Home&Garden San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | Section L
FALL DECOR: GREENING THE HOUSE THE DIRT
By Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan
It’s a plant — and an air filter
Russell Yip / The Chronicle
Durable and decorative as they are, spider plants tend to be taken for granted. According to a team of Penn State scientists, though, the plants may be performing a vital service: removing ozone from indoor air. That may also be true of snake plants and golden pothos. Ozone is a paradoxical gas. In the upper atmosphere, it helps shield the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation; thinning ozone layers over the poles have been a major environmental concern. At ground level, ozone is a bad actor, a major component of smog. It’s also a worrisome indoor pollutant in offices and homes, with copy machines, laser printers, ultraviolet lighting and some electrostatic air purification systems as known or suspected sources. Human health consequences include pulmoInside: Nearly nary edema, indestructilesions on lung ble housetissue and other plants. L2 respiratory disorders. The Penn State group, headed by Heather L. Papinchak and E. Jay Holcomb, published their findings in a recent issue of the journal HortTechnology. They chose spider plant, snake plant and golden pothos as test subjects because they were cheap and readily available. The experimental plants were grown in a greenhouse with a charcoal-filtered air supply system that kept ozone levels at 5 parts per billion — comparable to the average ozone emissions from a photocopier. Placing the plants in sealed chambers, the scientists pumped in ozone until a concentration of 500 ppb was reached, then measured how long it took for ozone levels to return to baseline. For all three houseplant species, the ozone concentration fell faster than in plantless control chambers. There was no
Sullivan continues on L2
Baylor Chapman, owner and floral designer of Lilia B. Design in the Mission District, is known for sustainable gardens.
DESIGN
Art from nature’s oddities Mark Costantini / The Chronicle 2006
In a follow-up to a 1980s NASA study, Penn State scientists found spider plants remove bad ozone from indoor air.
Unexpected displays bring rooms to life
By Chantal Lamers SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Baylor Chapman’s San Francisco home isn’t about formal floral centerpieces or huge houseplants. For the sought-after designer, known for sustainable gardens and floral arrangements, home is about personal touches, repurposing materials and using nature’s knickknacks to their utmost potential. In many ways, the choices that Chapman makes with foliage are second nature. It’s not simply because as the owner of Lila B. Design (named for her grandmother and great-grandmother), she isn’t limited to premixed supermarket bouquets and hardware store houseplants. It’s Chapman’s knack for knowing how some of
the most unobvious of nature’s greens can be integrated as decorative objects throughout her airy Mission District studio. “I try to connect food with flowers,” says Chapman. “Something that will come in useful later.” No matter the level of whimsy, she manages to give her peculiar-meets-practical
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San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Wednesday, November 4, 2009 |
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Photos by Russell Yip / The Chronicle
Baylor Chapman traded a refrigerator for this chest, above. The vase is a repurposed light fixture, and the candlesticks came from her grandmother. Osage oranges, below, give a pleasant scent. Right: A grafted euphorbia (left) and orchid adorn her grandmother’s cabinet. The lamp is from her sister.
S.F. designer has a sense of repurpose Chapman from page L1
Russell Yip / The Chronicle
This centerpiece adds color to Baylor Chapman’s dining table.
