Name: Tess
Location: The Mission District, San Francisco, California
I love San Francisco best when it's pale & sparkling, and have filled my apartment with the greys, whites, and watery blues of our magically foggy skies. Besides, living on a rather gritty & festive block of Valencia, I need all the cool clear quiet I can get.
It took a few years to figure out how to balance my Scandinavian modern tendencies with a growing love of prettiness, to create a spare space with just the right amount of lovely, fascinating, functional objects. Every item was either found (the lamp, bird, & chair), homemade (the shelves, cutting board, & table), made by a friend (the print & the painting), or a gift (the carafe, tea pot, & pitcher). I feel surrounded by stories, love, & calm. But even the most serene little home needs a shot of color & fun, so thank goodness for plants, paintings, and record players!
-Tess Wilson
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Love the light this place gets!
Laura
Just a Little Bit
Seriously, cell phone quality photos showing nothing more than small vignettes? Almost nothing abut the space is communicated through these photos.
Echoing Julian, I'd love to see something besides Tess' accessories, although the photos do give you an idea of the light on a typical SF summer day.
I am in love with that calendar. I wish I knew where it was from!
Please put a shade on that lamp. I do not get the trend of showing bare light bulbs. Nice pics but again, AT loves the vignettes and not the full-on room pics we all crave. sheesh
the carafe is really nice
Lovely light ... and not just the light pouring through the window. I mean the physical lightness of the paper lampshade over the bed and the gray paper tacked (not flattened) to the wall. Great choices.
Please please please take some larger photos and show the WHOLE SPACE (or as much of it as possible). I would rather you sacrifice one of the silly vignette pictures and replace it with a wide-angle lens photo then have a bunch of useless "artistic" photos that do not show the space at all.
Anyways, I like (what I can see of) this space. Very calm, minimalist, fresh. I wish I had the ability to edit and the self-control to do this but I don't, so I'll admire it from afar.
Vignettes and lamps without shades.
Like summer in SF: Not so hot.
To be honest, it is hard to take a good picture that shows a whole space, especially if it is a small space and you don't have photo equipment. I don't mind the smaller pictures, they give a good enough feel of things.
Very cute. I want to see more :)
Gritty Valencia? *snort*
Yes, please, I second the request for info about that lovely calendar. Many thanks!
please more!!!! i love the first and second pic. total dream home.
i like it. it's nice. more?
For those who asked about the calendar - it's by Jen Corace and you can get it at Art Star:
http://www.artstarphilly.com/shop/stationery/corace01.html
Can anyone tell me where I could buy the metal brackets used for the wall shelf in the first picture? Love them.
@Julian etc
I'm glad you said it so I didn't have to.
Hey neighbor,
Not a great idea to have shelving over your bed. This is SF, after all (same goes for artwork framed in glass just above the pillow).
Like your desk.
This is usually not my style, but there is something about the first picture that I find absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
First, you're so right about the vignette issue. I thought it would be fun to do a house-call, but most of the apartment's 400-sq-ft were occupied by my partner's music studio & workshop- so I just focused on the little parts I occupy! I now have the place to myself, & would love to do a full tour sometime in the future. I promise full-room shots.
TWilliams- the brackets are super-old & sturdy, found at an antique mall in rural Illinois for, like, $2. The kind of thing you don't just find lying about in San Francisco, unfortunately.
Joh- very good caution to everyone in earthquake country! The shelf holds soft bins full of socks & underpants, & I sleep with my head at the other end. The print above the bed is just paper attached to my fusebox with magnets. My beloved desk/table/worktable was handmade- I will pass along the compliment!