menlo park
fuzzy logic
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BY LEILANI MARIE LABONG PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIKO REED
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Architect Matthew Mosey oriented this U-shaped home away from the school next door in order to create a serene and private oasis that is designed specifically for an indoor-outdoor lifestyle.
A cool modern home gets its warmth from the architect’s intentions, the homeowners’ style and two kids just being kids.
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The master bedroom’s entire corner opens to the pool area by way of a sundeck featuring an automated shade canopy. Bridget McIver furnished the house with Italian pieces from Dzine, such as Paola Lenti’s outdoor seating.
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rchitect Matthew Mosey, a selfprofessed modernist, is the first to admit that the boxy, minimalist structures he loves to design could be considered, in his own words, “frosty and indifferent” were it not for “fuzzy modern,” a unique discipline he’s developed to buck such unfavorable stereotypes. “By no means is ‘fuzzy modern’ an official architecture term,” says Mosey, a coprincipal at San Francisco–based Dumican Mosey Architects. “It’s an attitude toward materiality and livability that embraces texture, warmth, lightness and a connection to the outdoors.” The Menlo Park home he designed for two New Zealand transplants—Vaughan Smith, director of corporate development at Facebook, and his wife, Bridget McIver, a stayat-home mother—could be viewed as a paradigm of Mosey’s
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philosophy. While the design exhibits many trademarks of minimalism (clean lines, hard surfaces, high ceilings and lots of glass), the architect also integrated antidotes to the inherently cool style: a U-shaped courtyard, raised sundecks and a sophisticated playground, complete with a pool and— much to the delight of the couple’s young children, Emilia and Finn—a trampoline. “Almost every space in the house focuses on this courtyard,” says Mosey, who nixed a two-story plan because a second-floor view would not only offer nothing more than a peek of the neighbors’ lawns and the adjacent schoolyard, but, more importantly, would detract from the intimacy of the family enclave. In fact, the home was first conceptualized as “an archipelago of isolated islands.” But the eventual merging of the separate pavilions (which the architect CALIFORNIAHOMEDESIGN.COM
ABOVE: Finn, Vaughan, jokingly refers to as “continental Emilia and Bridget take drift”) for entertaining, sleeping a quick break from an and hosting guests has added, by afternoon game of croquet. virtue of its now-interconnected RIGHT: The integration of spaces, a more subtle intimacy. the pool area and patio with Such earthy wood details as the the living room allows for beautiful mahogany cladding on easygoing entertaining—as the home’s exterior, white oak pan- does a separate guest suite. eling in the master bedroom and walnut veneer on the kitchen island help defrost the home’s boxy shapes, spare decor and shiny metal finishes. Mosey believes that the custom-designed corrugated texture of the great room’s concrete hearth and the light color of the concrete floors are less austere than standard applications. “For most people, concrete is the stuff their driveway is made of, CALIFORNIAHOMEDESIGN.COM
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Fatboy beanbags and playful “Scrabble” tiles by Justine King make the kids’ playroom a rainy day place for movies and video games. BELOW: Both of the kids’ rooms are decorated with Blik wall decals, and Finn’s has an added touch: a wall-mounted fishbowl.
not something that could potentially make their home a richer environment,” says the architect, who also notes that the heated off-white floors are “visually—and literally—warm.” The home’s seamless connection to the outdoors—best represented by the great room’s clerestory windows, skylights and 40-foot-wide series of sliding-glass pocket doors—are also a major counterpoint to the cool minimalism. After all, the generous portals don’t just allow for an abundance of warm sunlight and fresh air, they also encourage a flurry of activity LEFT: The front door, which features a living wall by that brings life and energy to the Kevin Smith, has a high-tech stark architecture. system that unlatches as “The house is simple upon first the homeowners approach. impression, but it quickly reveals BELOW: The streamlined itself to be a space that is really Boffi kitchen was customized designed for family and friends to to hide all the unsightly necessities of a family of four. spend time together,” says McIver.
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“The house is simple upon first impression, but it quickly reveals itself to be a space that is really designed for family and friends to spend time together.”
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The kids and their pals ceaselessly explore the home’s blurry footprint with mad dashes from the kitchen to the pool to the trampoline to the basketball courts, which are located just over the fence at the neighboring school. Their parents also celebrate the indoor-outdoor lifestyle, in the context of legendary parties. For the home’s inaugural soiree in 2009 (made possible in large part by the construction team, SF-based Matarozzi/Pelsinger Builders, which achieved an almost-unheard-of early-completion date), several dozen friends feted McIver’s 40th birthday with cake and Champagne on a warm summer night. Since then, the couple has hosted such unique gatherings as a makeyour-own-pizza social for 50 guests and a wildlife-themed CALIFORNIAHOMEDESIGN.COM
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The McIver-Smith household takes on a new vibe in the evening, when two fireplaces and an ensemble cast of dramatic light fixtures are turned on. BELOW: The master bed and bath are tucked into the lot’s far corner, allowing for plenty of glass but ensuring privacy.
“Space gracefully flows through and around these floating pavilions, which creates depth. Interestingly, the structures also anchor the rooms.”
birthday party for Finn. Coming up: a karaoke blowout for 100 of Smith’s coworkers, who will take the stage on the deck adjacent to the master bedroom. Beyond the thundering bashes that have given the home its illustrious reputation as the ultimate entertaining pad, dozens of intimate dinner parties have also been hosted in the formal dining room—the glass-wrapped space near the entryway offers dramatic features that each take a different spin on light. A Bocci pendant is made from 36 dangling glass spheres that gleam from within; the steel-and-concrete fireplace reflects light off its polished surface and the flickering glow from the fire provides warm illumination. A vertical garden of living moss, created by SF-based designer Kevin Smith (no relation to Vaughan), keeps the room down-toearth and adds a unique organic texture to the elegant scene.
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To further texturize the architecture’s The freestanding architectural elements— The dining room, located to namely, the fireplaces in the great room and the right of the entry, is like a smooth planes, McIver, who is on the brink of glass vitrine at night with 36 finishing her degree in interior design, incorpodining room, and the powder room-pantry pendants and a glossy rated such elements as rugs and blankets (faux cube in the kitchen area—are residual influ- Bocci white table. Both fireplace fur drapes the living room sofa), plants (agave, ences from the early “archipelago” scheme. surrounds were customacacia and olive trees make up the drought“Space gracefully flows through and around designed and fabricated by these floating pavilions, which creates depth,” Concreteworks’ Mark Rogero. tolerant landscape in the courtyard) and, of course, art. Like Gangbar’s otherworldly piece, says Mosey. “Interestingly, the structures also anchor the rooms.” A sculpture by Toronto artist Ken Topher Delaney’s poolside rope spheres and an oversize oilGangbar symbolizes the multidimensional aspect of the on-canvas by Meredith Pardue in the dining room are also design. Installed on one side of the pantry unit, the abstract captivating works. But it’s the large photos of a toothless piece features hundreds of irregularly shaped porcelain orbs Emilia and a widely grinning Finn in the hallway that are suspended from the wall with short stainless steel rods. “I the real scene-stealers, proving that finding the gray area love the playful shadows these shapes create,” says McIver. that makes up “fuzzy modern” can be as simple as black-andwhite family photos. “It is just so unexpected.” CALIFORNIAHOMEDESIGN.COM
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san francisco
educated
BY LEILANI MARIE LABONG PHOTOGRAPHY BY CÉSAR RUBIO
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A family with young children needed just a nudge from designer Jay Jeffers to get their new home up and running in style.
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palette
Designer Jay Jeffers’ masterful eye for color has become his signature. This San Francisco family home announces its pure prettiness at the entry with a pair of Gregorius Pineo chairs upholstered in blue linen with orange accents that are picked up in the drapery panels and shelves.
