Switch Hits

These SF redesigns convert problematic or undefined spaces into functional and beautiful new rooms. Now that’s what we call home improvement.

LIVE-WORK: REDUX

(TOP LEFT): Ashley Roi Jenkins balanced the pastel fabrics in the meeting area with a dark-brown grass-cloth rug. (TOP RIGHT): Her assistant’s office is in a former closet that also holds computer equipment. A disco ball, which Jenkins found at musiciansfriend.com, adds a playful feel. (BOTTOM): The old dining room is now Jenkins’ office. Credits: Ed Ritger (2); (BEFORE): Margaret Mitacek; (PRODUCTS): courtesy of the manufacturers
	SF designer Ashley Roi Jenkins was accustomed to using only the best furnishings and fabrics for her clients, but her own office—which she operates out of her Presidio Heights one-bedroom apartment—was cramped and makeshift. So Jenkins decided, boldly, to sacrifice her dining room, living room and a storage closet to create a real office. “I needed to take it up a notch,” says Jenkins, who started her own design studio in 2001. She began by making the storage closet into a work area for her assistant, painting it pink and placing a midcentury-inspired desk and table nearby. Next, she set to work on what had been her dining room. She covered the mint-green walls with a yellow Romo wallpaper, kept a cherrywood table that was a family heirloom as her desk and reupholstered an antique bergère chair with white linen to use as her work chair. “The light that comes through this window is intense and needed to be balanced out,” she says. “The mustard-yellow wallpaper softens it.” Clients can go over blueprints in the former living room, where a couch and bench sit next to a midcentury-modern bar cart Jenkins found at Monument. The chocolate-brown grass-cloth rug below “brings a refined but earthy element into the space,” she says. “It’s also got a masculine quality, to offset all the girly pink.” Dedicating more than half of her 1,100 square feet of living space to her business has been worth it, she claims. “If I weren’t single, it might be problematic, but it’s worked really well. This is the first time I’ve felt completely comfortable in my work space.”

 

Bring It Home

CARTE BLANCHE Jenkins’ idea to include a stocked bar cart in her client-meeting area is—to our minds—brilliant. This circa-1925, iron-and-bronze Marcel Coard “Swan” table, complete with claw feet and swan-head motifs, makes working with a cocktail in hand practically a requirement. Price upon request; available at Hedge, 48 Gold St., 415-433-2233, hedgegallery.com

FLIGHT OF FANCY Graphically intriguing and brightly hued, these Air Traffic Control Pillows by Dora Drimalas for Hybrid Home sport the same burst of color that dresses up Jenkins’ couch. $70 each; available at hybrid-home.com or Super 7, 1628 Post St., 415-409-4700

SMOOTH OPERATOR Why not work in a great-looking chair, like the one Jenkins chose for her assistant? Blu Dot’s Buttercup Lounge Chair—an undulating masterwork in bent plywood—will impress any design aficionado who wanders into your home office. $759; available at 2modern.com

 

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

The old kitchen (BOTTOM) had extra space tucked off to one side, but getting to it was awkward. Triggs turned it into a mud/laundry room with easy access to the kitchen (TOP) and added a small desk for recipe-hunting. Credits: Stuart Lirette; (BEFORE): Tamara Mack; (PRODUCTS): Stefanie Michejda
	The family of five who lived in this two-bedroom Inner Sunset Edwardian had two main problems with the outdated kitchen/dining room: It didn’t have enough seating or counter space, and an adjacent small room (behind the microwave station in the “before” photo) was taking up valuable footage without adding any functionality. SF designer Tineke Triggs started by making that space into a mud room/laundry room and positioning its entrance near the center of the kitchen, where she added a small, built-in desk. This created an automatic cove in the back of the kitchen, where Triggs put a banquette seating area. “I have kids myself,” says the principal of Artistic Designs for Living, “and a banquette is the perfect solution for them: It takes up the least amount of space, and it’s cozy.” A large island created even more seating, along with needed counter space, for which Triggs choose Carrara marble. “This client has very traditional tastes, and the marble preserves that style. Plus it’s great for baking.” Above the island, Triggs hung three antique Italian lamps that she found at Cottage Industry on Fillmore. For the backsplash, the client wanted glass tile, which didn’t fit in the budget, so Triggs used Westminster Ceramics tile instead, in a robin’s-egg blue that has a high, glass-like shine; it also matches the client’s favorite blue vase, which sits in the glass cabinet above the sink. Then she painted the back wall to match it. “The kitchen is much more usable now,” says Triggs. “There’s more cabinet and counter space, more seating and the large island makes it seem much more grand.”