Still, Chapman relies heavily on botanicals of all kinds to provide patterns against a subdued backdrop. “I look for shapes and textures, something with high impact. An arrangement of flowers may not have the same impact as a big moss ball.” It’s a method that can be achieved without plants, she says. Twig shaped hooks, prints from vintage horticultural books and floral-printed textiles. (Her own dining room table bench is made cozy with throw pillows covered in vintage frond prints her sister collected in Thailand.) No matter, the spare and chic collections are dictated by a few simple rules: They have to be easy and they have to
endure. “I look for things that will last. Quality over quantity.” Rather than splurging on flowers that might not make it through the weekend, Chapman accessorizes with trios of bumpy Osage oranges, a lone dried thorny devil’s claw and, perhaps, an architectural dried eucalyptus pod to adorn her bedside table. These small, spare accessories also provide versatility. “I like to move things around,” says Chapman. “I like people to touch things, experience them, raise questions.” Her craving to experiment with uncommon plants and flowers recently led her to cultivate her own supply. She uses the rooftop of neighboring Stable Cafe and shares the
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perimeter of a paved commercial lot in Dogpatch to tend to her own unusual and locally grown blooms. What makes her choices even more ingenious is that they help solve an age-old problem: how to keep touches of nature present without their wilting. Securing a plant that’s easy to care for and complements a design is a chore. Another issue, says Chapman, is time. “But there are so many plants and/or natural things that one can use to bring the outdoors in. They are easy, in your home already and you might even be able to eat them after you admire them for a while.” E-mail comments to home@sfchronicle.com.
740 Market Ave., Richmond, (510) 215-1671. anniesannuals.com Berkeley Bowl: “Fun fruits and foods: Display them … then dine on them.” 2020 Oregon St., Berkeley. (510) 843-6929. berke leybowl.com Building Resources: “Beautiful tumbled glass to pour into the bottom of a vase. Our old shutters, turned succulent wall, came from here.” 701 Amador St., San Francisco, (415) 285-7814. buildingresources.org Cliff’s Variety Store: “More than just nails. … You can create a ton of arrangements with the one-of-a-kind vases, planters and pots. Look for small wood bowls, cheese domes for terrariums and interesting chains.” 479 Castro St., San Francisco, (415) 431-5365. cliffsvariety.com.
Craig Lee / The Chronicle
Baylor Chapman’s recommendations for plants, flowers, salvage and other materials: Annie’s Annuals & Perennials: “A fabulous and fun and large nursery,’’ says Chapman. “Annie chooses unique plants and the prices are doable. Easy-tosee-and-read plant tags help educate customers.”
70” x 73”
handmade creations an air of organic sophistication. They could include a simple gathering of cheery persimmons or an abstract piece of ginger root displayed among framed photos. Typically, it means utilizing unpredictable groupings or bits and pieces others would cast off as waste. Mini watermelons on a crisping vine, displayed over a stack of books. Or a dainty strawberry vine draped along a television console. Dogwood, cotton or fig branches, as well as unruly piles of cedar cones, carefully arranged horse chestnuts and acorns yet to pop from their pods all have promise. Combined, these curious details are successful in Chapman’s 850-squarefoot space. Before she moved into the converted Allied Box Factory, she was inclined to favor rustic, vintage furnishings. To better suit the decidedly urban palette — and because Chapman’s penchant for reusing and repurposing isn’t limited to offbeat botanicals — she mixed in refined modern wood and metal pieces. Yet her partiality toward salvage still pays off here, such as when a dismantled light fixture becomes a vase. Tarnished silver urns display succulent bouquets. On her 500-square-foot deck, a dining bench (doubling as storage) is born from an old metal storage container plucked from the back of a truck. Found shutters given a coat of paint and then planted with succulents wrapped in weed cloth add some height to her potted garden. To make up for the lack of walls inside, she assembled mini vignettes that mix her signature pared-down casual charm with the practicality of storage space. “Even though I don’t have full walls, I like to create rooms within the one large space. I use rugs and furniture to delineate the space. I like flow and easy movement from one place to the next.”
Resources
Dischidia pecteniodes from Berkeley Bowl. Molte Cose: “Vintage heaven: beautiful napkins, teacups and more.” 2044 Polk St., San Francisco. (415) 921-5374. San Francisco Flower Mart: “The most amazing flowers, fruits and plants.” (Some vendors are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.) 640 Brannan St., San Francisco. (415) 392-7944. sfflmart.com San Francisco Scrap Metal: “The outdoor dining bench/storage unit for garden supplies came from here. It was once on the back of someone’s truck.” 99 Mississippi St., San Francisco. (415) 863-3508