Artwork and Design Dance in Unison in This Bernal Heights Home
BY JENNIFER MASSONI PARDINI
In the living room, “Oxford” by Cara Barer from Andrea Schwartz Gallery hangs over a custom Flexform sofa. De Sousa Hughes lounge chairs in Kvadrat fabric, Finnish Design Shop coffee table and Floordesign rug complete the space.
BESS FRIDAY
When applying that proverbial chicken-versus-egg question to the integration of interior design and an art collection, Jeni Gamble, founder and creative director of Gamble + Design, would agree there isn’t always an easy answer — at least once she has selected the furniture.
To attain creative cohesion for a wife-and-wife couple looking to modernize their three-story, 2,300-square-foot home in Bernal Heights, all three floors — originally heavy with trim work and abundant in accent walls of various colors — underwent a major renovation with the design firm and contractor Jeff King & Company that removed several walls and reevaluated the overall use of space.
To apply new design decisions while balancing the eventual acquisition of a brand-new art collection (even the couple’s existing Salvador Dalí didn’t make the final cut for wall space), restraint was key. “We kept the background as a platform for bringing in the art,” Gamble says. “We were purposely conservative with the finishes and the colors and the textures and the wallpapers, knowing we would bring in a lot of the color and a lot of the emphasis toward the end of the project.”
Lighting couldn’t wait, however, and relied on Gamble’s partner in business and in life, Murray Agnew, a firm founder and its technical director. “We do think about the art as part of the lighting design,” Gamble says. “Early on, we identify where the art locations would be and what kind of light would want to be on those [works of art]. If [the works were] more sculptural, then we would do more of a grazing effect. If it’s going to be a photograph, we would have the light pulled back and be more head-on.”
A custom mosaic wall of Bisazza tile creates a shower statement in the primary bathroom, with plumbing fixtures by Gessi.
BESS FRIDAY
Poliform dining chairs flank a Chambers Art and Design dining table, with Niche pendant lights illuminating “Water Glass 3,” a silver gelatin print by Amanda Means from Dolby Chadwick Gallery, and Gugger Petter’s “Female Portrait #4” from Andrea Schwartz Gallery.
BESS FRIDAY
After opening up the main middle level to allow the entire floor access to sweeping views, installing Hakwood white oak flooring across all levels and custom-designing a Flexform sofa to pair with De Sousa Hughes navy lounge chairs in the living room, specific art selections came into play, namely from San Francisco’s Andrea Schwartz Gallery, Maybaum Gallery and Dolby Chadwick Gallery. “The art pieces really had to work together because at that point we had taken down so many walls, and everything was so open that you literally could see every piece of art with the other piece of art,” Gamble says. “Really my job was a lot about showing [the clients] how the pieces were going to work in the room with renderings and with placement and with scale, and their job was to fall in love with it. Of course art, especially when it’s an investment, has to tug on your heart strings.”
The pieces that captured the homeowners’ hearts and kept a running theme of typography (one of the homeowners is a writer) include Cara Barer’s archival digital photograph “Oxford” of dictionary pages folded into a flower form in the living room, while Gugger Petter’s newspaper and mixed media “Female Portrait #4” and Amanda Means’ “Water Glass 3,” a silver gelatin print close-up of droplets condensing on a chilled glass, adorn the dining room. And up the stairs, past three-dimensional textured works by Tim Yankosky and Monica Delgado, is a Gamble-designed mosaic tile shower wall depicting none other than literary icon Virginia Woolf — the homeowners’ choice.
Nob Hill Gazette review of gamble + design residential project