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TOP TO BOTTOM: In the entry, an elegant Oushak rug gives way to a more modern staircase runner; Kelly Hohla and Jay Jeffers completed the speedy transformation; Willem Racké’s hand-painted walls in the powder room were the client’s idea.
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omewhere between candidly admitting that they were first-time decorators and coming up with the inspiration to pair large-scale abstract canvases with classic Louis XV–style furniture, the new owners of an architecturally ambiguous 1912 home in San Francisco made a surprising discovery: Under the guidance of designer Jay Jeffers, they were actually bolder risktakers than they ever imagined. It was a valuable revelation, considering their ambitious goal—completely redesigning the interiors of their Pacific Heights home in just seven short months. The March 2010 movein date was non-negotiable because the wife—a former corporate recruiter turned stay-at-home mother—was at the time expecting the couple’s second child and quite eager to settle the young family into its first real home. “They learned to trust us pretty quickly,” says Jeffers, principal of Jeffers Design Group in San Francisco. “They didn’t have time to agonize over 12 different ottoman options or stew over wall treatments—which is not to say they didn’t have their reservations about some choices.”
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CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Dividing the vast living room into two seating areas allowed for a blend of new and vintage furniture; a pair of 1950s armchairs were covered in sea-green velvet; a large Sheri Franssen painting anchors the room.
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At the far end of the family room—across from the kitchen— built-in storage creates a cozy dining nook or a stylish place to play cards under the light of a Venetian mirrored chandelier.
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“From the beginning, the clients kept saying that they weren’t ‘fancy,’ just normal people who wanted a beautiful—and functional—house.”
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The detail in question: a neutral lattice pattern wall treatment in the living room, hand screened by SF decorative painter Willem Racké. The motif—an artistic diversion from regular flat wall paint—doesn’t detract from the spirited paintings that share the space or compete with the cool green-gray tones in the upholstery, but merely adds a subtle texture to the elegant scene. “They were unsure about it, but once they saw the finished product, they loved it,” says Jeffers. Other successful leaps of faith included the kitchen’s floral-mosaic backsplash (at first glance, the Waterworks tile seemed more appropriate for a bathroom) and a pearly salmon–hued trim in the baby girl’s nursery. “It’s such an unusual color that even the painters questioned it. That’s when I started to freak out,” says the wife. Lime-green linen draperies boost the room’s spunk factor, while a graceful scroll-patterned wallpaper by Cole & Son bestows a demure, ladylike quality. “It’s now one of my favorite spots in the house,” she says. Needless to say, adapting to Jeffers’ fearless color sensibility required some personal growth from the couple. FROM TOP: The kitchen, with “It wasn’t easy, but we wanted to its floral-mosaic tile backsplash be pushed beyond our comfort and upholstered bar stools, exemplifies the pretty-meetszone,” says the wife. Once acclicasual edict (even the comfy mated, she conceptualized a bold, family room sofa fits the bill). hand-screened, Hermès-orange chinoiserie design on the walls of the powder room, while Jeffers, who envisioned the small space as a “jewel box,” installed a sparkly crushed-glass tile floor. The home’s fresh coral, blue and green palette saturates the upholstery and art. “We’re new to buying art,” says the wife. “We’re also realizing that when it comes to art, we’re less traditional than we thought.” A colossal abstract canvas by Sheri Franssen punctuates the serene living room with a turbulent burst, while another interpretive piece by John DiPaolo enlivens the family room’s prevailing wood finishes. Both paintings serve as contemporary counterpoints to the design’s more traditional elements. Using the home’s majestic French-style wrought-iron banister as inspiration, Jeffers CALIFORNIAHOMEDESIGN.COM
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CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: The master bedroom continues the color scheme from the main living areas; traditional fixtures and white marble elevate the look of the bathroom; misty blue and taupe reference the valuable views.
and senior designer Kelly Hohla ABOVE AND RIGHT: In a slight departure from the standard kids’ helped the couple choose, among colors, Jeffers brought a range other distinguished pieces, the of blue-greens to the boy’s room baroque gilt-wood mirrors for (where a map is a vibrant focal the foyer, the Chinese Han point) and contrasting salmon and Dynasty vases on the entryway lime green to the girl’s nursery. table and a pair of French carvedalabaster urn lamps in the master bedroom. “We definitely jump-started their new antiques collection,” says Hohla. “But they want to really start collecting when their children get a little older.” While historic vestiges add an air—or, in this case, a gentle breeze—of distinction to the design, the homeowners’ need for what they call a “kid-proof, stress-free environment,” took
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“It gets loud and messy in this house. But we don’t have any ‘off-limits’ rooms here—they would just be a waste of space.”
precedence over acquiring too many costly objets d’art. “My husband began yearning for anything from Ikea,” says the wife, citing the couple’s two-year-old son and his daily rituals of sliding on the walnut floors and clambering over the furniture to glimpse passing trucks through the windows. “From the beginning, the clients ABOVE: The walls in the kept saying that they weren’t ‘fancy,’ basement-level media room just normal people who wanted a were given a strié finish for a beautiful—and functional—house,” subtle added texture. BELOW: explains Hohla. The toddler’s daring The artwork over the A. Rudin feats are made less nerve-wracking sectional sofa is a mixedwith high consoles that place prized media piece by Judy Pfaff. possessions out of his reach (other valuables are displayed on the upper shelves of built-in bookcases). And durable outdoor fabrics were used cleverly, especially in the boy’s bedroom, where a colorful world map on the wall was the inspiration for the youthful blue, green and white geometric-patterned fabric used for bedding and throw pillows—a far cry from the staid designs of outdoor fabrics past. “It gets loud and messy in this house,” says the wife. “But we don’t have any ‘off-limits’ rooms here—they would just be a waste of space.” In a home where the concept of a forbidden room is, well, forbidden, there are still a few areas in the house that are more celebrated than others. From a design perspective, Jeffers has a soft spot for the living room, citing its whimsical and easy take on classical pieces (“It really
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RIGHT: The husband’s office on the sets the tone for the rest of the top floor is a quiet spot where he house,” he says), while Hohla has a can work early mornings and late fondness for the airy master bednights without disturbing his family. room’s calming blue-and-taupe ABOVE: The office leads to the roof color palette and subtle pattern deck, where the views make for a combinations. But the family, not spectacular breakfast setting. surprisingly, prefers to dwell in the combined open kitchen and family room. There, the deep sofas—transplants from their previous residence—are cozy and familiar, the sizable marble breakfast bar works superbly as a desk (the formal office seems far away on the third floor) and the large windows, which provide a generous infusion of light and views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands, are perfect for watching the trucks go by. CALIFORNIAHOMEDESIGN.COM
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Before & after
Cooking with soul
What sets this Oakland kitchen apart from the run of the mill? A touch of art By Leilani Marie Labong | photographs by jeffery cross
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Sunset July 2011
before
“The old kitchen was lacking in the charm department, for sure,” Christina Zamora says of what came with this live-work loft in West Oakland, in a former elementary school from the 1920s. After a clever, very functional remodel, though, the kitchen for two artists (Christina is a designer at Heath Ceramics in Sausalito and her partner, Cathy Lo, works as an art director in San Francisco) has charm to spare. Collaborating with Jon Norton—a designer in Emeryville—the couple came up with a layout that worked for their creative lifestyle: the key addition being a new island. “The island isn’t a barrier between the kitchen and the studio—it’s just a part of the studio,” says Christina. Design Jon Norton, Emeryville, CA >58
Disappearing Act “We wanted the kitchen to feel really integrated into the space,” says Christina. The design does this in subtle ways: The concrete wall doubles as a backsplash; the new island “floats” in the open loft; and the color of the island’s white oak echoes the warm pine floorboards.
Cathy Lo (left) and Christina Zamora
Sunset July 2011
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Before & after
Why we love their kitchen
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1 island living A slab of white oak serves as the breakfast bar; on the far side, a sleek induction stove is set in a stainless steel surround. The drawers below the cooktop have cutout handles instead of pulls to let air cool the hot surface.
