Design Diary: Palmer Weiss Is a New Traditionalist

Finally, I present you with a San Francisco home designed by Palmer Weiss, featured in Traditional Home‘s TRADhome this month. She is one of the magazine’s 10 New Traditionalists.  Starting with the colored door, all the way in and up to the nursery, the interiors are superb. Enjoy the photos and be sure to click through to the actual story in the new digital issue of TRADhome.

 

E X T E R I O R

The home’s color-drenched front door is inspired by designer Miles Redd’s blue front door that was once featured in Domino. “A lot of people walk by saying they love it,” says the homeowner.

L I V I N G R O O M

The living room sofa is upholstered in punchy green linen velvet. The glazed raffia coffee table is the Harrison Van-Horn ‘East West.’

The statement piece over the mantel is Carvers’ Guild ‘Entwined Dolphins Mirror’ in hand-laid gold leaf. Weiss says, “I like that it wasn’t the usual star burst design.” She always goes with convex when it hangs high enough to cut off people’s heads since it’s “bad feng shui.” The ikat-covered Oly Studio ‘Sophie’ armchair adds a bit of global patterning.

Initially the homeowner thought that silk curtains might be “too grown up,” but loved the idea once Weiss dressed them down with a cotton ticking lining. A pair of vintage lamps mirror the symmetry of the maize-colored silk drapes.

Weiss topped the pair of curvy turquoise lamps, purchased from Flessas Antiques in New York City, with custom brown silk lampshades.

D I N I N G R O O M

The dining room ceiling is based on the homeowner’s Meissen ‘Ming Dragon’ china. Following a base coat, a decorative painter used 15 coats of glaze. Weiss says, “You can literally see yourself in it.”

The wall color, a custom pale blue, was pulled from the sky of their Massimo Vitali beach photograph. (The couple has a number of fine modern photographs; the husband’s mother is a board member of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.)

The dining table is vintage 1950s Paul McCobb and the chairs, which are covered in dark blue mohair on the front and stamped lizard on the back, are Baker ‘St. Germain’ chairs from the Thomas Pheasant Collection. They experimented with a number of fancy Murano chandeliers, but finally settled on a simple and inexpensive brass one from Circa Lighting.

Weiss designed curvy banquettes to flank the entryway of the dining room. They’re on wheels to make it easy to roll one up to the table for extra seating. The Indian rug in the dining room is Irving and Fine through the Todd Alexander Romano showroom.

K I T C H E N

Mixing high and low, Weiss upholstered West Elm bar stools with Muriel Brandolini ‘Chartreuse 2’ that she had laminated for easy clean up. The acid green wall color is Fine Paints of Europe #S2040-G80Y, which continues into the family room, below.

F A M I L Y R O O M

The neutral colored sofa is piped in coral, a color that references the ceiling of the adjoining dining room. The chairs are upholstered in Schumacher ‘Saint Tropez’ in ‘Java,’ a durable outdoor fabric.

H A L L

A persimmon demi-lune chest in the mudroom is flanked by Jonathan Adler ‘Chippendale’ side chairs in white lacquer, upholstered with a Palm Beach, ’70s style floral. The rug is from West Elm ‘Zig Zag.’

M E D I A R O O M

The denim-colored tone-on-tone media room is where the husband hangs out. Weiss worked with him to outfit it with comfortable and durable furnishings. The overstuffed sofas are upholstered in Schumacher ‘Cotton Club Velvet’ in ‘Midnight Blue.’

The Lucite and chrome table, which Weiss sourced on 1^st Dibs, was a bit of a hard sell, but the rounded corners (safe for kids!) helped convince him. The shades are China Seas “Gorrival Fretwork’ in ‘French Blue.’

P O W D E R R O O M

The powder room is papered in large-scale Katie Ridder ‘Leaf’ wallpaper in cream and chocolate. The ivory mirror is World’s Away ‘Rococo.’

The Roman shade is Cowtan & Tout ‘Tiffany’ silk in mauve with a Samuel & Sons trim.

P R I M A R Y  B E D R O O M

The bed in the primary suite is made in luxurious white Leontine linens monogrammed in apple green, picking up on the color of the tufted Oly Studio ‘Jonathan’ bench upholstered in Holly Hunt ‘Stingray’ leather in ‘Irish Sea.’ Weiss designed the headboard, upholstered in blue mohair with nail head detailing. The loveseat is covered with Donghia ‘Suzani’ in ‘Blue Bliss.” Christopher Spitzmiller porcelain lamps top the bedside tables.

In the primary bedroom, a photograph from Sze Tsung Leong’s ‘Yangtze River’ hangs above the World’s Away Crosby entertainment console, a limed oak cabinet with geometric, mirrored detail. The walls are covered in pale blue grass cloth. The blue agate lamp is from Belvedere Antiques in New York City.

The adjoining study boasts custom cabinetry and an Eames Management Chair in white leather. The neutral Roman shade is edged in tealtape, notched at the corners, and the silver carpet is from Stark.

For the dressing room hallway of the primary suite, Weiss wanted, “Just a little moment there.” They went with inexpensive lanterns from a Moroccan import place that cast lacy shadows on the walls and ceiling. A Hickory Chair bench upholstered in a deep yellow and edged with teal sits in front of a niche hung with a framed section of hand-painted wallpaper.

N U R S E R Y

The nursery won’t need de-babyfying. Formal red drapes and valance are sophisticated but not to. An existing armchair and ottoman was redonein Peter Dunham ‘Kashmir Paisley’ linen. The checked wall-to-wall carpet works well for kids—it’s soft and stain-resistant.

Weiss chose ‘Wood Owl’ wall decals from Etsy rather than artwork in case of an earthquake. The crib is the ‘Cabine’ by Netto Collection.

G U E S T R O O M

The guest room was pulled together on a budget. Weiss swapped the chrome hardware on the bedside tables with gold and re-purposed an old headboard in inexpensive orange velvet. The toile slipper chair is a nod to the wife’s preppy East Coast roots. The draperies are Kravet ‘Pelago’ in ‘Haze.’

Palmer Weiss

Interior photography by Matthew Millman 

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