Many Apartment Therapy commenters were concerned about the loss of Victorian details in this project. While others, familiar with the style and the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, applauded the owners’ ability to create a bright, updated space out a dark, dingy and haphazardly-designed boarding house.
What I love about this recent Desire to Inspire post is that it allows us to see even more of the home and that it does a better job of highlighting the historical features that the couple incorporated into their renovation. Say what you will, but I think that the overall result is an amazing, eclectic space - full of life, humor and thoughtful detail. (Love the trumpet light fixture over the bar!)
What do you think? Do these new images change your feelings on the renovation at all? (Psst…San Francisco residents – if you’re in the market, it’s currently for sale!)
For many more images and information on this beautiful space, visit Clayton Street | Desire to Inspire
Images: Desire to Inspire
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that staircase is horrible. I understand wanting to inject a modern sensibility but do it with furniture and accessories!
I like most of it (esp. windows, doors, and wainscotting), but I agree that the staircase is awful.
I respectfully disagree. I think the staircase is spectacular. In fact, I love everything about it, esp the master bedroom and that amazing breakfast nook.
*swoon*
WOW! What a Beauty ! I think I am speechless, except for the fact that in all this glory , someone would actually find something negative to say about this place! Really? I think that is just looking for something to complain about! I give it a perfect 10 !
BRAVO! This is a spectacular renovation that breathes new life into what was once a dark and musty space. How liberating.
I don't understand the fuss...what exactly is so sacred about Victorian-era interior features?
Who wants to live in a museum of period rooms anyway?
Not everyone likes this sort of uber-contemporary design... me being one. This is way too modern and glossy-magasine for my taste, but I do have to say the children's bedroom looks amazing.
Wow this one has shocked me. But in a good way. I love that it looks old and fanciful on the outside, but completely modern on the inside. We live in an old house and while we want to add all the modern things we think a home should have we want the bones to show like the hardwood floors and detailed trim, but feel the rest has to go. I like most of it not what I would do but its refreshing I don't think you should have to keep your house looking like it was built a 100 years ago.
Stunning! LOVE it!
I have never been a fan of anything Victorian, but I am not ultra-modern either. I think this house is fantastic! Modern but warm and welcoming. Great job!
This place is seriously gorgeous!...even with the modern renovation. It's so open and light and clean, and some of the victorian elements are still present. I'm not too crazy about the staircase, though. The original staircase with balustrades lightened up with white paint would've been beautiful. Awesome, though!
I like the staircase in and of itself, though I am admittedly torn about its use in this home. I believe that there should be a relationship between the interior and exterior of a building, and this feels so incongruous. On the other hand, your home should be about enabling the kind of life you want to live, and if opening up the staircase facilitates this, then more power to them.
Wow...This place is such an inspiration for me. As someone with a home of similar vintage, I am definitely going to keep this in my design files. Following up on those who object to the stair; I like the stair itself, but wonder if the original stair was torn out to make way. To me, original staircases are like original windows on a facade...they should always be cherished and preserved! On second look...it appears these photos do not include the parlor level, so perhaps the orginal stair does still exist. I'd love to see a floor plan!
When I see projects such as this (beautiful as they currently are!), I can't help but think of the way we often buy homes and rue the day that the previous owners destroyed architectural detail in the interest of contemporary design. When current fashions change, as they will and do, how much money we spend to replace what truly is not replaceable! What is cool today is "remuddled" later.
I agree--color, fabric and furnishings, with functional changes that reflect the way we use the space--allow us to have contemporary design as we preserve the building (for the next guy who, hopefully, won't curse us for our lack of foresight and sophistication).
So I love this space--today.
I love this reno. Not a fan of the insides of dark old fashion Victorian homes. This home is full of light and life. Great job!! It's your house and do as you please to fit your likes and lifestyle.
I LOVE the trim in the second photo... it made it into my file of 'great ideas'.
It's lovely inside in the usual ho-hum contemporary style, and I'd feel great about it if it were inside a modernist box, but in this context, I feel like the soul of the house has been wrenched right out of it the same way that guy had his beating heart torn out of his chest in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."
I really like the living room but must agree, the stairs are kind of awful.
I'm not usually the biggest fan of modern design but I think this is the most wonderful house I've ever seen. I would kill to live there! That master bedroom is seriously magical.
I really like the renovation and I don't understand all the criticism it got the first time around. I think there is a way of keeping certain architectural details (like chair railing for example, or stained glass) while improving on design that was bad to begin with. (Like dark rooms and a layout that is impractical without flow). You see renovations of very old spaces like this all the time in Europe. In Italy, for example, no one bats an eye at renovating a drafty old palazzo with a bad layout and bad windows and lights. You leave the things that are truly beautiful. (Like maybe terra cotta floors or stone walls) and you dispense with the stuff that never worked to begin with, or that overtime has been badly redone. It makes sense for modern life that you are not going to be living the way people were in 1511.
This reminds me of a friend's row house in London: period on the outside, modern inside. Love it!
Victorian homes are my favorite. Like many, I love the charm of them and all of the exquisite detail. I'm also a big fan of modern styles and this home has mingled the two together so wonderfully! Karen302 Could not have said it better.. Modern, but warm and welcoming! Beautiful.
Hell yes to the swing at the dining room table! I love the risks taken throughout! Success.
I'd move in! Love everything, including the staiarcase, and the contrast between the exterior and the interior. Victorian rooms were tiny and heated by fireplaces -- no longer fun. This interior is divine!
What's not to love? Looks like they kept many of the beautiful details like great molding and original floors. They updated the fittings (cabinets, etc) to be modern and functional. I love it!
There's some seriously cool shit in this house.
I love it! Contrasting styles are the norm moreso than the exception, especially in subdivisions built in the the last 40 years or so. The facade is colonial, arts and crafts or mission but the interiors are completely modern.
This place is in contract for something like $1.6 mil. Remember, it is a 2 unit building just a few blocks from Haight Street.
wow, this reminds me of the renos people do to terraces in Sydney, Australia, only much better. Beautifully done in what I am sure was quite a constrained space!