Cold Shoulder The pair of leather sofas and the Oushak rug in the entryway proudly bear evidence of wear. “I chose a lot of pieces that were already distressed and worn,” says Fulk. “Besides the fact that rugs and chairs are meant for actual use, I like the heirloomy feel of old things.” (Almost as much as he relishes the macabre, it seems.) Case in point: the Tema e Variazioni wallpaper by Fornasetti in the powder room. “I love that you’re in a bathroom and all these faces are watching you,” he says. “This is the kind of house where you would expect to see the eyes in the paintings move. I would have loved to have grown up here.” (ON KRISTINA): LA PERLA BLACK LACE CROSS-BACK BRA ($224) AT NEIMAN MARCUS, 415-362-3900. ERICKSON BEAMON PARADISE LOST AUSTRIAN-CRYSTAL NECKLACE WITH STAINLESS-STEEL BASE ($1,255) AND MATCHING BRACELET ($645) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK, 415-268-3500. (ON RYAN): LOOYSEN COTTON-BLEND SHIRT AND LOOYSEN CASHMERE PANT, AT LOOYSEN.COM. JOHN HARDY SILVER DRAGON RING ($595) AT NEIMAN MARCUS. KENNETH COLE BLACK LEATHER LOAFER, MODEL’S OWN.
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San Francisco interior designer Ken Fulk turns a typical English Tudor in Pacific Heights, complete with “Connecticut country furniture,” into a fearlessly kooky (“Think Hogwartsmeets-the–Rolling Stones,” says Fulk), breathlessly provocative, art-filled home that reveals itself through a series of surprises, practically one at every turn. You’ll soon learn that here at the mansion, the eyes have it. GET THE FULL STORY, PLUS A GUIDED VIDEO TOUR, AT 7x7.COM.
Chambers of Secrets BY LEILANI LABONG PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIK ALMÅS/TIDEPOOL
STYLING: CHRISTINE FEATHERSTONE PROP STYLING: NELSON BLONCOURT HAIR + MAKEUP: FRANCE PIERSON DUSHANE/ARTISTUNTIED.COM HAIR + MAKEUP ASSISTANCE: LINDSEY SMITH/ARTISTUNTIED.COM PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANCE: ANDREW FORNASIER, MICHELLE MCCARRON STYLING ASSISTANCE: THERESA MCNULTY, GEORGIE PERRINS PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE: CAITLIN DONOVAN FASHION EDITOR: NERISSA PACIO MODELS: KRISTINA HOLBROOK AND RYAN LOOYSEN/LOOK, SF SHOT ON LOCATION IN PACIFIC HEIGHTS
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Lonely Hunter When Fulk refers to the formal dining room as “a scene straight out of Scarface,” it doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to envision Al Pacino sitting at the head of the table, devising a mob hit. The Woodson and Rummerfield flocked red griffon wallpaper, black-silk mohair-upholstered Claudio Mariani chairs with hand-embroidered stag insignia and larger-than-life 18th-century Italian oil portraits from the homeowner’s collection are all pieces of regalia that play to what the designer calls the room’s “King Arthur moment.” BEBE SILK-BLEND AMINA DRESS ($159) AT BEBE, 415-227-9910. VICTORIAN CROCHETED GLOVES ($225) AT TORSO VINTAGES, 415-391-3166. VINTAGE 1960S BLUE STUD EARRINGS ($45) AT TORSO VINTAGES. SIMONE COSTE TRIANGLE MATTE 18K-YELLOW-GOLD RING ($5,550) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK, 415-268-3500. STOCKINGS, STYLIST’S OWN.
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Death in the Afternoon The top-floor media room achieves its “rock-star fabulosity” (a Fulkian term) with the Stark zebra-print rug and the white-leather sectional by late-midcentury furniture pioneer Harvey Probber. An ethereal untitled photograph from Melanie Pullen’s 2003 Water Series—a subset of her High Fashion Crime Scenes—casts a ghostly chill on the space; one of the L.A. artist’s other designer-label-clad DOAs, pictured in a red dress at the bottom of many flights of winding stairs, can be found near the library. “Told you I have a thing for the macabre,” Fulk grins. (ON KRISTINA): CHRISTOPHER KANE CHIFFON SHEATH DRESS WITH WHITE SEQUINS ($3,125) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK, 415-268-3500. JEAN-MICHEL CAZABAT LA PALMA BLACK STUD HEEL ($395) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK. VINTAGE 1970S IVORY CLIP-ON EARRINGS ($225) AT TORSO VINTAGES, 415-391-3166. VINTAGE 1970S BLACK LEATHER GLOVES ($85) AT TORSO VINTAGES. STOCKINGS, STYLIST’S OWN. (ON RYAN): MICHAEL KORS BLACK-AND-WHITE-STRIPE COTTON SHIRT ($175) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK. JOHN VARVATOS BLACK LEATHER PANT ($298) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK. ETRO TWEED EMBROIDERED VEST ($595) AT NEIMAN MARCUS, 415-362-3900. EUGENIA KIM EGGPLANT FEDORA ($285) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK. PRADA BLACK SILK TIE ($185) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK. N.D.C. BLACK LEATHER ANKLE BOOT ($465) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK.
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“If the house were on fire, I’d grab this chandelier and make a run for it.”
