait and listen. The piece, whether it’s art, furniture, wall color or fabric will speak to you,” she says. “I think both rooms and outfits should be a reflection of the person, who they are and how they live.” Like Johnson and her lifestyle, the house is both fun and fancy. She and her family like to be barefoot and outdoors enjoying water sports or entertaining casually, often on the fly, on the broad lawn facing the lagoon. They paddleboard, kayak, play volleyball and tetherball and host bakeoffs, dance parties and sleepovers. Other times, they like to get all dressed up and host adults-only dinner parties indoors, too. The house, like the woman who designed it, is perfectly suited to both. Contributor Heather Lobdell of Tiburon has worked as an editor and writer for several home and garden magazines.
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Top, daughter Nicole’s bedroom is white with bright splashes of turquoise. Wall shelves with art and photos simply clipped to string infuse personality and color. Middle, the all white kitchen features richly veined Carrera marble counters and allwhite ceramics behind glass cabinet fronts. Bottom, the living room’s sofas are also slipcovered, but feature more angular lines. Shiny accents including a pair of mercury glass lamps and silver on the coffee table impart a dressy glow. JOCELYN KNIGHT PHOTOS / FOR THE ARK
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life’s a beach
Local artists put heart and soul into recycled home decor products By MICHELLE ASCHWALD
maschwald@thearknewspaper.com Two Tiburon childhood acquaintances have blended their love of the outdoors with a rustic design aesthetic that includes natural materials to create unique, one-of-akind furniture, art and accessories for the home. A Soulful Purpose is the home decor business Dana Welch and Todd Schrock founded after they started dating two years ago. Their work features driftwood, stone and other repurposed materials. “Our lives came back together when we reconnected on Facebook in 2014,� Welch says. “We had not seen each other in 25 years.� After commenting on an old photograph of mutual Tiburon Peninsula childhood friends posted on the socialmedia site, they decided to meet. They discovered that they both were creative and enjoyed the mountains and beaches of Marin. After one day at the beach together, they fashioned a decorative mirror from some driftwood they’d collected. They hung it in Welch’s Tiburon home and friends reacted enthusiastically. “You must design these for a living,� several friends said.
Todd Schrock and Dana Welch with the initial frame of a table of pallet wood. JOCELYN KNIGHT PHOTOS / FOR THE ARK
Heart and soul That was the spark for A Soulful Purpose, the couple’s young but thriving business, which focuses on combining recycled, reused and repurposed natural items to make furniture and art. In addition to driftwood, the couple uses beach rocks, beach glass, moss, wooden shipping pallets and old wine barrels. “We work with existing materials to make new pieces of art or furniture and we breathe life into old things by making something new that is wonderful and useful,� says Welch. Besides being business partners in a romantic relation-
ship, Schrock, 50, says they are both spiritually-inclined and enjoy going to Spirit Rock Meditation Center — a Buddhist retreat in Woodacre — to attend “Dharma Talks.� “We have a spiritual practice and love to meditate,� Welch says. In Buddhist philosophy, dharma translates to “cosmic law and order.� In Hindu literature, the term means “the right way of living.� So far, business karma is good. Welch says that their
revenue has tripled this second year of operation, and continues to grow. “We cannot keep our signature pieces of the driftwood peace sign and sunburst in stock,� says Welch. “Now we’ve expanded to pallet-wood tables, which are very popular, too.� “Todd is great at furniture-building with the pallets,� Welch, 52, says. “We have a special painting and staining ——— See DRIFTWOOD, NEXT PAGE
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JOCELYN KNIGHT PHOTOS / FOR THE ARK
From left, A Soulful Purpose’s recycled wood accessories include rustic pallet trays with colorful painted washes; driftwood that Welch and Schrock have collected ready to be repurposed for frames, artwork and furniture; a seashore burl fashioned into an art centerpiece with votives.
Driftwood, continued from previous page
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info For more information, visit etsy.com/shop/asoulfulpurpose
technique. The fun part is that we never know the end result because every piece is unique. The pallets can be either pine, oak or fir.” She says that all of the products are “eclectic, conscious and environmentally aware. We are bringing the outside indoors and going back to nature.”
