Interior Designer Remodels a 1920s Apartment in San Francisco
The interior designer Steven Volpe drew inspiration from a 19th-century Japanese tagasode when renovating the California apartment
She’s very fashion forward and acutely aware of cultural trends,” interior designer Steven Volpe says of the client for whom he remodeled a 1920s apartment in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. “But she acknowledges the fact that unlike things of the moment—new shoes, new bags—great rooms don’t come with a date stamp. We were in full agreement that one’s living space should transcend hipness: that at home, especially, a timeless aesthetic is always correct.”
Volpe, who had worked with California interior design luminaries Anthony Hail, Eleanor Ford and Tony Machado before establishing his own practice more than 20 years ago, prides himself on spaces whose contents are particularly well chosen: “There’s not a lot of superfluous furniture floating around in my rooms,” he says. “My whole thing is about quality and how to thread the way someone wants to live with my vision. What I was aiming for here can be compared, in a sense, to my client’s old Hermès handbags. After years and years, and having been made by the best hands, they’re the items in her wardrobe that are the simplest and most beautiful: both classic and modern, and very personal.”
“It became the primary source of inspiration for the entire project,” designer Steven Volpe says of the 19th-century tagasode hanging in the living room of a San Francisco apartment. Calvin Fabrics linen velvet on sofa. Bergamo pillow fabric.
In the entrance hall, a bronze Tibetan Buddha is atop a shagreen-covered Art Déco chest.
The sunroom, like the rest of the apartment, was revamped: “It was treated as an extension of the dining room and as a counterpoint to the axis from the entrance hall,” Volpe explains. Late-18th-century fauteuils from Therien.
The designer chose a muted, neutral palette to highlight the dining room’s important furnishings—a set of early-20th-century klismos chairs and a 1950s Venini glass chandelier—and art. The photograph is by Michal Rovner. Chairs, Therien.
In the study, cabinets faced with the same bamboo as the shades, from Conrad Hand Woven Window Coverings, hide bookshelves for “a seamless, uniform appearance,” the designer remarks. Hermès carved boxes rest on the Jean-Michel Frank desk. Lisio desk chair chenille.
Volpe, working with his client, assembled a collection of midcentury French pieces, including a circa 1950 Line Vautrin sunburst mirror and a 1945 gilt bronze René Prou stool. Lisio bedcovering and pillow fabrics. Shades from Conrad.
Still, the woman loves fashion. “It’s fun for her,” Volpe says. “She opens the door to her closet and says, Who do I want to be today?’ ” Which makes a harmonious and quiet environment all the more desirable, if not essential. “There is so much color, so much visual stimulation, in her life otherwise. I created a relief from all that: the home as a restrained, exquisitely tailored backdrop.”
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