This 1830’s farm house had been neglected for decades, but fortunately for the owners, most of the original features had been left intact to be uncovered, dusted off, and brought back to life. With the help of a very talented architect who integrated our design aesthetic in the bones and flow of the house, we were able to realize a finished project that incorporates the beauty and integrity of the house with modern design elements that make it feel appropriately new.
Photos by: Khalil Robinson Photography
We took this 1940’s beach cottage and gutted it, getting rid of an 80’s terracotta tile floor and a too-big-for-its-own-good kitchen covered in cabinets and outsized appliances. As the client wanted to rent the cottage on Airbnb most of the year, we filled the spaces with flea market finds and upholstery that would stand up to lots of indoor/outdoor use and lots of sandy feet. We strove to strike a balance between comfy, homey, for the owners, while keeping it low maintenance … and, for the most part, pretty bullet proof.
The design of this house is to give the experience of cushy camping on the beach. Located just yards away from the surf, the house makes use of 24/7 air circulation … off the sea during the day, and off the mountains behind the house at night. Because of the wind, the house stays essentially bug-free despite there being essentially no doors and very few walls. The constant exposure to the elements makes it mandatory that furnishings be kept to a minimum and that they be either cement or hewn out of local fruit wood. The front door came from an abandoned centuries-old church; the two pendant lights came from a garage in France; we designed the coconut chandelier and then had it made locally; and all hardware was sourced from a metalsmith who lives in the mountains and works from molds for hinges and handles passed down to him from his grandfather.
This house was owned by a single professional man with a lot of family-inherited furniture that didn’t suit him or the house. With extremely high ceilings that called attention to the overly treated stucco walls, the challenge was to make this space warm and inviting and still keep it masculine and easy to manage. We took up the wall to wall carpet and manufactured wood flooring and put down a warm and weathered reclaimed wood taken from a barn in Brazil slated for destruction. Between the well-worn wood floors, artwork, greenery and great lighting, the house began to take on the casual, lived-in feeling of a home.
Our client purchased this Walnut Creek home, their first, after having lived as newlyweds in an apartment in the Haight in San Francisco. Now this couple not only has two children, but an actual living room and dining room … in addition to many other rooms that needed furnishing. We decided that their old apartment furnishings were just too dark and heavy for the new house and set about finding great pieces in all the right places…. flea markets, consignment stores, boutique furniture stores; and vintage designer sources. The result — a wonderful mix of chic and charming.. with objects that have a story to tell.
Spectacular views of Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge are only part of the story of this beautifully appointed prewar San Francisco apartment. Since this apartment is a rental, and a transitional one at that, the aim was to keep furniture at a minimum and pared down to things that would work well in wherever happened to be the next place she landed.
This was such a fun project (actually still in the works)… The two that make up this adorable couple were clients of mine when they had separate apartments in San Francisco. So combining their furniture and things and adding new has been an interesting exercise in “coming together” and creating a very chic home.
This project involved taking a 600 square foot 1920’s bungalow that had been used as a weekend getaway and thankfully minimally “updated” ; and making it livable, every day space. There were no existing closets and no washer/dryer… so the challenge was to find space for everything especially given the fact that the new owners of the house were both clothes horses and one had a rather large collection of California reds (wines).
This 1920’s Oakland Bungalow has a very small and narrow living room which was made smaller by a very imposing brick clad mantel and fireplace surround. By removing this, we added an extra foot to the depth of the room.
We added a credenza at the end of the room to square the space off a bit and painted the space Farrow & Ball’s Lichen to make the room warm and inviting.
This project involved creating a cozy living room with all new furniture, light fixtures, rug and paint.
The fab green leather Thayer Coggin extra long couch was the first piece purchased and became pivotal for the room’s evolution. The next piece was the marble and carved stone console table purchased at auction. The choice of Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue really brought the room together and created the “cozy” that my client was looking for.
These are clients who hold a very special place in my heart. I first really got to know them while designing and decorating their individual apartments in San Francisco. A few years later we reconnected when they called me to say they were moving in together. Fortunately they stored the overflow of belongings during that move, because a few years later, I got another call saying they were married, pregnant and buying a house in the East Bay (Orinda).
This wonderful home turned out to be the perfect foil for all of their furnishings plus some. We’ve had so much fun as we embark on yet another design journey with them. We started with the living room… It still has a ways to go, but we’ve grounded the space with a fabulous Chinese deco rug and a 70’s sofa reupholstered in blue mohair. Then we moved on to the baby’s room and the outside patio space.
We started by creating a master bedroom in what was originally attic space. The realtor had staged the house to show a bedroom here but you had to duck to get into the room. We tore down the sheet rock which revealed lots of rotted ceiling boards which we replaced with reclaimed wood. And then stained the ceiling to lighten it up and hide the different wood. We then pulled up the wall to wall carpet which also revealed rotten wood and replaced sections with large pieces of plywood. That we took a knive to and gauged lines in the plywood to look like the existing planks and then painted the floors …. no one would ever know. There were no closets in this space which we added to look like they were always there.
What made the bedroom even more appealing was to create a half bath from a little storage closet… a closet you couldn’t even stand up in. We raised the roof with a sky light that covered the whole bathroom and took down all the sheet rock to make the bathroom wider as well as taller and grab lots of storage space under the rafters for towels and supplies.
On the first floor, we gutted the existing bathroom that was dark …dark green tile and 80’s vanity. We tiled the floor and the shower surround with the same tile to keep the space simple and feel more open. We used old enamel door knobs for the towel “hooks”. And put in some fun vintage industrial lighting, keeping the palette white, off white and silver/chrome.
The budget didn’t allow for a new kitchen so we salvaged all the cabinets… gave them a coat of paint and new hardware… added great vintage lights from Amsterdam and painted the floor a Farrow & Ball blue.
We were tasked on this really fun project to help the home owners come up with a palette for the exterior of their 1920’s home on a very prominent corner of Pacific Grove. We gave the client three suggested directions … they chose this one, and we ran with it. In addition to giving this house new life with Farrow & Ball hues, we replaced the mismatched front steps and took away an unattractive handrail. Please see the “Befores” below.
“After” photos @krobinsonphotos
This sweet home nestled in the Valley and over Rosie’s Bridge, is slowly being transformed from a long-forgotten house with broken appliances; not much light; and rusted fixtures, to a lovingly renovated bright jewel of the neighborhood. Phase 1 of this project involved the redesigning of their kitchen and bathroom; and a refresh for the baby’s room.
Copyright 2020 Kim Ronemus Interiors