Rustic chic Welch believes their items sell well because rustic-chic design has gained traction in recent years. “Our pieces fit into the rustic-chic design trend. I think it allows people to be eco-friendly while creating spaces that are elegant and comfortable. I love the look of rooms that combine elements of nature, bringing the outside in,” Welch says. “I find them warm, welcoming, comforting and grounding. I also think the movement towards this trend is important, as it promotes recycling and reusing materials that already exist.” According to an October 2014 article in Icon — a blog by the American Society of Interior Designers, rustic-chic has been a driving force in the interior-design industry
for some time. The author, Archita Datta Majumdar, says, “From a trendy New York studio to a ranch house deep in cowboy country, rustic chic is now the predominant tool for designers who want to offer an elegant and comfortable ambiance to their clients.” Some key features of rustic-chic design include the use of natural elements like rock, wood and stone, as well as the use of repurposed materials in furniture.
An Etsy business Welch and Schrock got a business license, joined Etsy, the peer-to-peer e-commerce site that focuses on handmade and vintage products, and sold their first handmade mirror in a heartbeat. Welch says Etsy has been a productive sales vehicle. The online marketplace provides the framework and marketing of a virtual store, charges $15 per month to host a website and collects 20 cents per item listed for three months. They also charge transaction and credit-card fees for items sold. “For handmade artists, Etsy has made shipping easy. We
can print shipping labels through your shop to ship U.S. Postal Service or Federal Express at discounted rates,” says Welch. “They have negotiated great rates, especially with Federal Express, because there is such volume.” The price range of the decorator pieces and furniture is generally $100 to $500. Some large custom mirrors are priced $600 to $1,000. “Etsy is a wonderful community of artists,” Welch says. “We are so thankful for the friendships and relationships on the site.”
Full circle As children, Schrock and Welch both attended Tiburon public schools but were a couple grades apart. They got to know one another better when they worked at the nowdefunct Horizons Restaurant in Sausalito in the late 1980s. Schrock, a San Rafael resident, is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and has worked as a chef. For the past 20 years, though, he has been a lead carpenter for Griesshaber Construction of Corte Madera, which specializes in building custom homes and remodeling projects. ——— See DRIFTWOOD, PAGE 18
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SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
Driftwood, continued from page 17
———
“Todd is very creative,” Welch says. “He is the artist. He gets an idea and then in a couple of hours, he has designed the prototype of the new product.” Welch earned a degree in communication studies from University of California at Santa Barbara and for the past 10 years has been director of international work and travel programs for CCUSA, a cultural exchange program for students. Welch’s mother, an interior designer, had a career that took the family to Hawaii when Welch was a young child. Her mother designed interiors for hotels there, and while living in Hawaii Welch fell in love with the beach and beachcombing. The family moved back to Tiburon when Welch was 11. Welch lives in her childhood home with her aunt and her son Ryland, 21, when he is home from college. In addition to other Marin shorelines, the couple often walks the Tiburon bike path searching for sea treasures. “If it works out, I would like to create artisan products full time,” says Schrock. “I have always enjoyed the outdoors and working with my hands.” The couple is currently in talks to show their products in local shops, where friends and neighbors could see their work in person. “Every week is an adventure — we never know what we will find at the beach,” says Welch. Contributing writer Michelle Aschwald covers health care for The Ark and has been a contributor since 2006.
JOCELYN KNIGHT PHOTOS / FOR THE ARK
Above left, large mirrors framed in driftwood have been major sellers on Etsy. Welch and Schrock hunt for materials and assemble pieces together on weekends when they have time off from their full-time jobs.
