August is Odd Space Solution Month!

Modern Victorian?

It's a question that rages in SF every time someone wants to knock something down or put something up. It's also a question that keeps popping up here on AT:SF. Especially so now that we've dedicated this month to blogging odd space dilemmas and solutions.

It goes something like this:

How do I make my modern tastes (and furniture) harmonize with my Victorian walls? These lovely, retro interiors, with their vertical proportions and architectural fuss -- they almost seem to mock my bent for all that is streamlined, low-lying and modern! But I can't go all Goth, not now that I'm finally a grown-up! So please, AT:SF, can you help?

Image:Tristan Savatier

We believe we can. And we believe Modern Victorian can work. We've seen it work. And we'll be featuring ideas, rooms and even (if you dare to share them) whole homes that showcase solutions to this mother of all OSD's.

So if you've made it work, send in a picture. And if you haven't, by all means, send a question, about this or any other odd space dilemma!

Comments (8)

I'm very excited to see responses to this 'problem.' I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to my personal taste in interiors. My furnishings are primarily modern/contemporary with lots of straight lines (and a couple of MCM pieces thrown in). I live in a loft rental with concrete floors/walls/ceilings, exposed pipes and modern finishes. My furnishings look right at home, but I can't say how much I would love to have a more traditional space. I adore the combination of modern/contemporary furnishings with 'charming' architectural details - parquet floors, crown molding, tin ceilings, etc. I hope to eventually live in a place with finishes like these, and don't plan on changing my taste in furniture.

I think you can absolutely mix the two aesthetics. And it makes for great contrast and a much more interesting dynamic. I think painting the walls a dramatic, modern color and accenting the crown moldings in white looks amazing. If you take a look on my blog at "Rob & Suzanne's Castro Victorian Modern" they did a great job of mixing the two. With your artwork and furnishings just go with contemporary pieces, accent with some vintage and it'll look beautiful.

Check out some of the pictures in the press section on Catherine Memmi's website. There are lots of articles on her apartment in Paris. She does an amazing job of blending a soft minimalist aesthetic with all the details and fixtures of an old Parisian apartment. Very sleek but without being cold.

Staring vacantly at my architectural froufrou (1926)... a low modern credenza would probably line up perfectly with the trim that runs around the room at about 26" from the floor.

The late designer John Dickinson did modernism in typical SF spaces, but I'm having trouble finding an online photo that shows a whole room. Here's the scoop on him:
http://www.sfmoma.org/press/pressroom.asp?arch=y&id=173&do=events

which spring issue of Dwell was "Trad on the outside, modern on the inside?"

great T. Savatier pic of our LGBT Center!
yes it's the same buildidng:
the Octavia street side, above the side entrance;
the blue part being the preserved Victorian over which there was quite the ruckus during the design proposal process; and general consensus upon completion, with the slanted glass modern front/preserved Victorian 3 story jutting out of its side, on the corner: "like a modern airport terminal segment crapping a Victorian."

(i love the monochramatic blue Victorian, former home to a Libertarian bookshop, + have grown to love this building, aftr i wouldn't set foot w/in its first year bcuz of the horrid lighthing.

Just last Sunday, off topic here, but this might amuse, during Metropolitan Community Church service there, packed, relocated due to losing the Eureka St. sanctuary after 29 years there, due to seismic issues, minister "Tessie", made the obligatory "w/ all these queers, surely we can easily beautify this bare space...what w/ some of your turns in set design..." yes yes, but how about just hitting a few light switches? the full on blazing flourescents i believe are cramping the holy spirit (or style) anyway...)
ok, putting down my ax + grinder now.

ps
i hope y'all pick up Paper City (free in newsboxes, in posher zones), each month:
their interior design section always features a decorator great, late or living, full of good bits for pros + novices alike...they've covered Dickinson, Dorothy Draper this month, Adler, etc.

oh, re: the question?
i think that removing any fusty, gaudy lighting fixtures, putting ultra modern or retro modern classics in their place, and with modern furniture pieces, trying when possible to echo subtle curves or details in moldings + such can be elegant or fun...

Can the modern design lovers struggling to streamline their gaudy architectural details please trade with those of us who love that type of thing but are stuck in simple, streamlined, open-floorplan rooms?

Yes you can! I've lived in San Francisco for more than a decade and am now in a 2-story A-frame in Bernal Heights.

I love that our house has survived the 1906 quake and am constantly amazed that it doesn't creak or lean with the wind. This thing was built to last.

However, it is so grandma that my guests often tell me how "grandma" it is. I've also been told, "Grandma is good." Of course she is!

Since I'm only renting, I refuse to give up my modernism. I collect the pieces that I like, even if they defy the wallpaper, the Victorian "head" moldings, the glass doorknobs and the ancient kitchen.

So I've coined the phrase "grandmodern" and it makes me love my house even more.