2 Material Gain The “wood” panels on the front of the island are actually recycled ceramic kiln shelves that Heath offers as part of its tile collection. Christina cut the shelves to resemble pieces of lumber, then screen-printed beetles and lettering on them.
3 Hidden Motives Sometimes, when planning storage for a new kitchen, a little reverse psychology is in order. “Having closed cabinets would only give me permission to accumulate more objects!” says Christina.
4 Clean Slate Roomy cabinets hide appliances, while tea and coffee provisions are stored in a long, narrow built-in above the counter. Heath seconds—in this case, slightly wonky teacups from the Dosa collection—sit atop the slender case.
Design ideas for your perfect kitchen: sunset.com/kitchens 58
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To change background color (fill), with direct selection tool (hollow arrow) in layer palette to select “background shape” layer, then choose color from swatch palette.
To change mouse color, (fill) with direct selection tool use layer palette to select “compound shape” layer and shape layer, then choose color from swatch palette. To change mouse tail (stroke), with direct selection tool use layer palette to select
5 The Great Wall The wall makes a dramatic (18 feet high!) backdrop. The concrete’s raw color and texture are echoed by the vintage Cosco barstools, which Cathy rescued from Berkeley’s Urban Ore salvage yard.
The rest of the loft is dominated by the making of art.
My father’s cleaver hangs with my other knives. He would use this cleaver for everything from butchery to brunoise. It would even make an appearance at the holiday dinner table.
I have a dozen 60- to 70-year-old bamboo baskets that I’ve collected from flea markets and junk shops around Japan. They make it feel like an old Japanese farmhouse.
Elias Cairo, salumist-owner, Olympic Provisions, Portland
Sylvan Mishima Brackett, chef-owner, Peko-Peko Japanese Catering, Oakland
A kitchen is also a living space: People always gather there. So why not give them a place to sit? I’ve got a sofa in mine.
There is a painting of a tangle of garlic. It’s in a worn walnut frame carved with daisies. You probably wouldn’t give it the time of day. But my father painted the garlic. His father grew the garlic. And the flowers were hand-carved for my grandmother Daisy.
Kevin West, canning guru and author, Savingtheseason.com, Los Angeles
Chris Bianco, chef-owner, Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix
The finishing touch
How food pros make their home kitchens feel like … home –interviews by Leilani marie labong
Imperfect teacups make good holders for air plants.
Jars filled with posole, pintos (of course), Anasazi beans, bolita beans, local quinoa, yellow and blue cornmeal, and best of all, a whole shelf of dried red chiles.
Our kitchen is where all the good stuff happens: dance parties, recipe successes, culinary failures, and, of course, pit bull trick training. When I die, you might as well bury me under the floorboards.
Andrea Meyer, chef, the Love Apple, Taos, NM
Jessica battilana, editor, Tasting table, San francisco
The clock that used to hang in my mother’s kitchen. It doesn’t even work anymore, but it always reminds me of our nightly family dinners. Robert McCormick, executive chef, Montagna at the Little Nell, Aspen, CO
A late-’60s Chemex coffeemaker that was a gift from my father. I consider it an art object, and I’m not alone––the Chemex is in the permanent collections at the Smithsonian and MOMA. Philip Anacker, cofounder, Flying Goat Coffee, Healdsburg, CA ■
SAGUARO TANGO WRITTEN BY
LEILANI MARIE LABONG
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
WILLIAM LESCH
TWO GIGANTIC SAGUARO LOVEBIRDS , LOCKED IN A PERMANENT EMBRACE ON A BUILDING SITE AT THE BASE OF THE CATALINA MOUNTAINS , WERE THE CAUSE OF MANY A FURROWED BROW ON THE FACES OF SONYA SOTINSKY AND MIGUEL FUENTEVILLA , OF TUCSON - BASED FORS ARCHITECTURE
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INTERIORS .
The stunning, contemporary dwelling the husband-and-wife team designed for a highpowered tech attorney on this particular sun-baked location was, in many ways, at the mercy of these prickly guardians. “The Tucson desert is beautiful, but it’s intense,” says Sotinsky, “and totally loaded with saguaros. We had to uproot and replant seven of them, and quietly dance around the intertwined pair.”
HOME BUILDER Eric Freedberg, Milestone Homes ARCHITECTURE Sonya Sotinsky and Miguel Fuentevilla, FORS Architecture + Interiors INTERIOR DESIGN Sonya Sotinsky and Miguel Fuentevilla, FORS Architecture + Interiors BEDROOMS 3
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STYLE SELECTION
Shown in a polished nickel finish, the elegant curves and simple lines of this pendant make it the perfect piece to brighten contemporary spaces. Hayden Small Hammered Iron Pendant, $109; arteriorshome.com
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As mindful as Sotinsky and Fuentevilla were about uniting the new architecture with its arid environs—not only through cacti relocation, but also via a thoughtful selection of materials that mimic the desert’s natural masonry, and a dedication to remain within the original footprint of the two-story home previously on the site—the couple was forced to master yet another delicate two-step, this time with the development’s homeowners association. “The community no longer allowed new twoAIR PLANES The white terrazzo floors, light walnut accents and abundant glass emphasize the loftiness of the double-height great room. The kitchen windows frame a Sotinskydesigned xeriscape of native ocotillo, teddy bear cactus and fountain grass.
story additions,” explains Fuentevilla. “In order to keep the double height, we had to integrate part of the old structure—a single column, literally— into the new design.”
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FIRE AND WATER
The seating nook in front of the great room’s smaller fireplace is the last pit stop before the space flows out into the pool, built by Tucson’s Cimarron Circle Construction Company, or diverges into the high-tech library. C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 207
Thanks to this negligible relic, carefully salvaged from the ruins of the old edifice, a grand three-bedroom, five-bath residence materialized, the star of which might be the lofty great room, a magnificent space enclosed by a south-facing, 40-foot-wide wall of glass windows and doors. A close contender is the semiprofessional kitchen, outfitted with top-of-the-line induction cooktops, refrigerators and a Wood Stone pizza oven. “I love the great room for its sheer volume,” says builder Eric Freedberg, of Tucson’s Milestone Homes. “But I think the homeowner prefers the kitchen—she’s a foodie and loves to cook.” By virtue of the openplan design—wherein the adjacent kitchen, library and mezzanine are all exposed to the great room—favoring such a cavernous space may be the safest bet.
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UNITED COLORS The granite-like concrete block and sand-colored stucco harmonizes the home with its untamed desert environment. A stainless-steel sculpture by Micajah Bienvenu, Dancing Fool, rises from its poolside location, adding its own unique contours to the arid landscape.
GOLDEN RULE According to Sotinsky, “high drama� was the idea behind the backlit alabaster panels on this monumental hearth. The hand-blown glass suspension pendants from Hampstead Lighting counterbalance the lengthy dining table while emphasizing the height of the room.
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The kitchen’s commercial-grade equipment would, says Freedberg, “make most restaurant chefs jealous.”
There, a monumental hearth, fashioned with backlit alabaster panels,
The inverted L-shaped bar, crafted
provides a dramatic backdrop for the dining area, its amber luminescence
from walnut by Tucson-based Timeless
echoing the walnut accents in the space and imbuing warmth onto the
that accentuates its length.
Pieces, features distinctive banding
polished concrete walls and sleek floors. “The white terrazzo floor tiles were a special request from the homeowner,” says Sotinsky. These interior finishes harmonize with the cool, contemporary architecture and serve as a minimalist gallery setting for the attorney’s extensive collection of modern sculpture and paintings. A smaller hearth opposite the alabaster fireplace marks the entrance to a LIFE AQUATIC Given the shortage of water in desert climes, this cast-in-place concrete fountain by the McNary Company in Tucson uses recycled water for its refreshing percolation.