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19
thinking outside the vase
Simple, no-fail flower arranging the Feinberg way By DIANE SMITH
dsmith@thearknewspaper.com ——— Anne Feinberg says the only tool she uses when she arranges flowers is a pair of red shears. “I bought these scissors from a boy who put himself through the University of San Francisco by selling Cutco cutlery,” she says. “These are more than just a pair of scissors. They’re like my signature scissors.” As she stands in her Belvedere home’s “she-shed,” Feinberg is surrounded by garden paraphernalia — containers of every description, ladders, boxes crammed with anything that might be useful in an arrangement, ribbons, candles and fresh flowers. “What’s fun is the unexpected — taking something that costs next to nothing and making something refreshing out of it,” she says. As an example, she points to a series of inexpensive trophies that she found at a second-hand store and filled with baby’s breath. “Or this,” she says, and she turns to a group of glass vases, cups and bowls filled with Guido roses and red velvet succulents with the flowers trimmed off. Her workspace overflows with containers of every description, from small, colorful cans to large, galvanized tubs and from delicate ceramic vases to chunky concrete bowls. Right now, Feinberg says she’s going through a concrete phase. One set of nearby shelves holds a couple dozen newly formed concrete bowls that are still drying. Even the workroom’s ceiling is filled with stored items, including two rope chairs that can be raised and lowered on cleats and pulleys in the middle of the workspace when she feels the need for a short break. As she relaxes in one
Anne Feinberg’s highly organized ‘sheshed’ next to her Belvedere home is where she arranges flowers, wraps gifts and assembles imaginative themed party kits for her home business, Pigs in Mud. DIANE SMITH / FOR THE ARK
of them, Abby, the family’s Wheaton terrier, joins her for a moment of companionship. Creating a spontaneous arrangement, Feinberg pulls out a large glass bowl and throws in some peat moss and some ferns from her garden. After she searches through a couple of boxes, she brings out several objects: a compass, a tiny globe, a Japanese lantern, a lotus candleholder and, of course, candles. “I use lots of candles,” she says, as she lights each one, turning the arrangement into a miniature Oriental scene.
She says she also likes to use small LED lights as an accent. Always aware of cost, Feinberg says, “The two best places to buy flowers are Safeway and Costco. Their flowers last longer than those from other places, although I don’t know what chemicals they use. I always buy my flowers looking fresh and tightly closed up, not already blooming — especially roses.” Feinberg says the key to making flowers last is to pre——— See FLOWERS, PAGE 20
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THE ARK • HOME
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
Flowers, continued from page 19 ———
pare them properly. The first thing she does when she gets home is group each flower type together in buckets of water. When she’s ready to arrange them, she takes all the greenery off the stems and puts them back into the buckets of water, still in groups. “Any leaves that touch the water will contaminate it,� she says. “And the container water you put them into needs to be still — to get rid of the oxygen — and also let it get to room temperature. Let the water stand for about an hour before you cut the stems at an angle and put them into it.� A Feinberg floral rule — put odd numbers of flowers into a container. “I like to cluster the flower types in arrangements,� she says. “The greenery is an afterthought. It’s an easy way to make it not look like a grocery store arrangement.� She says she changes the container water every three to four days — cleaning the container and wiping the stems off if they’re a bit slimy. “Your arrangement should last about three weeks — depending on the kind of flowers you have,� she says. Hydrangeas are one of her favorite flowers, and she grows them in her own garden. “They’re big, fill up space and they’re gorgeous,� she says. “They give a major bang for the buck.� Feinberg’s own personal favorite flower is the peony. “They’re great for the unusual. They’re a dramatic flower that lasts a nice long time, but,� she cautions, “they’re not easy to find.� Feinberg, who was born and grew up with her three older sisters in the Tiburon home where their parents, Angela and John Harris, still live, graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1996 with a major in art and communications. Over the years, she has worked for Williams-Sonoma, Seattle Magazine, the Kimpton Group and Vulcan Ventures, where she was an art director. She met her future husband,
JOCELYN KNIGHT / FOR THE ARK
At left, Anne Feinberg arranges flowers in eclectic vessels that include vintage trophies and heirloom glasses and stemware, and creates charming floral scenes like this one in a glass bowl using moss, a compass, ferns and a decorative pagoda lit from within by an LED light. At right, casual chic bouquets made with colorful El Pato cans brimming with Gerbera daisies, cala lilies and hydrangeas. David, in Seattle, and the two were married in 1999. In 2006, after several years spent in Boston and Chicago, the family — which includes Morgan, 12 and Jackson, 10 — returned to the Tiburon Peninsula. “I wanted to move back, but David wasn’t so sure,� Feinberg says. “It took him one day on the ferry to work and walking home to decide he wanted to stay.� Feinberg soon became involved with Bookmarks, Belvedere Nursery School, the Leukemia Cup and the Reed Regatta. Two years ago, her friend Natalie McClough of Tiburon realized how creative Feinberg was and suggested they
team up to form a company that offered unique party kits. Their company, Pigs in Mud, now sells simplified entertainment event kits with its “parties-in-a-box.� “I like to be involved, but I don’t necessarily want to be recognized for it,� Feinberg says. “I’m a designer, not an artist. I do things because I want to do them. “I love designing,� Feinberg says. “I could do it all day, every day.� Diane Smith has been contributing to The Ark since 1980, writing and taking photos on everything from personalities to events.