 

Bring It Home

GLASS CEILING This pendant lamp, hand-crafted in Belgium specifically for Cottage Industry, is made of recycled crystal and stainless steel, lending an antique touch to a modern kitchen. You’ll never want to eat by candlelight again. $389; Cottage Industry, 2328 Fillmore St., 415-885-0326

OCEAN LINER Multiply this ceramic tile from the Elements series by Ann Sacks—shown here in Aqua Crackle—and watch your kitchen bask in the kind of sea-green serenity that Tineke Triggs achieved. $25 per square foot; 2 Henry Adams St., Ste. 125, 415-252-5889, annsacks.com

 

under achiever

The unfinished basement (BOTTOM) became a family room (TOP LEFT) that opens to the bright backyard. (TOP RIGHT): the home office. Credits: Steph Dewy/Reflex imaging; (BEFORE): Shelly Amoroso; (PRODUCTS): courtesy of the manufacturers
	When designer Shelly Amoroso of Amoroso Design, in Cow Hollow, set out to transform the ground-floor basement of a single-family home into living space, “I sat down with the client”—a family of four—“and wrote out every single thing they wanted that they felt was missing from their home,” she says. In this case, that included a family room, home office, laundry room and storage. The postwar Marina-style house, in Laurel Heights, already had three bedrooms, two baths and a traditional dining and living room upstairs. Amoroso worked with the basement’s structural elements to define the boundaries—walls went up over existing beams and posts, and the bathroom and laundry were placed near existing plumbing. Amoroso kept the same neutral palette used upstairs, but added a bit of warmth with a chocolate-brown couch and mint-green chairs from Room & Board. “It was important to get some wood and natural colors in there to balance out the sleek floors,” which are travertine—a favorite of the client’s. The French doors had to be large enough to let the family’s preschool children drag their toys in from the yard. And for the adjacent windows, says Amoroso, “I didn’t want traditional windowsills 36 inches off the floor. I wanted to bring the windows down to the floor, even though we were going to put the couch in front of them. It lets in the outdoors and makes a big impact when you’re looking in from the outside.”

 

Bring It Home

SITTING PRETTY Amoroso chose a pair of ’50s-style mint-green chairs to reflect the natural palette visible from the yard. The Margot Chair from Crate & Barrel has a nearly identical midcentury shape, right down to its angled legs, and is avaiable in paprika, cocoa or driftwood chenille (shown). $499; 55 Stockton St., 415-982-5200, crateandbarrel.com

a perfect circle Amoroso balanced the family room’s earth tones with a see-through circular coffee table. Get the same graceful lines with Room & Board’s Eclipse Table, whose stainless-steel base is visible below its glass top. $679; 685 Seventh St., 415-252-9280, roomandboard.com

LIVE-WORK: REDUX

(TOP LEFT): Ashley Roi Jenkins balanced the pastel fabrics in the meeting area with a dark-brown grass-cloth rug. (TOP RIGHT): Her assistant’s office is in a former closet that also holds computer equipment. A disco ball, which Jenkins found at musiciansfriend.com, adds a playful feel. (BOTTOM): The old dining room is now Jenkins’ office. Credits: Ed Ritger (2); (BEFORE): Margaret Mitacek; (PRODUCTS): courtesy of the manufacturers
	SF designer Ashley Roi Jenkins was accustomed to using only the best furnishings and fabrics for her clients, but her own office—which she operates out of her Presidio Heights one-bedroom apartment—was cramped and makeshift. So Jenkins decided, boldly, to sacrifice her dining room, living room and a storage closet to create a real office. “I needed to take it up a notch,” says Jenkins, who started her own design studio in 2001. She began by making the storage closet into a work area for her assistant, painting it pink and placing a midcentury-inspired desk and table nearby. Next, she set to work on what had been her dining room. She covered the mint-green walls with a yellow Romo wallpaper, kept a cherrywood table that was a family heirloom as her desk and reupholstered an antique bergère chair with white linen to use as her work chair. “The light that comes through this window is intense and needed to be balanced out,” she says. “The mustard-yellow wallpaper softens it.” Clients can go over blueprints in the former living room, where a couch and bench sit next to a midcentury-modern bar cart Jenkins found at Monument. The chocolate-brown grass-cloth rug below “brings a refined but earthy element into the space,” she says. “It’s also got a masculine quality, to offset all the girly pink.” Dedicating more than half of her 1,100 square feet of living space to her business has been worth it, she claims. “If I weren’t single, it might be problematic, but it’s worked really well. This is the first time I’ve felt completely comfortable in my work space.”