“library,” which doesn’t contain the shelves of books that typify such spaces, but rather three flat-screen televisions, complete with computer hook-ups. By comparison, however, the rest of the house is decidedly low tech.
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“The homeowner preferred simple things that turn on and off—not one big magic button that controls everything in the house,” explains Freedberg. It’s a mindset that not only complements the keep-it-simple values inherent in modern architecture but also ensures a strong connection between home and homeowner—conceivably, fewer bells, whistles and wires translates into a purer understanding of the design. Such clarity is also true of the home’s intimate relationship with the land. While the Sonoran Desert’s finery is artfully exhibited through a profusion of glass, it’s the perspective from high up in the mezzanine-cum-mastersuite that offers the most revelatory spectacle: a far-reaching Tucson cityscape that begins with, appropriately, those two saguaros embracing LOOKING GLASS
by the pool. L
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The poolside cuddling saguaros and sweeping valley vista can be viewed from any point in the great room and mezzanine, thanks to a 40-foot-wide wall of southfacing glass windows and doors.
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The Small Stakes
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Who says you need a mansion—or even a house—to show off your design sensibility? Not these city dwellers, who’ve made their apartments, all less than 900 square feet, into showcases of urban style. BY LEILANI LABONG PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEN SISKA STYLING BY MIKHAEL ROMAIN
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Monique Ramos discovered this old metal chandelier—adorned with lilies and glass beads—at a 2004 sidewalk sale in the Castro. Though she gladly forked over $15 to take it home, she admits that a small fortune was required to rewire the piece. “It was the first thing to go up in our apartment,” she says.
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The sheer size of this muted, but no less dramatic, seascape—purchased for $10— gives it instant prominence in Ramos and Richard Colman’s large art collection, comprised of anonymous vintage pieces sourced from local flea markets along with works by boldface names such as Shepard Fairey and James Marshall.
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“I like to hold onto moments in a tangible way,” says Ramos, whose glass-jar memories include beach sand from vacations in Cape Cod and Tulum, a hummingbird’s nest (a relic from the summer of 2006), and small bits of a Christmas tree from 2007, the couple’s first holiday in the apartment.
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MONIQUE RAMOS AND RICHARD COLMAN MISSION DISTRICT 850 SQUARE FEET “We like to describe the decor as ‘faded Cuban glamour,’” says stylist and designer Monique Ramos of the Mission apartment she shares with her boyfriend, artist Richard Colman. The intriguing tableau, a sunny 850-square-foot space, arises from the most unexpected medley of nostalgic travel mementos (jars of sand from all over the world), moody works of art (seascapes and taxidermy installations), and enchanting timeworn furnishings (chandeliers and vintage leather seating). “We’re essentially two hoarders living in a small space,” says Ramos, 42, who launched an online store of home and lifestyle accessories in September to complement her consulting business, Brown Bench Design (brownbenchdesign .com). “Richard and I have needed to be extremely creative about how we store things. Organization is a puzzle that we’re always working on.” For instance, the couple’s ingenious method of displaying books—in shelves fashioned from two stacked antique wooden benches (pictured above, second from left)—isn’t just enigmatic of their weathered aesthetic. It also saves the lath-and-plaster walls of their rental unit from expensive damage. “I loved our bench solution so much,” says Ramos, “I named my company after it.” 201 0 N OVEM B ER
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Ramos enlarged a sample of Cole and Son Woods wallpaper to fill the space above the hallway’s crown molding. When paired with the palm-green walls, the entry turns into a scene right out of a storybook.
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Colman gave Ramos a taxidermy fawn from Paxton Gate on her 40th birthday. The piece is displayed among mosses and porcelain rocks in a Plexiglas case the couple unearthed at Urban Ore in Berkeley. “The installation reminds me of something you’d see at the Museum of Natural History in New York,” says Ramos.
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Colman displays his collection of “rubber wrestling dudes and action heroes” in an old wooden gun case found on Craigslist. Ramos lined it with an enlarged image of a diving suit, originally sketched by Houdini.
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small spaces
NESTING INSTINCT
FRANCES WEISS LOWER PACIFIC HEIGHTS, 400 SQUARE FEET Five years ago, design consultant Frances Weiss and her then-fiancé shared an apartment in Bernal Heights with some pretty rotten mojo. “Someone overdosed and died there shortly before we moved in,” says Weiss, 35. The couple’s relationship irrevocably soured soon after they took up residence. The newly single Weiss sought safe harbor in a light-filled, 400-square-foot studio in Lower Pacific Heights. “It felt warm and safe from the moment I stepped foot in it,” she says. “It was such a welcome relief coming from a bad relationship and a haunted apartment.”
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By starting with a neutral canvas of earthy walls and furnishings—not to mention the familiar textures of woven baskets, cashmere blankets, and a chunky wool rug—Weiss created a modern bohemian retreat featuring spontaneously creative touches. Wine crate cast-offs form a small bookshelf, a bathroom light well is now a plant atrium, and a sizeable walk-in closet, trimmed in bright sea-green, acts as her home office. “I like the challenge of putting together interesting, functional, and comfortable spaces with virtually no budget,” says Weiss. “In my case, a safe and cozy nest.” N OVEM B ER 201 0
LOTUS BLEU ROUND LACQUER TRAY; AMENITY ALPACA AFGHAN IN DESSERT PINK. ON WINDOW SEAT: LOTUS BLEU CUSTOM PILLOWS IN “PURPLE MU” AND “RASPBERRY COLLINS” BY MADELINE WEINRIB
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Ever the resourceful scavenger, Frances Weiss rescued these discarded wine crates from a trash heap, lined the bottoms with samples of Cole and Son wallpaper, and stacked them to create a bookshelf. The unfinished look echoes the apartment’s earthiness while the books enliven the room with their colorful spines.
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Weiss had high hopes of transforming her walk-in closet into her bedroom even though her queen-size bed would only fit into the space at an angle. The bed is now situated in the main living area, and the closet has been transformed into an office for Weiss’s design-consultation business (francesweiss.com).
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In 2003, this moody painting, starring a sultry Art Nouveaustyle woman, was gifted to Weiss by the artist—and her good friend— Kime Buzzelli (kimebuzzelli.com). The phrase scrawled along the edge of the work, “Try it you might like it,” resonated strongly with Weiss, who was then in the process of moving back to San Francisco.
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“When my best friend moved back to Berlin, she gave me this amazing turquoise chair,” says Weiss, who likens the classic midcentury silhouette to Saarinen’s iconic Tulip masterpiece. “The color is great and provides a stylish focal point in such a neutral space. I lost a friend but gained a great chair!”
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Weiss transferred many of the plants she kept in her Bernal Heights backyard to a light well outside the bathroom window in her new space. The miniature garden rests on an orphaned wooden shelf she spotted next to a Dumpster. “The plants give me a sense of peace and rejuvenation,” says Weiss.
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The antique mirrors sprinkled throughout the apartment are relics from a 1920s-themed cookie store that Weiss’ mother owned in their hometown of Atlanta. “Being surrounded by such beautiful antique objects as a child gave me an early appreciation of style,” says Weiss.
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A DESIGN MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
KELLY WATERS AND PETER JUDD POTRERO HILL, 850 SQUARE FEET “Is it silly to be so sentimental over a chair or a sofa or an autographed doll?” asks intern architect Kelly Waters of the storied contemporary furniture, art, and other treasured keepsakes in the 850-square-foot flat she shares with her husband, Peter Judd, in Potrero Hill. Their classic Eames lounge, for instance, was inherited from Judd’s mother, who would while away many an afternoon upon it while pregnant with her son. The midcentury sofa was acquired from a porn distribution center in Los Angeles. And a collection of action figures from ’70s and ’80s TV shows was acquired via Judd’s addiction to eBay.