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21
keep calm and decorate
Tiburon teen designs her own stress-free zone BY HEATHER LOBDELL
hlobdell@thearknewspaper.com ——— She doesn’t remember exactly when it happened, but by the time she was seven or eight, Kelly Stadlin realized she’d rather be watching HGTV than the Disney Channel. “Maybe it started out as a way to hang out with my mom,” says the Tiburon teen. “But pretty soon I was hooked. I was watching all the home design competition shows, ‘House Hunters’ and a bunch of other shows.” Though she just turned 16, this junior at Redwood High School has already established some serious design chops. She’s designed her bedroom twice. The first time was when she was 11. Thanks to all those HGTV shows, she not only knew how to make a storyboard with paint chips, fabric swatches, inspirational photos and magazine and catalog clips of products, she also knew how to make a design proposal to her parents. “It was really impressive. Her ideas were pretty and practical,” says Kelly’s mom, Patti Stadlin. “How could I not let her take the reins and run with it?” That first look, introduced during middle school, involved a bright rainbow palette and bunk beds. Kelly rolls her eyes, sighs and smiles as she recalls it. “The bunk beds were really cute but probably a mistake because I didn’t use them much,” she says. “And I would never choose that color palette now!” While Kelly is soft-spoken and quite humble about her design abilities, she admits she did a lot of things right her first time around. For starters, she invested in functional, simple-lined furniture — a white dresser, desk, and bookcases — that have grown up with her and still look fashionable and fresh. She also selected soft neutral carpeting and lined sailcloth draperies that cloak the room in comfort. The
JOCELYN KNIGHT / FOR THE ARK
Kelly Stadlin, an avid photographer and interior decorator, designed her bedroom in her Tiburon home. blackout draperies pull open and close effortlessly along a ceiling-mounted track and have an underlay of sheer panels that softly filter sunlight and provide privacy while letting natural light stream in. Kelly redesigned her room two years ago, when she was a freshman. She says choosing the right palette — light turquoise with lavender accents — was her most important decision. She replaced the bunk beds with a white
platform bed flanked by bookshelves. “I wanted cooler tones, simplicity, but not all white,” she says. “High school is stressful, so I wanted my room to be a sanctuary, a very relaxing place where I would feel peaceful.” To enhance the room’s calm, Kelly keeps clutter — in——— See TEEN, PAGE 22
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THE ARK • HOME
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
Teen, continued from page 21 ———
Kelly’s best advice
cluding chargers, headphones and all that messy tech stuff — corralled in attractive covered boxes that look sharp and are stored in bookcases close at hand. She also curates accessories. She displays personal mementos, photos of family and friends, trophies, ribbons, art and a few tchotchkes, but unlike most of us, who start with too many items and just keeping adding new layers, Kelly has a concrete policy that keeps the look airy and the feeling calm — if something new comes in, something else almost certainly goes out. “She edits very carefully,� Patti says. “It’s fun to watch her at work.� Kelly has a well-organized “prop� closet across the hall from her room. It’s where she stores things that come in and out of the decorative mix. She’s also been known to borrow elements from her mom and dad’s room. “Once in a while I’ll come into her room and admire something and then realize it’s mine,� Patti says. “Yeah, I’ve been known to do that,� Kelly says. The closet inside Kelly’s room is also well organized. She loves to shop, but makes a conscious effort to never let her closet become overstuffed. “I do a closet purge every three or four months,� she says. “I’ll take stuff to consignment or give it to charity.� When she heads to college in two years, Kelly is considering majors in design and photography, her second passion. She’s been taking photos for years, but after attending photography camp at University of California at Los Angeles last summer, she is even more focused. A few of her favorite photos taken at camp are printed on foam board and look striking above her desk. There are other photos, of course, but for now they’re stored in the prop closet waiting for their moment to shine. Heather Lobdell of Tiburon has worked as an editor and writer for several home and garden magazines.
