You've Got to See the Over-the-Top Bar in This Gatsby-esque Home
When it comes to designing a home you truly love, one that’s authentically, 100 percent you, there’s something you need even more than inspo images or a color palette: self-awareness. When Andrea Schumacher and her team, led by senior designer Troy Rivington, set out to design this home for a woman in San Francisco, the homeowner’s identity became the north star that guided the entire project-and it shows.
“She’s daring, she’s a risk-taker,” Andrea said. Because she lived alone, “no one could tell her what to do.”
Instead of falling for decorating clichés-or trying to please anyone who might drop in to visit-she zeroed in on what she wanted. That meant finding an eclectic, bohemian, feminine mix, where every square inch of the home suited her lifestyle.
“The homeowner never really entertains,” Andrea explained, so they put a desk against the wall in the dining room, creating a more relaxed space where she could have coffee and read the paper, or get work done in the evening. “She has the option of turning it into a dining room, though, if she needs to.”
Similarly, as fun as the bar area is, the homeowner didn’t need all that real estate devoted to partying. So Andrea converted it to do double duty. “Now, it’s partially a bar, partially a place to store files,” she said. Actually, make that triple duty: There's also space at the bar to serve as a guest closet, since the sofa nearby pulls out into a bed.
Just because the bar serves so many purposes doesn't mean it needed to be totally utilitarian-Andrea's team pulled a bold, berry color from a rug the homeowner loved, then used it as inspiration to paint the entire bar in Benjamin Moore’s Cranberry Cocktail. With a lacquer finish, so it gleams. (You can find the same color on the interior doors.)
That "functional, but make it fashion" mentality can be found in a converted telephone booth, too. It'd been in the home since the 1940s, but it didn't really serve a purpose-until the Schumacher Interiors crew turned it into a laundry room, saving the homeowner the hassle of carrying her hamper up and down four flights of stairs to the one in the building's basement.
"It's more fun to come up with multiple ways to use a room," Andrea said. The team added nods to the building's Art Deco history as they freshened up the space, like the bold fabrics covering the chairs in the dining room and the gleaming scones in the bedroom.
There's also a subtle homage to the wild parrots San Francisco's known for: Look closely at the vanity in the master bathroom, and you'll see handles in the shape of the famous birds. Consider it a love note to the Bay Area-one that feels authentic, fresh, and with just the right flourish of over-the-top personality.
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