CARTE BLANCHE Jenkins’ idea to include a stocked bar cart in her client-meeting area is—to our minds—brilliant. This circa-1925, iron-and-bronze Marcel Coard “Swan” table, complete with claw feet and swan-head motifs, makes working with a cocktail in hand practically a requirement. Price upon request; available at Hedge, 48 Gold St., 415-433-2233, hedgegallery.com

FLIGHT OF FANCY Graphically intriguing and brightly hued, these Air Traffic Control Pillows by Dora Drimalas for Hybrid Home sport the same burst of color that dresses up Jenkins’ couch. $70 each; available at hybrid-home.com or Super 7, 1628 Post St., 415-409-4700

SMOOTH OPERATOR Why not work in a great-looking chair, like the one Jenkins chose for her assistant? Blu Dot’s Buttercup Lounge Chair—an undulating masterwork in bent plywood—will impress any design aficionado who wanders into your home office. $759; available at 2modern.com

The old kitchen (BOTTOM) had extra space tucked off to one side, but getting to it was awkward. Triggs turned it into a mud/laundry room with easy access to the kitchen (TOP) and added a small desk for recipe-hunting. Credits: Stuart Lirette; (BEFORE): Tamara Mack; (PRODUCTS): Stefanie Michejda
	The family of five who lived in this two-bedroom Inner Sunset Edwardian had two main problems with the outdated kitchen/dining room: It didn’t have enough seating or counter space, and an adjacent small room (behind the microwave station in the “before” photo) was taking up valuable footage without adding any functionality. SF designer Tineke Triggs started by making that space into a mud room/laundry room and positioning its entrance near the center of the kitchen, where she added a small, built-in desk. This created an automatic cove in the back of the kitchen, where Triggs put a banquette seating area. “I have kids myself,” says the principal of Artistic Designs for Living, “and a banquette is the perfect solution for them: It takes up the least amount of space, and it’s cozy.” A large island created even more seating, along with needed counter space, for which Triggs choose Carrara marble. “This client has very traditional tastes, and the marble preserves that style. Plus it’s great for baking.” Above the island, Triggs hung three antique Italian lamps that she found at Cottage Industry on Fillmore. For the backsplash, the client wanted glass tile, which didn’t fit in the budget, so Triggs used Westminster Ceramics tile instead, in a robin’s-egg blue that has a high, glass-like shine; it also matches the client’s favorite blue vase, which sits in the glass cabinet above the sink. Then she painted the back wall to match it. “The kitchen is much more usable now,” says Triggs. “There’s more cabinet and counter space, more seating and the large island makes it seem much more grand.”

GLASS CEILING This pendant lamp, hand-crafted in Belgium specifically for Cottage Industry, is made of recycled crystal and stainless steel, lending an antique touch to a modern kitchen. You’ll never want to eat by candlelight again. $389; Cottage Industry, 2328 Fillmore St., 415-885-0326

OCEAN LINER Multiply this ceramic tile from the Elements series by Ann Sacks—shown here in Aqua Crackle—and watch your kitchen bask in the kind of sea-green serenity that Tineke Triggs achieved. $25 per square foot; 2 Henry Adams St., Ste. 125, 415-252-5889, annsacks.com

The unfinished basement (BOTTOM) became a family room (TOP LEFT) that opens to the bright backyard. (TOP RIGHT): the home office. Credits: Steph Dewy/Reflex imaging; (BEFORE): Shelly Amoroso; (PRODUCTS): courtesy of the manufacturers
	When designer Shelly Amoroso of Amoroso Design, in Cow Hollow, set out to transform the ground-floor basement of a single-family home into living space, “I sat down with the client”—a family of four—“and wrote out every single thing they wanted that they felt was missing from their home,” she says. In this case, that included a family room, home office, laundry room and storage. The postwar Marina-style house, in Laurel Heights, already had three bedrooms, two baths and a traditional dining and living room upstairs. Amoroso worked with the basement’s structural elements to define the boundaries—walls went up over existing beams and posts, and the bathroom and laundry were placed near existing plumbing. Amoroso kept the same neutral palette used upstairs, but added a bit of warmth with a chocolate-brown couch and mint-green chairs from Room & Board. “It was important to get some wood and natural colors in there to balance out the sleek floors,” which are travertine—a favorite of the client’s. The French doors had to be large enough to let the family’s preschool children drag their toys in from the yard. And for the adjacent windows, says Amoroso, “I didn’t want traditional windowsills 36 inches off the floor. I wanted to bring the windows down to the floor, even though we were going to put the couch in front of them. It lets in the outdoors and makes a big impact when you’re looking in from the outside.”

SITTING PRETTY Amoroso chose a pair of ’50s-style mint-green chairs to reflect the natural palette visible from the yard. The Margot Chair from Crate & Barrel has a nearly identical midcentury shape, right down to its angled legs, and is avaiable in paprika, cocoa or driftwood chenille (shown). $499; 55 Stockton St., 415-982-5200, crateandbarrel.com

a perfect circle Amoroso balanced the family room’s earth tones with a see-through circular coffee table. Get the same graceful lines with Room & Board’s Eclipse Table, whose stainless-steel base is visible below its glass top. $679; 685 Seventh St., 415-252-9280, roomandboard.com

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