• Reversible items give you flexibility and freshness. Kelly’s comforter is aqua on one side, patterned on the other. • Invest in attractive covered boxes, but make sure you mark them — hers are marked on the backside — and keep boxes organized by category: electronics, school supplies, photos, etc. • Use the rule of three when accessorizing. She says groupings of three are visually more appealing than groupings of two elements or four. • You don’t have to spend a fortune on your room. Kelly loves Target’s trinkets and accessories. “They have great fake flowers, lamps, wall hangings, rugs and more.â€? • Get inspiration and room arrangement ideas from Pinterest, catalogs like PB Teen, magazines such as Elle DĂŠcor, Real Simple, Architectural Digest, and of course, HGTV. • Pick one color or a few colors to work with. It’s easier to create a room that will look good and you’ll feel calmer. If you need more color, bump it up with easily changeable accessories such as throw pillows or desk items. • If you like to make things or do crafts, check out DIY videos on YouTube. “There are so many creative people out there,â€? Kelly says. “I love seeing what other people are doing.â€? JOCELYN KNIGHT / FOR THE ARK
Everything has its place in Kelly Stadlin’s bedroom.
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23
Testing the ease, flavor of ready-to-cook meal kits BY HEATHER LOBDELL
hlobdell@thearknewspaper.com ——— I like to cook and eat well, but I don’t have a ton of time. Shopping and prep chew up free time on the front side of dinner, clean up on the other. I’m also in a serious food rut. My weekly dinner rotation goes something like this — bison burgers, clam pasta, miso salmon, tacos, BLTs, filet mignon and pulled pork. They’re good, but when I hear the words harissa, tahini, and garam masala, I simultaneously swoon and feel frustration. I’m aware that as a home cook, I’m missing out on a wide world of flavor that I’d like to explore. If only I had more time. This makes me, and I suspect many of you, perfect targets for the dizzying array of meal kit offerings swarming the current culinary scene. These services have adorable names, slick graphics and enticing food photography that have me opening emails and clicking through pop-up ads to see what’s available for dinner tonight, tomorrow and next week. The flavor profiles are often exotic, so I could learn some new tricks. Dishes are healthy and portioncontrolled, so no waste or leftover anxiety. And the meals aren’t terribly expensive. This is the rationale bumping around my addled brain. After months of window-shopping, I pulled the trigger. For two weeks in August, my husband and I ate meal kit dinners from Munchery, Plated, Sun Basket
COURTESY OF MUNCHERY
Munchery’s lamb burgers on toasted brioche with sriracha aioli is delicious. It is paired with a side order of roasted potatoes and craft beer, also available to order from the meal-kit delivery service. and Hello Fresh. My goals were simple — gain comfort with herbs and spices I don’t generally use, learn new preparations of meats and vegetables and capture more free time. I am happy to report that I accomplished these goals, though I didn’t gain as much time as I’d hoped because some recipes were time-consuming. There were also unexpected side effects. For starters, my husband and I both lost weight. Second, our typical lust for our next meal vanished. One day early in the second week, my husband begged me to make my
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salmon with my mashed potatoes. I felt mean, but said no. What follows is a round up of the meal kit services we tried: How they work, what they offer, and my humble opinion of how they tasted. I do identify as a foodie, but I do not consider myself fussy or overly critical. That being said, there was only one meal that was so tasty that I would order it again, but now that I know how to use the ingredients, I don’t have to.
