SF House Tour: Monique and Richard’s Apartment at a Glance

Name: Monique and Richard
Location: San Francisco (located between the Mission and Castro Districts)
Size: 840 sq. ft.
Years lived in: 5 months

Monique and Richard moved into their first apartment together back in September. The apartment hadn’t been really cleaned or maintained for many years so they set to work on renovating the space and combining their furniture and numerous collections into their new home. Monique’s love of all things home and renovation allowed her a clean slate on which to build a space that would house their collections and their lives.

My/Our style: Our style really has a lot to do with treasure hunting and finding gems. Once we find them we showcase them.

The inspiration for my home: The original idea for the space was trying to emulate faded Cuban glamour.

Favorite element: My favorite element has to be the chandelier I found in a box at a street sale for $15. I spent a fortune having it rewired and cleaned but the end result is one of the best chandeliers I’ve ever seen.

Biggest challenge in designing my home: The biggest challenge was the renovation. The apartment hadn’t been really cleaned patched or painted in a long time. Bringing the apartment around had to be the biggest challenge but of course the pay off was totally worth it.

What friends say about my home: Our friends really like our place. Even after all of the work we have done to it the thing we hear without fail is that people love our view. It is tough to compete with skyline that’s for sure.

Biggest embarrassment in my home: We still have boxes of great stuff that need places to go. I am embarrassed that we still have boxes to unpack.

Proudest DIY: I am really proud of our hallway wallpaper and cabinet backing. I used a blueprint copier to enlarge a small wallpaper sample I had been given. I just love how it looks and it really was easy and inexpensive.

Biggest indulgence with respect to my home: I have to say having a white rug seems pretty indulgent.

Best advice given or received: If you don’t love it you don’t need it.

Dream source for stuff: 1stDibs, ABC Carpet and Home, Baileys, Heath Ceramics, Design Within Reach and Denmark in Scandinavia.

Resources:

Hardware:
I have found a lot of great vintage hardware on ebay and at Urban Ore and Ohmega Salvage in Berkeley.

Furniture:
Most of our favorite pieces have come from flea markets in the bay area and in southern California.

Accessories:
Every now and again I use something from Ikea but for the most part Craigslist, Flea Markets, Ebay and Etsy.

Lighting:
All of the lights in our apartment with the exception of two that were purchased at Ikea were found on treasure hunts to local flea markets and street sales.

Paint:
Most of the paint we used was from Kelly Moore. I really like the coverage and the colors. There were two colors that I had to have matched so I went to Home Depot for that. They did a great job of matching both colors. Who knew?

Flooring:
We have been really lucky with the flooring situation. We have hardwood floors that just needed to be scrubbed and oiled. The only thing left to do is the kitchen floor. This spring I plan to rip out the linoleum and paint the floor a nice dark, glossy navy color.

Rugs and Carpets:
IKEA and S.C.R.A.P. In addition Richard has started a new collection of War Rugs but I promised not to give our anymore details than that.

Window Treatments:
I have been really lucky finding great fabrics for our windows and for our walls at Discount Fabrics at Berkeley and San Francisco locations.

Beds:
I have had my bed frame for years. It was originally purchased at Zonal in Hayes Valley.

Artwork:
We both collect a lot of art and are always on the look out. We have found pieces from galleries to auctions to flea markets. We never stop looking

Other:
I end up making a lot of things myself. It is very hard form me to find what I am looking for so I find that I have to figure out how to make something so it ends up just right.

For more on the day to day renovations you can check out Monique’s blog at day at a glance.

-monique

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