While the couple leans heavily toward modern design, they vehemently reject any form of style pigeonholing. “We abide by the don’t-put-it-in-yourplace-if-you-don’t-love-it rule,” says Waters, 30, who also pens the design blog, Halcyon Days (kellylynnwaters.blogspot.com). True to that incantation, a parade of pedigreed orphans, including four vintage Eames seats, a Milo Baughman dowel bench, and a Saarinen dining chair—literally kicked to the curb by their former owners—have been adopted into the Waters-Judd flat. “Old, new, vintage, or antique,” says Waters, “if we love it, we’ll take it home and make it work.”
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Kelly Waters’ employee discount at Limn furniture store enabled her to scoop up these Piero Lissoni Paper Chairs (now embellished with feltwork by SF artist Ashley Helvey). “When Peter and I started dating, he couldn’t believe I owned these chairs,” says Waters. “He had come close to buying them, too.”
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In another coincidence (“Our paths must have crossed so many times before we met,” muses Waters), she and husband Peter Judd each owned a classic low Eames side table before moving in together. The familiar profile of these revered utilitarian pieces makes them instantly stylish, and now they have a pair.
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A Leah Giberson painting (leahgiberson .com) of a midcentury dwelling in Daly City’s Westlake neighborhood was a mutual anniversary present between the two newlyweds. “When we take the freeway through Daly City to Ocean Beach,” says Judd, “Kelly and I always mention how much we love the houses there.”
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Judd surprised his wife last Christmas with a vintage wooden toy monkey by Kay Bojesen that she’d been coveting since her days as a student in Denmark. “She would inevitably become horrified by its steep price tag,” says Judd. “I found it on eBay.” The primate now decorates the bar.
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This eclectic 1960s mushroom pottery stool, a gift from Judd’s mother, is by sculptor Stan Bitters. It’s meaningful to the couple because, says Waters, “Peter, in his younger years, apparently liked to strip naked, jump on top of it, and proclaim himself king—I’ve seen the photographic evidence.”
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“As much as I like to have nice things, I don’t like to pay thousands of dollars for them,” says Waters of the red Roses rug by Nani Marquina she had previously admired from afar. “We came across this one rolled up at a warehouse sale for just a few hundred dollars. At that price, we felt like we were stealing it.” 7 x 7. C O M
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SECRET GARDEN
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MAMIE RHEINGOLD DUBOCE TRIANGLE 750 SQUARE FEET
Mamie Rheingold, a 25-year-old program manager at Google, wasn’t the first to claim dibs on a new Duboce Triangle garden apartment designed by Boor Bridges Architecture, but she was definitely the most enthusiastic. “I have a background in architecture, so I really marveled at the design,” says Rheingold, who moved in six months ago. “My landlords really wanted a tenant who would appreciate it.” The 750-square-foot space, formerly a storage area for a five-unit building located near the United States Mint, was transformed into a modern one-bedroom apartment with an industrialloft sensibility. Open communal spaces flow into each other and airy 9-foot ceilings display wooden support beams. Exposed air ducts, large windows, and folding glass doors let abundant sunshine in—conduct unbefitting a standard basement-level unit. Rheingold’s youthful exuberance—revealed through her fondness for Japanese pop art, toy robots, gnomes, and novelty ceramic teapots—enlivens the space, while modern classics such as the Marcel Breuer Wassily Chair, clear acrylic coffee table from CB2, and tripod floor lamp add sophistication. “My décor is eclectic but not random,” says Rheingold. “Everything exists harmoniously here.” N OVEM B ER 201 0
ON SOFA: (FROM LEFT) JOHN ROBSHAW “FOG” IKAT-STYLE PILLOW AVAILABLE AT LOTUS BLEU; LOTUS BLEU CUSTOM PILLOW IN “BLACK STELLA” BY MADELINE WEINRIB.
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The spotlight in Mamie Rheingold’s living room was a recent acquisition from SummerHouse in Mill Valley. She notes that the lamp’s wooden composition highlights the ceiling beams and warms up the cool textures in the space—namely the concrete floors and Carrera marble countertops in the adjacent kitchen.
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The prized piece in Rheingold’s collection of white ceramic teapots is a rare work by Peter Fluck and Roger Law that features a particularly snouty Margaret Thatcher. It was modeled off a caricature of the Iron Lady on the famous ’80s British satirical puppet show, Spitting Image.
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The Mill Valley native suspects that the previous owner of the white leather-and-chrome Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer had no idea of its pedigree. She acquired it on Craigslist for $150. “Well, at least I think it’s a Breuer,” says Rheingold, suddenly uncertain.
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Rheingold sourced the blue-green, fan-shaped architectural relic above her bed from the San Anselmo Country Store. “I wanted something that would float above the bed,” she says, “and give the illusion of a headboard.”
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Rheingold has been collecting toys since childhood, but she began amassing toy robots in 2006, around the same time she started working at Google. “The tech industry was definitely a big influence in starting this collection,” she says. “After all, I am surrounded by engineers who love robots.”
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Rheingold swooped up the antique Shaker-style dining chairs—refugees from a recent remodel of the Caprice restaurant in Tiburon—for a mere $15 each. Their worn black paint makes a rustic contrast against the stark-white display wall, featuring a collection of unusual ceramic teapots.
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REAL HOMES
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PHOTOGRAPHY: TERI LYN FISHER STYLING: EMILY HENSON COPY: LEILANI MARIE LABONG INTERIOR DESIGN: TAMARA KAYE-HONEY
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WITH ROOTS IN BOTH EASTERN CANADA’S DEEP FREEZE AND THE CONCRETE JUNGLE OF MANHATTAN, it’s no surprise that designer Tamara Kaye-Honey and her husband, television-commercial producer Ryan Honey, felt compelled to do as 150 years of industrious pioneers have done before them—blaze a trail West in search of, well, sunshine and opportunity. “We lived in a New York walk-up for seven years—with no balcony!” says Tamara, 37, a former buyer at Bergdorf Goodman. “California seemed like paradise to us.” The couple’s auspicious 2003 pilgrimage to the left coast has since produced two kids (daughter, Phia, 8, and son, Streak, 6), a successful commercial-production firm for Ryan, a flourishing design showroom for Tamara, and, in keeping true to the whole land-of-milk-and-, er, honey experience, a dream home in the form of a 1923 English Tudor in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena. Although envisioning the dwelling as the proverbial
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I’VE ALWAYS BEEN ATTRACTED TO FIXERS—THE WORSE, THE BETTER.” “dream home” required more than a little imagination—no mean feat for Tamara’s mother, who, despite a history of embracing renovations (a trait she passed onto her daughter), cried in despair at first sight of the severely dilapidated structure. “It had been neglected for decades,” explains Tamara, noting that the previous owner, an eccentric German inventor, “enhanced the home with unusual valves and odd masonry work,” and allowed a 60-pound pig run amuck on the grounds. “My mother begged us not to buy it. But I’ve always been attracted to fixers—the worse, the better.” After an accelerated six-month renovation (“Every morning, I plied the workers with lots of coffee,” laughs Tamara) that involved, among other major surgeries, overtaking a fourth bedroom to create a larger kitchen and con-
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verting the garage into a play room, the 2700-squarefoot Honey house (not to be confused with House of Honey, Tamara’s showroom in Pasadena) is now an inspired, offbeat, Southern California pad. The first clue: the architecture’s straight-from-the-English-countryside charm appears ironic considering the home is nestled among a veritable orchard of sun-drenched citrus trees (as opposed to, you know, dewy rolling green hills and other pastoral topography). The traditional setting is also an interesting juxtaposition to the Honeys’ collection of designer midcentury furniture—the dining table by Milo Baughman was a $500 Craigslist score; the hanging Parrot chair by Ib Arberg, a curious, cage-like piece indeed, is suspended permanently in the play room; and the breakfast table in the kitchen is a vintage Herman Miller conference table. “I love all its scratches and stains,” says Tamara. “They’re like wrinkles on a face—evidence of a life well-lived.” Tamara’s sense of humor also shines in the Tudor. Whimsical big-eye portraitures by the likes of Margaret Keane,
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“I LOVE ALL ITS SCRATCHES AND STAINS. THEY’RE LIKE WRINKLES ON A FACE— EVIDENCE OF A LIFE WELL-LIVED.”