Munchery This was our first delivery and I was
excited. A large shopping bag from Munchery arrived at our front door between 4 and 5 p.m. I wasn’t home but got a friendly text from Jared, who delivered the food, welcoming me to Munchery and confirming that he’d dropped the food off. When I got home at 5:30, I unpacked the bag and put everything in the fridge. Pros: Easy to order and you can get same-day delivery of a broad assortment of main dishes. Many items sell out, so it’s best to go online early in the day or days in advance — you can order up to a week in advance. You can also add cheese plates, dessert and beverages including wine, beer, iced coffee and coconut water to your order. They also offer prepared meals ($7.95 and up) and kid meals ($5.25 and up). Cons: Add-on costs. Munchery charges a monthly subscription price of $8.95, delivery is $2.95 and driver gratuity is suggested. Cooking kits for two are $17.95 to $21.95, which is reasonable, but unlike other cooking kits I tried, side dishes are not included. Salads and veggies are an extra $4-$7 per serving. Food comments: We loved the olive and feta lamb burgers. They were very easy to make. The recipe card said I could make it in 15 minutes and I did. The roasted potatoes and truffle aioli side dish ($5.95) sounded yummy but was disappointing. The potatoes were tough and the aioli didn’t ——— See MEALS, PAGE 24
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Meals, continued from page 23 ———
have much truffle flavor. I also ordered a big oatmeal cookie ($3.95). Definitely big, but also bland. I took one bite after dinner and decided to try again with coffee in the morning. Still bland. I hate to waste food, but it went in the garbage.
Plated Plated offers nine entrees per week and requires no subscription. Meat is antibiotic free, fish is sustainable and there are always two vegetarian options. A minimum order is four meals ($48, plus $6 shipping), which is two nights of two entrees if you’re a couple, or one night of four entrees for a family of four. Two dessert options ($4 each) are also available. Orders more than $50 have free shipping, so definitely throw in one dessert if you are going with the four meal minimum. It’ll save money. Pros: Recipe cards are letter sized, with one side featuring a large inspirational photo of the dish you’re preparing, the other side featuring step-by-step directions with more photos. Meals include side dishes. When I made crispy falafel with Israeli salad and naan, I learned how to make tahini sauce. It’s a new addiction. Cons: Plated’s recipes can take a long time to make. My recipe card said grilled shrimp lettuce cups would take 20 to 30 minutes. With all the prep — chopping and marinating, salsa and crema making, it was more like 45 minutes. The crispy falafel and Israeli salad mentioned above took a full hour. Food comments: Portions were perfectly sized. No food waste. Flavors were fresh but under-seasoned. I learned to make falafel, which is cool, and lettuce cups are now on my radar for casual gluten-free entrees such as burgers, ground chicken and fried fish.
HelloFresh HelloFresh is a German company that operates internationally. It offers weekly deliveries of three types of cooking kits — classic boxes and vegetarian boxes for two, and family boxes suitable for two adults and two children. It is subscription-based with a minimum order of three meals for two per week. British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is credited with a few HelloFresh recipes offered each week. Pros: Meal prep kits arrive very cold with ingredients in tidy modular boxes that are easy to store in the refrigerator, and recipes for your three meals are bound in a cute booklet with photos of finished dishes and the various steps. Many offerings provide opportunities to explore Asian and Middle Eastern flavors. Cons: After a heavily discounted first week, following weeks are $69 for a classic box of three meals for two, $59 for a vegetarian box of three meals for two, and $79.95 for a family box of two meals for four people. Food comments: Greek gyro skewers with baked pita chips and cucumber tzatziki was flavorful, but some cooking times were off for the two other meals. When I prepared roasted salmon with crispy potatoes, burst tomatoes and green beans, I cooked the potatoes a little longer than the recipe called for, but even so, they were hard and chewy.
Top, Plated’s salmon burgers and other entrees come with large full-color recipe cards with step-bystep instructions and photos. Middle left, Sun Basket’s banana leaf steamed cod with coriander cabbage slaw introduces home chefs to new cooking methods with fresh spices. Middle right, In addition to ready to eat and ready to make entrees, Munchery offers appetizers including cheese plates. Bottom, HelloFresh cooking kits come in modular labeled boxes.
