Updated A Century Ago For A Queen’s Visit, A Pacific Heights Home Is Restored To Its Former Glory.
A showcase home is meant to be fun, often over the top in design execution, and, yes – sometimes quirky. Room by room, the house serves as a gallery of blank canvases upon which the artists prevail. It’s all art, and, therefore, you’re never exactly sure what you will find. One thing you should expect is a wealth of information on the latest in color trends, decorative painting, furniture, lighting, hardware, textiles and flooring materials from skilled artisans.
Located on Scott Street in Pacific Heights, this year’s 31st annual San Francisco Decorator Showcase to benefit University High School (sfuhs.org), upheld the tradition of design excellence with a stately residence that has just been restored by the Paige family who purchased it in 2005. The four story, 16,000-square-foot, Italianate-style mansion was built by architect James A. McCullough in 1905 for aristocratic Southerners Eugene and Olive Grace. With its formal receiving area, impressive public rooms and sweeping staircase under a magnificent Tiffany skylight, the home was designed for a European style of gracious living. It easily could have served as an official consulate befitting a royal visit, and it almost did.
It is documented that the home’s second owners, district attorney and cattle baron Walker Graves and his wife Maude, embellished the home in 1914 to accommodate Crown Princess Marie of Romania. The internationally popular granddaughter of both England’s Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II of Russia planned to attend the Panama Pacific International Exposition until the outbreak of World War I precluded their visit. Instead, throughout the years the mansion served several owners as a grand home for entertaining and came to be called “The Pink Palace,” an upscale, temporary boarding residence known for its Friday night cocktail parties. With a colorful past as inspiration and a thorough renovation, this year's design work had many outstanding highlights.
The white marble floors of the entry hall and the elegant, curved grand staircase were styled by Ann Getty & Associates with accoutrements of the Beaux Arts period that punctuated the home’s exceptional architecture. An octagonal oak and parcel-gilt Ven House center table supported by three ornately carved dolphins commanded attention as visitors arrived. A vivid Tiffany glass fountain, original to the home, served as design inspiration for the space, which included a pair of partially gilt terra cotta French Empire torchéres, c. 1800, and pairs of Decorative Arts vases from the early 18th century and 19th century. In a nod to Elsie de Wolfe, the legendary interior decorator who promoted the profession at the beginning of the 20th century, Getty mimicked the famous indoor garden de Wolfe created in Hollywood after she had fled from France in World War II. Getty used an identical pair of full-sized green and white painted metal trees with branches sprouting green leaves made by Jansen of Paris with draperies of green and white stripes by Scalamandré.
One of the loveliest areas in the home, the dining room was pure grace and elegance with draperies of hand-painted Dupioni silk in soft gold, cream and pearl tones by textile designer Barbara Beckman. Designed by Thomas Bartlett Interiors, the theme of refined living continued to echo throughout the space with walls and ceiling painted in creamy colors by Farow and Ball that contrasted with shades of taupe and brown in the panels of the coffered ceiling and a nine-foot, 12-panel Chinese Coromandel screen. Bartlett paired two round, walnut tables from Studio Workshops with dining chairs of his design covered in Fortuny fabric to accommodate the traffic pattern of the large room and adjoining terrace. He added a pair of 18th century Italian, round, gilt wood mirrors and a17th century Italian refectory side table from the estate of the late Rudolph Nureyev.
“When I thought of Nureyev and his life on the stage, I remembered the late John Fowler’s design work with draperies of pinked edges at an estate in Albany, England, and I felt they would lend that theatrical air to the room,” says Bartlett.
The spacious kitchen that Shelley Gordon Interior Design Ltd. masterfully transformed into a state-of-the art space for today’s lifestyle also reflected its past as a chef’s institutional kitchen. Honed Calcutta Oro marble countertops paired with a limestone backsplash by Waterworks provided an airy lightness that complemented the Quality Kitchen Cabinets, antique French oak floors, and Gustavian table from Coup d’Etat with antique French chairs. Stove by Lacanche.
The kitchen was completely gutted – down to the studs with a subfloor only,” says Gordon. “Nothing was there.”
A bare, windowless room on the second floor became a library of impeccable taste in dark, rich browns and bronze at the hand of Will Wick of the Wick Design Group. Steel bookshelves with sandblasted wood posts and French industrial era Jielde sconces provided a modern edge and warm lighting. Striking wing chairs by Wick Design were upholstered in men’s suiting fabric of 100 percent
cashmere. “Weathered Walls-Lacquered Bark” hand-painted Maya Romanoff wallpaper from Donghia added a depth and warmth to the space.
M. Von Hoppenyan styled a guest room into a welcome retreat with her custom furniture design – bed, chairs and ottoman upholstered in grey wool, alderwood console table with castors, and mahogany bedside tables with hidden remote control for blackout shades. The Charcoal silk taffeta draperies were by Silk Trading Co.
A clever use of a small space was achieved by Nicole Hollis Interior Design with the creation of a wine room as a sensory experience that included a mirrored ceiling to create the effect of a tower of wine and an aroma wall of apothecary jars associated with wine discussion.
“I wanted to create a setting that recalls the cool, woody ambiance of the wine cellar, with repurposed riddling racks used as wainscoting, plaster walls, floors made of oak, the wood used in French wine barrels, and raw steel shelving,” says Hollis.
On the rooftop, Weatherill & Associates, Inc. chose to keep the space simple rather than compete with one of the most sensational, panoramic views of the San Francisco waterfront. Sean Weatherill grabbed people’s eye with an electric, hot pink wall and sculptures of metal figures enjoying the view by Tucson artist Curt Brill.
Inspired by a painting of Marie Antoinette as a child in Austria, Designer Candace Barnes saw the salon as an opportunity to install a sense of regal dignity and European history in the home with a color palette of soft silver, oyster, Prussian blue and bronze. It required a complete restoration of the ceiling moldings and wall details by Mark Johnson Studio. Barnes installed contemporary art with 18th century antiques – a majestic Baltic hand cut crystal chandelier and French sconces. Also featured were Cowtan and Tout fabric on silk denim “Origami” settees, cocktail and side tables by Candace Barnes Now and draperies in Kopla silk in sand by Silk Trading Co.
“As I walked into the room, I saw water-damaged walls and peeling paint that hadn’t been touched in almost 50 years, but I felt a strong sense of what this grand room really could be,” said Barnes. “I realized we really had achieved that when I saw about 35 of us who had settled into this room to relax and celebrate with champagne after the design preview party had drawn to a close.” •