Fornasetti, and Bjorn Wiinblad are sprinkled throughout the home, but are especially prevalent in Phia’s room. “I want our children to appreciate fantasy and creativity,” says the designer. Glossy 1970’s Italian cougars make an appearance in the living room, she explains, “just for laughs.” And those flokati shags and reclaimed-fur rugs? They’re not just for textural interest (although their softness is an inviting counterpoint to the home’s teak-like Australian gumwood finishes). “They’re an homage to our far-north roots!” says Tamara, who is also using the family home as a testing ground for The New Vintage, her fashion-forward, custom collection of chairs upholstered in faux fur or sequin gowns. While such divergent elements are certainly advantageous when it comes to transforming a previously brokedown Tudor into a shining example of tasteful eclecticism, Tamara maintains that her fundamentals of design are practically foolproof. First, she says, start collecting. “I have a collection of ships for my son and vintage flower paintings for the guest bathroom. Whether grouped together or dispersed throughout the home, the objects
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“THE MORE PATTERN AND TEXTURE, THE RICHER THE SPACE.”
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are dramatic, yet familiar.” Second, think in layers. In the entrance, for example, an unusual, rip-curl-shaped lacquer console harmoniously coexists with a plush, geometric rug. “The more pattern and texture, the richer the space,” says Tamara. And lastly, expect the unexpected. “If the room feels finished, remove a few accessories to accommodate something surprising,” advises the designer, whose enviable knack for whimsy is, of course, a signature touch of—you guessed it—Honey.
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Material World: Glass artist shatters convention L5
Golden Gate Gardener: Strange beauty in the yard L3
Home&Garden San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Sunday, June 13, 2010 | Section L
Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle
AT HOME WITH JAY JEFFERS
Jay Jeffers in the dining room of the Castro district home he shares with partner Michael Purdy. “Michael and I would like to try high-rise living,’’ he says.
The house as style lab Edwardian cottage is an incubator for S.F. decorator’s evolving tastes By Leilani Marie Labong SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
“Soul is the most important part of a home,” says San Francisco interior designer Jay Jeffers, 41, in the dining room of his 1908 Edwardian cottage in the Castro, wistfully gazing up at its eclectic gallery-style arrangement of art — mostly portraits of unknown people that portray, en masse, a captive audience. In this moment, Jeffers’ words are tinged with nostalgia. The spectators appear
solemn and sympathetic. The concept of soul — or, rather, the history that shapes it — has been resonating strongly with the designer lately, as new inspiration beckons and he prepares for a literal vertical move. Many times since Jeffers purchased the 1,500-square-foot home in 2001, he and his partner, Michael Purdy, have stood on its wraparound deck, where their survey of the far-reaching eastern views has unknowingly (read: auspiciously) grazed the tops of the sparkling new residential towers in SoMa and Rincon Hill. “Michael and I would like to try high-rise living,” says Jeffers. The decision was, understandably, bittersweet for the couple, considering the pivotal occasions that have transpired here (cue sentimental music): star-studded Independence
Joe Fletcher Photography
Persimmon, a shade that Jeffers considers a neutral, is echoed throughout the house.
Day bashes (who knew that Nate Berkus could draw such a crowd?); the arrival of Jeffers’ cocker spaniel, Kingsley, a surprise gift from Purdy several Thanksgivings ago; the cou-
ple’s celebratory soiree commemorating their impromptu City Hall nuptials in 2004. “If the house were on fire, I’d grab the Venetian mirrored frame with our wedding photo,” says Purdy. Of course, there is also Jeffers’ career to reflect upon. Over the past decade, the twobedroom, 2½-bath dwelling — essentially his style laboratory — has gallantly served as a canvas for three design makeovers, each a hallmark of the decorator’s evolving tastes. The first manifestation was a bold color expression of chocolate-brown walls and textiles ornamented with pops of lacquered chartreuse midcentury furnishings. “Ten years ago, midcentury was still innovative,” says Jeffers, whose keen eye for forthcoming trends, strongly evident in each of his
Jeffers continues on L4
THE DIRT By Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan
Art-filled garden a fitting legacy In Big Daddy’s Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden, art, flowers and vegetables flourish atop an unlikely sliver of asphalt wedged between MacArthur Boulevard and Interstate 580 in Emeryville. The eponymous Big Daddy, local artist Vickie Jo Sowell told us, is the late Mr. Green, who ran a detail shop, car wash and gas station on the Peralta Street lot. He was a minister — so dignified she remembers him
by his honorific, not his first name — and a neighborhood guardian angel when she moved there in the 1980s. After his passing, a grandson continued the business, but a fire destroyed the buildings and the lot lay empty until 2002, when Sowell approached the city of Emeryville about reclaiming it as gardening space. Now the city leases the lot from Mr. Green’s landlord for $250 every three years. Each of 20 participating fami-
lies pays $35 a year for water. Finessing the problem of contaminated soil, Sowell’s crew built raised planting beds on top of the asphalt. West Oakland resident Deb Lozier, who’d collaborated with Sowell on public art projects, signed up quickly for a bed. “We live in a live-work building with no garden space, just a little spot for a worm box,” Lozier said. “We were excited to participate. It’s really great to have the
Dirt continues on L5
Mike Kepka / The Chronicle
Vickie Jo Sowell, who created Big Daddy’s Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden, checks her crops.
L4 | Sunday, June 13, 2010 | San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com
Photos by Joe Fletcher Photography
Contemporary plaid upholstery adorns the stately custom bed frame in interior designer Jay Jeffers’ master bedroom, above. At right: Jeffers’ living room is a mix of vibrant hues and patterns.
Turning home into a style lab Jeffers from page L1
spirited tableaux, has made him the darling of national design publications and decorator showcases. The second phase — a brief DIY chapter in Jeffers’ oeuvre — is best represented by a lattice wall pattern the designer fashioned from pink and tangerine grosgrain ribbon in the master bedroom. Though his slight smirk appears to convey otherwise, he notes that a little elbow grease in the name of inspired decor does make a soulful home. “Cheap-chic design can be a lot of fun,” he says. Ultimately, the homespun craftiness that typifies San Francisco’s raging DIY scene wasn’t a match for Jeffers’ sophisticated exuberance. Inspired by the legacies of design pioneers Albert Hadley, David Hicks and Dorothy Draper, Jeffers has developed a unique ability to rescind trends just as skillfully as he spots them. “I’m so over anything that’s stuffed,” he says of the taxidermy infestation — a style too grim, perhaps, for a designer whose optimistic style is revealed through his dauntless use of color and pattern. Third time’s charming Jeffers’ dexterity with these design axioms is evident in the home’s third and current iteration of decor, where the highimpact mix of vibrant hues and majestic motifs is refined by classic furnishings, thoughtfully edited. “Antiques — or any ob-
The Jay Jeffers portfolio
includes a new work island and smooth concrete countertops (the ubiquitous granite surfaces didn’t stand a chance here). While the kitchen is certainly one of the home’s most celebrated spaces — ground zero for the couple’s morning coffee-andnewspapers ritual and legendary dinner parties — it’s the adjacent sitting room that hosts their more contemplative moments, quietly observed by the stoic man portrayed in the room’s showpiece (city views notwithstanding): a sizable masterwork by New York painter Forrest Williams.