Sun Basket A relative newcomer to the meal-kit boom, Sun Basket is San Francisco-based and it shows. Justine Kelly, former chef de cuisine at Slanted Door, develops the 12 certified organic, sustainably sourced entrees available each week and paleo, gluten-free and vegetarian entrees are always available. Sun Basket is subscription-based and an order consists of three dinner kits for two or four people. The cost is about $11.50 per person. Pros: I liked the variety of entrees featuring world flavors. I got to cook with ingredients I’d been eager to try, including kaffir lime, garam masala, mirin, lemongrass, kimchi chili flakes and black sesame seeds. Cons: It is subscription-based and three meals for two each week is more help than I’d want or need. You can cancel and start again, but that’s difficult. Also, you order in advance for the week to follow, so there’s an emphasis on forethought. Not my strong suit. Food Comments: I wanted to say “Wow!” here, but the best I can muster is, “Well, okay.” I enjoyed making cod steamed in banana leaves with kaffi r lime because I got to use banana leaves, which I learned from Sun Basket’s
COURTESY OF MUNCHERY, PLATED, SUN BASKET AND HELLOFRESH
in-box literature are used both in Asian and Latin American cooking. The flavors of the dish were tame, and the cod filets were so mismatched — one large and fat, the other small and thin — so I worried about the cook time. For my palate, the dish benefitted from a big squeeze of sriracha. Steaks with artichoke butter and summer veggies was tasty. No complaints. But Burmese tomato chickpea soup seemed like it took forever, maybe because after slaving over the stove, it wasn’t enough of a meal. I wished I’d cooked some rice to make it a little heartier. My biggest takeaway was that while meal kits save
time, teach new skills and are fabulous for portion control, they take personal artistry out of cooking, kind of like paint-by-numbers canvasses. While that might be fine with you, I want to choose my own paints and palette, use my own brushstrokes, and feel free to splatter this here and that there. I also look forward to the kudos I receive when I make my own recipes. Heather Lobdell of Tiburon has worked as an editor and writer for several home and garden magazines.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
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need it, want it, gotta have it
Cool stuff for sale at home stores all around town
PHOTOS BY HEATHER LOBDELL
Christopher Home
Ruth Livingston Studio
Need a gift for the hostess with the most-est? Instead of flowers, give toothpaste. Not any old toothpaste, but Marvis luxury toothpaste, imported from Italy. Marvis comes in shiny Technicolor packaging and unusual flavors that include ginger mint, licorice mint, jasmine mint and aquatic mint. And because the tube is fetching, no one will mind if it’s left on the bathroom counter. Christopher Home, 88 Main St., Tiburon; $10.50 for 75ml, $6.00 for 25 ml.
Bubbly is always fun, but it’s elevated to absolutely fabulous when served in beautiful Champagne flutes like these — delicate, handmade and sold in sets of six designs that include dots, swirls, textures and more. And because they’re all different, you’ll know which one is yours, even after a glass or two. Ruth Livingston Studio, 74 Main St., Tiburon; Set of six champagne flutes, $75.
Garnish Home Looking for a quick style bump for your living room, bedroom or den? This attractive, contemporary take on the traditional abacus chair might be just the trick. Its espresso finish and cotton-linen cushions in flax make it highly adaptable. Garnish Home Décor, 80 Main St., Tiburon; Lorde chair, $2,100; accent pillows, $145 each. ——— See STORES, NEXT PAGE
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Stores, continued from previous page ———
Local Spicery Black Truffle Sea Salt is magic. Put it on roasted home fries and it’ll be just about the best thing you’ve ever tasted. It’s also delectable on grilled vegetables, burgers and steak. Truth is, finish whatever you’re cooking with a sprinkling and it’ll taste like it came from a five-star restaurant. You can just sit back and enjoy the accolades and don’t have to tell anybody how ridiculously easy it was. It’s our little secret. Local Spicery, 80 Main St., Tiburon; $18.
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Sweet Things at Home
Custom House II
Blue and white pottery never falls out of fashion. Especially in seaside houses, it looks fresh every season, year after year. Sweet Things at Home has an ever-changing assortment of large vessels imported from a Chinese factory that specializes in making high-quality reimaginings of centuries-old Ming Dynasty designs. The scale and fine craftsmanship of these planters, vases, jars and urns makes them statement pieces perfect for any room in the house and, perhaps, future heirlooms. Sweet Things at Home, The Cove Shopping Center, 1 Blackfield Dr., Tiburon; $155-$300.
You can’t walk into Custom House II looking for something specific, but you can walk in knowing you’ll find something unusual that will make a statement and tell a story. This round multi-stone inlay table with bold swans atop curvy brass legs fits that bill. Of uncertain age and provenance, but probably later 20th century, you can spin your own wild yarn around it. Custom House II, The Boardwalk Shopping Center, 1550 Tiburon Blvd.; $485. Contributor Heather Lobdell of Tiburon has worked as an editor and writer for several home and garden magazines.
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