Watch Over Me It’s hard to say which treasure of the salon’s embarrassment of riches is its finest: The hard-tomiss architectural fragment from a neo-gothic, 19th-century New York City skyscraper? The piano-perching, iPod-playing plaster-cast figure? The “very painterly” countryside scene by Ann Lofquist that required structural surgery in order to be wedged into a tight nook above the mantel? Yes, all of these are good candidates. Fulk, however, has a soft spot for the grand, 19th-century gilded chandelier featuring a round of Hermès medallions. “If the house were on fire, I’d grab this chandelier and make a run for it,” he says. SIMONE COSTE TRIANGLE MATTE 18K-YELLOW-GOLD RING ($5,550) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK, 415-268-3500. STOCKINGS, STYLIST’S OWN.
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Thinking of You With a silver-leaf ceiling that softly reflects the light from the chandeliers (which, by the way, can be raised and lowered via an old-fashioned pulley system), the third-floor library features a wall of miscellaneous portraiture that Fulk pilfered from friends’ collections—including Gaétan Caron and Rob Delameter’s treasure trove at Lost Art Salon—as well as his own. Along with the standard science textbooks, art tomes and political manifestos, a series of 1970s family photographs by Larry Sultan, a few vintage mint-condition cameras and an assortment of gleaming old-school trophies are tucked into the bookshelves. TORSO VINTAGES 1930S LACE GOWN WITH RIBBON DETAIL ($2,000) AT TORSO VINTAGES, 415-391-3166. NINE WEST PATENT-LEATHER PEEP-TOE GLADIATOR BOOTIE ($119) AT NINE WEST, 415-243-8850. TORSO VINTAGES NAPIER CONE GOLD DANGLING EARRINGS ($145) AT TORSO VINTAGES. JUDY GEIB 18KGOLD CHAIN NECKLACE ($4,460) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK, 415-268-3500. IVORY LINK BRACELET ($245) AT TORSO VINTAGES. SEVAN 22K-YELLOW-GOLD-AND-STERLING-SILVER RING WITH ROSE-CUT DIAMONDS AND TOURMALINE ($5,245) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK.
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“This is the kind of house where you would expect to see the eyes in the paintings move. I would have loved to have grown up here.”
Star Gazer Channeling “Doris Duke, Palm Beach, 1960s,” Fulk outfitted this girl’s bedroom with a youthful pink-and-green palette, chocolate lattice wallpaper on the ceiling and python-embossed leather shades with Etro trim. The bedding, also by Etro, nods to Fulk’s love of men’s suiting fabric. “I love the fearless use of color in this room. It’s high drama.” It cannot be denied, however, that the true pièce de résistance in this chambre de fille is the vintage gold-metal palm tree from X21. “Very Hollywood indeed,” says Fulk. DIANE VON FURSTENBERG CHIFFON FLUTTER-SLEEVE DRESS WITH BLACK SASH ($385) AT NEIMAN MARCUS, 415-362-3900. ANTHROPOLOGIE BLUE-AND-PEACH SEA-BEAD MULTISTRAND NECKLACE ($68) AT ANTHROPOLOGIE, 415-434-2210. STOCKINGS, STYLIST’S OWN.
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Moment of Weakness The master suite’s focal point, a perimeter-stretching pre-Fulk mural of the English countryside, hand-painted by Willem Racké for the 1999 San Francisco Decorator Showcase, has a muted, hazy palette that doesn’t compete with the room’s more-prominent pieces—the leatherand-velvet 20th-century English sofa at the foot of the towering, curtained bed, for instance. “Earlier this year, I had the artist add a few subversive elements into the mural,” says Fulk, as he identifies a skull wedged between a few stones, as well as a couple of pot smokers hiding behind a tree. “I took every chance I had to eradicate the ‘sweet’ from the house. This ain’t the suburbs.” (ON KRISTINA): BARCELINO GOLD-SEQUIN SHORT DRAPE COCKTAIL DRESS ($595) AT BARCELINO, 415-912-5700. PIPPA SMALL 18K-GOLD PINK TOURMALINE MOONSTONE EARRINGS ($1,650) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK, 415-268-3500. STOCKINGS, STYLIST’S OWN. (ON RYAN): THEORY STRIPED WOVEN COTTON SHIRT ($225) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK. GUCCI SILVER SIGNATURE RING ($420) AT NEIMAN MARCUS, 415-362-3900.
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“I took every chance I had to eradicate the ‘sweet’ from the house. This ain’t the suburbs.”
What Lies Beneath The sitting room, off the master suite, is home to deep, comfortable furniture, along with plenty of pillows covered in Italian silk—otherwise-pretty pieces that could have read too precious, were it not for the walls painted in an algae-hued custom blend Fulk calls “New Orleans green” (“There were a few naysayers who couldn’t believe I wanted a dark color in here,” he adds), a rusty star-shaped chandelier from Coup d’Etat and a series of gritty black-and-white images by the late Gordon Parks, acclaimed photojournalist and director of the ’70s cult film Shaft. Parks shot for Life magazine, where he was the lone African American staff photographer from 1948 to 1968, when he documented the civil-rights movement. x DOO-RI SILK-BLEND TIE-FRONT BLOUSE ($495) AT NEIMAN MARCUS, 415-362-3900. COSABELLA LACE BOY SHORT ($32) AT NEIMAN MARCUS. VINTAGE 1930S PLUME BROOCH WORN IN HAIR ($225) AT TORSO VINTAGES, 415-391-3166. MARK DAVIS BAKELITE PYRAMID RING WITH YELLOW GOLD ($2,990) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK, 415-268-3500. ROCCO P PLATFORM LEATHER BOOT ($1,380) AT BARNEYS NEW YORK. STOCKINGS, STYLIST’S OWN.
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