Joe Fletcher Photography
Persimmon is echoed in the plaid-mosaic backsplash, part of Jeffers’ recent kitchen remodel. The renovation includes a new island and concrete countertops.
jects with history, old or new — are a great way to add soul to a house,” he says. Contemporary plaid upholstery, for instance, adorns the stately custom bed frame in the master bedroom, made even more dignified by its close proximity to a much-beloved antique Laszlo chest. The playful, electric-green pattern by Studio Printworks emblazoning the guest-bedroom walls surprisingly plays second fiddle to a geometric metallic-gold headboard and curvy gilded mirror. And the generous swath of dramatic persimmon paint in the living room — where Jeffers and Purdy decompress at day’s end
with a little fireside TV viewing — is tempered by slate-gray moldings and such pedigreed vestiges as the much-beloved Art Deco highboy cabinet by Lane. “There are some pieces I don’t have an attachment to, but that’s not one of them,” says Jeffers. “I just love how it looks. I don’t think I could ever let it go.” The persimmon shade (which, incidentally, Jeffers actually considers a “neutral”) is echoed throughout the house, as in the Waterworks plaid-mosaic backsplash, part of the recent kitchen remodel. “It was the only room in the house that needed major surgery,” says Jeffers. The renovation, as functional as it is handsome, also
Matthew Millman
Living room: “This is our vision of the industrialchic look that’s in vogue right now — pairing materials like steel, glass and wood with luxe textures and unexpected color.”
Prized artwork “I think I’d have to take him with me if the house were on fire,” says Jeffers of his most prized work of art. It’s a nearly impossible distinction to make among a treasured collection — “It’s a huge part of the soul here,” he notes — that includes a photorealistic watercolor by Sheldon Berkowitz, a Christopher Brown figurative bird study, and a chair portrait by local artist Ada Sadler, who painstakingly works with a three-bristle brush. However, upon further consideration, Jeffers jokes, “In case of fire, I’d probably just open a bottle of wine and go down with the ship.” A statement made in jest, indeed, yet no truer words have ever been spoken by designer about a house that he loves, and soon will leave. E-mail comments to home@sfchronicle.com.
BLUESTONE MAIN
Matthew Millman
Master bedroom: “The architecture — and the client — called for a sophisticated, traditional space that showcased antiques. The master bedroom features a mismatched pair of 18th century Italian commodes and a whimsical pair of 1940s bergere chairs upholstered in Fortuny fabric. It all sits on a 18th century Oushak rug.”
Cesar Rubio
Entry: “Casual elegance was the vision for this young family in Pacific Heights. This grand foyer is an elegant, sunny sitting area in which to relax and read, but it can also be transformed into a large dining area for entertaining.”
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Stylemaker Spotlight: Designing the post-baby home L5
Golden Gate Gardener: Organic cures for sick roses L3
Home&Garden San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Sunday, August 22, 2010 | Section L
Michael Macor / The Chronicle
Charlie Simpson, 7, visits the backyard henhouse in Belmont that provides fresh eggs for his family, which no longer eats prepackaged food.
Taking back the simple life By Leilani Marie Labong Brant Ward / The Chronicle
Above, vegetables gathered from the HowardGayeton family’s 5-acre farm in Petaluma. Right, Laura HowardGayeton and daughter Tuilerie walk on the farm.
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
An inspirational, grassroots movement is afoot in the Bay Area (yes, another one), and it’s going to make the world a better place. No, really. Granted, this region has sprouted its fair share of grassroots movements; however, this particular crusade — dubbed radical homemaking by New York writer and pioneering radical homemaker Shannon Hayes — seems particularly well suited to our socially responsible, food-obsessed, eco-zealous neck of the woods. In her recent book, “Radical Homemakers” (Left to Write Press; $23.95), Hayes, 36, makes a deeply personal and wellBrant Ward / The Chronicle
Homemakers continues on L6
GARDEN
Tomato growers play catch-up By Laramie Treviño SPECI AL TO THE CHRONICLE
If you are starving for home-grown, vine-ripened tomatoes, stand in line — a very long queue extending along the coast of the Bay Area and then some. It’s the height of summer, yet most gardeners are bereft of the succulent orbs that are usually abundant this time of year. As are seasonal-fruit event organizers. And restaurants specializing in seasonal
local fare. “Because of the crazy weather, they are taking longer to ripen,” says Carolyn Villa-Scott of the South Bay. With fog thick until midmorning most days around the Bay Area, the heat needed by warm-weather plants such as tomatoes is at a premium. In her role as horticultural consultant at Yamagami’s Nursery in Cupertino, she scrambled to line up local tomatoes for the annual tast-
ing held Aug. 14. While she was able to buy fruit from her sources in Southern California, she came up dry when tapping locals. She sent out a plea to the Santa Clara County master gardeners, among others, to little avail. At the nursery she counsels customers to always plant at least one early variety such as ‘Stupice,’ which started ripening last month. All-time backup ‘Early Girl,’ a hybrid usually ready
Tomatoes continues on L4
Mike Kepka / The Chronicle
The cool Bay Area summer hasn’t produced enough heat for many vine-ripened tomatoes, causing restaurants to scramble. But mature green tomatoes can be picked and ripened. See L4.
L6 | Sunday, August 22, 2010 | San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com
FROM THE COVER
Leading a domestic revolution Homemakers from page L1
supported case — to be expected from someone who holds a doctorate in sustainable agriculture and community development from Cornell University — for shunning consumer culture in favor of a life of complete and utter domesticity. Although she had eyes on a college professorship, Hayes jumped off the career track a decade ago, along with her husband, Bob, a former county planner. Aching to “honor their deepest dreams and values” (in the radical-homemaker vernacular, these virtues include family, community, social justice and the environment), the couple moved back to her family’s farm in upstate New York, where, she writes in her book, “subsistence farming, food preservation, barter and frugal living are a matter of course.” A radical notion While the idea of banishing all dependence on wealthy corporations to practice an Emersonian life of simplicity, authenticity and self-reliance resonates soundly with many Bay Area residents — these are tenets of the 1960s counterculture, after all — making such a progressive lifestyle change seems, in a word, drastic. But they’re not called radical homemakers for nothing. “Our society has indoctrinated us with a lot of fear,” says Hayes, who writes books for a (modest) living — fortified, of course, by the money saved from the farm’s ready supply of grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured pork and poultry, and abundant fruits and vegetables. “Fear of living without a formal job title, the security of a regular paycheck, stepping outside of our educational infrastructure or even the corporate food system. Radical homemakers are pretty tired of all that fear.” Like Hayes, Petaluma resident Laura HowardGayeton, 41, also renounced the rat race — she was a TV producer in Hollywood from 1993 to 2003 — to reclaim her rural East Coast upbringing, in which her family grew its own food and earned money
through a home-based decorative-herb business. “A career was expected of me. That’s why I got a college education,” Howard-Gayeton says. “But my job required spending three hours a day commuting in traffic and eating takeout four nights a week. I was on a crash course to burnout.” This realization put into motion a fortuitous series of events that would eventually bring her full circle, back to the radical homemaking of her youth: Howard quit her job, studied yoga in India and met her husband, photographer Douglas Gayeton, in Tuscany, where he was shooting a PBS documentary on, of all fateful things, the slow food movement. The couple purchased a 5-acre Petaluma farm in 2004; there, they keep beehives for honey, grow a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables (which they trade with local merchants for bread, meat and poultry) and raise goats — a typically cleaner and less energyconsumptive enterprise than commercial cow dairies — for their thriving organic goat’s milk ice cream business, Laloo’s. “We’ve worked very hard to have a small carbon ‘hoofprint,’ ” says Howard-Gayeton, who also donates her time to Ladies Who Launch, a foundation to help female entrepreneurs. “Doing things that are going to be meaningful to the next generation is such a refreshing change from the toxicity of my life in Hollywood.” Thinking globally Pursuing this kind of redemptive work is typical of radical homemakers. Belmont resident Robin Johnson Simpson, who chronicles her radical-homemaking pursuits on her blog, Frustrated Farmgirl (frustra tedfarmgirl.wordpress. com), is laying the groundwork for a homebased soap-making business that sources palm kernel oil and shea butter from fair-trade farmers. “I get excited when I think about creating a living wage for people in the developing world,” says Johnson Simpson, a
Photos by Michael Macor / The Chronicle
Michael Macor / The Chronicle
“A career was expected of me. That’s why I got a college education. But my job required spending three hours a day commuting in traffic and eating takeout four nights a week. I was on a crash course to burnout.” Laura Howard-Gayeton, former TV producer
former fourth-grade teacher who, in addition to concocting such ambrosial soap scents as lavender-chamomile and green tea-bitter orangemint, homeschools her two young children, volunteers with Akili Dada (a nonprofit that grooms young Kenyan women for a career in politics), tends a bountiful garden, raises chickens and bees, and prepares three square organic meals each day for her family. “When you make the decision to opt out of eating prepared foods, cooking takes time,” she says. The term “opt out” is rampant in Johnson
Simpson’s speech, further emphasizing the revolutionary nature of radical homemaking. Recently, her family “opted out” of the daily grind for two months to attend a Christian retreat in Boston (“We had intellectual issues with trusting the Bible,” she says); husband Charlie, a marketing director in Silicon Valley, is slowly “opting out” of corporate life (he’s suffering stressrelated health problems); the couple is “opting out” of homeownership in favor of a smaller, simpler space (“We’re still cozying up to the idea of giving up the equity,” she says). It appears that the
Top, Robin Johnson Simpson wears goggles and rubber gloves to make soap in her kitchen. Left, several varieties of the soaps. Above, Johnson Simpson with children Charlie, 7, and Elizabeth, 5, in the family’s backyard garden.
simple life doesn’t come easy. A little perspective The fact remains that such grand gestures, while admirable, aren’t prerequisites for many who consider themselves radical homemakers at heart. Jessica Carew Kraft, a radical homemaker who, like many of the others, harvests her own produce, cans her bumper crops, mixes her own cleaning solutions, drives a hybrid (“Like a good San Francisco liberal,” she says) and organizes a babysitting co-op in her community, also happens to have a fullfledged career outside the home as a professor of sustainable design at UC Berkeley. “We need to start looking at our careers as a sine wave,” says Kraft, 32. “We can make a difference in both worlds at the appropriate time in our lives.” She then launches an eloquent, and refreshingly honest, manifesto
about the fallibility of radical homemakers who start viewing their domestic actions as a global panacea. “At the end of the day, after you’ve recycled gray water into your garden, biked to work and washed a hundred diapers by hand, you’ve done a lot of good for yourself, but have you really changed the world?” Kraft asks. “Radical homemaking can become too selfrighteous.” The clarity of Hayes’ original vision proves to be a good touchstone for those die-hard crusaders who may, in their earnestness, lose sight of the prize, and even for those with just a passing curiosity about the movement. “I want to see people free to live by their values, first and foremost, not their fear,” says the author. “I expect this will seem less and less outlandish as time goes on.” E-mail comments to home@sfchronicle.com.
Laura Howard-Gayeton with daughter Tuilerie, husband Douglas and two prized goats.
Photos by Brant Ward / The Chronicle
Eggs from the family’s henhouse in Petaluma are traded for goods from local merchants.
Laura Howard-Gayeton and her daughter Tuilerie Gayeton corral a chicken on their ranch in Petaluma. Howard-Gayeton was a TV producer in Hollywood until she decided to quit the rat race in 2003.
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nterior designer Kendall Wilkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famous color-saturated style is like her calling cardâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;her striking teal-blue room took the 2007 SF Decorator Showcase by storm. However, one of the S.F.-based designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s projects, in particular, sticks out like a sore thumb: her familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weekend getaway in Stinson Beach, a misty town north of the city, unapologetically doneup in white. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to detract from the beauty of its natural environment,â&#x20AC;? says the former film industry executive, who acquired a taste for set design while developing movies-of-the-week for FOX and CBS before launching Kendall Wilkinson Design in 1992. Âś But the minimalist bungalow is the exception, not the rule. Wilkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature use of bold
color nods to Alan Campbellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s graphic textiles and San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vibrant Victorians. Her recent project, Philanthropist, a designer clothing boutique that donates 100% percent of its profits to charity, is awash in lavender and silver. Âś This month, the designer celebrates the grand opening of Kendall Wilkinson Homeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;formerly known as Threshold by Kendall Wilkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;on S.F.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sacramento Street. A sophisticated representation of Wilkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tal-
ent for harmonizing modern and antique furnishings, her collection of custom-designed furniture is headlined by a glass-topped table with an 18th century-inspired Lucite base. And, in keeping with her fearless color theory, a set
GRE EN DOOR
of tufted teal-blue leather dining chairs and a classic Bergère chair updated in black-and-white upholstery with a sunny yellow frame are already top sellers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about breathing new into the
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Wilkinson shares her favorite San Francisco resourcesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;many within walking distance of her Presidio Heights homeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that provide finishing touches to bridge the gap between classic and contemporary. Âś At 6 a.m. on the first Sunday of each month, die-hard treasure hunters cross the Bay Bridge to a former naval air station for the legendary Alameda Flea Market (antiques bythebay.net). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where I find things that need revamping,â&#x20AC;? says Wilkinson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I got a 20th century armoire there recently with beautiful lines but a terrible wood finishâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;nothing a little red lacquer couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fix!â&#x20AC;? Âś Five
RIBBONERIE
years ago, Wilkinson and her late aunt, Ann Hall, developed Ann Hall Color Design (G&R Paints, 1238 Sutter St., S.F., 415-292-7982), a line of
house paints inspired by old Mother Goose books the designer uses exclusively in clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; homes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re very saturated paints with a lot of depth, even the white!â&#x20AC;? Âś For custom-crafted invitations, Wilkinson relies on her neighborhood paper source, Soiree Stationery (2998 Washington St., S.F., 415-447-9771). In addition to its in-house printing and hand-addressing services, the tiny shop also carries such Bay Area lines as Dauphine Press and Low Bird. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The owners are so creative and always help me dream up stationery thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classic but imaginative,â&#x20AC;? says Wilkinson. Âś As a mother of two small boys, Wilkinson loves a kid-friendly environment well stocked with books and toys. The Ark (3325 Sacramento St., S.F., 415-4408697) carries Thomas the Train items alongside crafty, old-world wooden fairytale figures by Ostheimer. Âś Susie Turner, owner of Green Door Design (231A Flamingo Rd., Mill Valley, 415-381-1886) helps Wilkinson add an exotic touch to her projects with custom-designed, low-maintenance orchid arrangements. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult to replenish flowers when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re busy,â&#x20AC;? says Wilkinson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But I can handle putting a few ice cubes in the soil to keep orchids watered!â&#x20AC;? Âś Wilkinson gifts family and friends with one-of-a-kind journals from Milliseme Designs (millisemedesigns.com), handmade by Summer Briggs, a local artist. Briggs emblazons iconic black-and-white hardcover notebooks with vintage papers. Âś Ribbonerie (3695
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I DIDNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T WANT TO DETRACT FROM THE BEAUTY OF ITS NATURAL ENVIRONMENT,â&#x20AC;? says Wilkinson of her all-white Stinson Beach house. =\ RWa^ZOg Ob A]W`SS AbObW] \S`g 2Oc^VW\S >`Saa :caQW]ca DS`RS :]cSZZO >`Saa O\R >OUS W\dWbObW]\a OZ]\U aWRS O aSZSQbW]\ ]T W[^`W\bOPZS O\\]c\QS[S\ba
Sacramento St., S.F., 415-626-6184) is Wilkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s go-to for notions of every type, from a diamond-patterned blue sateen ribbon that she uses for gift wrapping, to vintage lace and old buttons. Owner Paulette Knight claims to have the largest ribbon collection in the city. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I can always find the perfect finish here,â&#x20AC;? Wilkinson says. 3419 Sacramento St., S.F., 415-4091966; kendallwilkinsondesign.com. Â&#x2019;
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