Renting

Look how much you can do with design and art

Hello Pals, 

I’m writing this month’s letter from a rental, a cottage north of San Francisco on the water we’ve come back to many times since we first decamped here in the gloomy winter of 2020. The house is perched on a hill with a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, a weird wonderful garden that would take you 20 years to grow, and the sound of waves crashing but we’re high enough that we don’t worry when the town floods. The aesthetic is what the owners call “Pottery Barn” and what my husband calls Busvan-4-Bargains, which is a very specific and savage aughts SF dig from which you can never recover.

"It's still a junky-looking store," Busk said. "It's the 'too busy to decorate' look. We guarantee that the furniture will look better in your house than it does here." - Busvan 4 Bargains owner Michael Busk’s merchandising strategy

I am not a dick designer who requires everything in my life is just so, but I have redecorated this house in my mind many times. The funny part is that I do it in a practical way even though it’s a fantasy - no changes to architecture, no permits, no contractor. It reminds me of when I was approached in a dream by a very sexy musician to make out, and I said “no thank you, I’m married”. Apparently the guardrails upstairs are solid, and so… what would I do if I were the only renter? If the architecture (which is mid) was going to stay as-is, could I make it have great atmosphere? And the answer is of course. The careful reader may have noticed I have a theory about atmosphere, and how there are three ways to achieve it; decorating, architecture and art, and you don’t need all three. You really only need one. And of course I would say this: but decorating is potent and powerful. You can do it without overthinking, it can be streamlined and move forward without a big team, and most of it you can take with you when you go. But that’s not the reason to decorate a rental, the reason is to feel at home in your space, to not have someone else’s bland atmosphere horning-in on your main character energy. To be psyched when you come home at the end of a day. To be excited to have friends and family over to eat and drink with you and to never feel like you’re delaying your happiness.

I cannot afford this view 52 weeks per year

Anywho, the owner asked me if I would be willing to pick out a new sofa. Of course I said yes, but it’s a slippery slope that (as we discussed) ends at hiring a contractor and so now I’m debating whether or not I just give her what she asked for which is one sofa, or share the entire list. I’ve included this list below for the nosy ones among us, and also because it’s a useful way to think about any project - get it, renters!

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TO START: SURFACES

• To start with I’d eliminate or tone down all the surfaces that are synthetic. Popcorn drywall would be covered (either skimmed with plaster, wallpapered or upholstered). n.b. I did not say I was doing this on a budget. 

• I’d recover the tiles in the entryway with Mirth adhesive veneer product like we did at Kips Bay

• I’d consider painting the kitchen cabinets and no matter what get new knobs and handles

• I’d put in rugs that fit, covering most of the floor

NEXT: LIGHTING

• I’d triple the amount of indirect lighting (your girl hates an exposed bulb), replace cool LEDs with 2700K bulbs, swap out every pendant and sconce for something lovely and suitable

• I’d add many (more than four) additional lamps and floor lamps

AND NOW: FURNITURE

• Big built-in bookshelf shelving system next to the stove. Vitsoe or Royal Shelving could be grand and are portable. I’d use it for books (shout-out to the house Garfield oeuvre that has brought my kids much joy over the years), games, art, lighting, sunscreen, bins for towels, storage, it would be massive and useful

• 2 Sofas - one built in “L” made of two french ticking mattresses, and one love seat sized. Maybe the frame is slip covered for cheerfulness and beachyness? Then pillows galore of course.

hilarity ensues when the one simple request made of me ends with a multi-vendor special order

• Useful big side tables that fit lamps and have shelves, coffee table that is sturdy and ottoman-esque 

• One Jacob May Nomad dining table, a bench on one side and vintage cute chairs

• Add one additional piece of furniture in kitchen as a pantry

THIS IS A BIG ONE: ART

• Big beautiful piece in the dining room, medium piece next to the stove, smaller pieces in the bookshelf

• Big piece in the kitchen

• Small piece on the way to the bathroom

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: ACCESSORIES

• I’d put in a new Sonos system

• I’d do one good coffee system

• I’d quadruple the flower vase collection, and always have foraged arrangements

• I’d get a full set of Sarah Kersten ceramics and glass & barware from Umami Shop

• I’d get all new table linens from Kneeland & Co.

And voila. This would be incredible and I could get it done by Thanksgiving if everything went my way. Stay tuned to see if I pitch it, your thoughts on whether this would be a horrible or wonderful thing to receive are welcome in the comment section!

And to think all of this is a wind-up for the feature this month: the 100 unit apartment building we designed in conjunction with Wilson Meany and Hart Howerton Architects - The Wesley at Hollywood Park. The building is amazing, HHA partner Tim Slattery told me when they design they are always trying to evoke a vacation feeling by making high-end hospitality choices (big windows, views, luxurious bathrooms). It’s so smart and I’ve never forgotten it. We loved working on the interiors, the idea was to design something colorful and cinematic, less like vanilla cake and more like birthday cake, but with gorgeous art everywhere. When we installed last year I was struck by how easy it would be to move in, to just unpack my clothes and live without all my *stuff*, and without all the weight I carry around worrying about what kind of repair or renovation I will embark upon next. It can be a waste of time and a distraction from this lovely hot-tub life I lead at the rental. Le sigh… grass is greener, etc.

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FEATURE: THE WESLEY

Imagine if it were all your friends living here…

This is the zone between the mail services and the resident's entrance. They get a ZUBER MURAL and tile galore and Apparatus lighting. It's none too shabby.

This is the street entrance, programmed like a lobby with many WFH zones. The space is quite vast and so every move we made had to be amplified or the double height volume would eat it up. Hence: your 18' tall stenciled detail over the 10' sofa; and the 16 piece lantern constellation with coordinating rail lights.

A tiny diversion: this was the second lantern installation Anel and I have worked on together - in 2017 we hung what felt like a bazillion paper lanterns in the dining room of the SF Showcase House dining room. We hung them ourselves from a nest of power cords zip-tied to the ceiling and chose the size and drop as we went. Quite different from The Wesley, where each fixture was hardwired into the ceiling and the drop was decided before they were installed. Anel rendered and revised it many times to get this effortless, bouncy, airy feeling.

We were obsessed with density, not necessarily having every one of them light up lol. That's Anel on the ladder. RAD Crew circa 2017 - Maria (now of Studio Wu) moi, Anel, Taylor and Anne (now of Anne Corgan Design in Seattle)

Anywho, back to The Wesley: It’s another gorgeous WFH space, the official Library.

Of course I would use this as my zoom background if I lived here

Model Unit 1: The directive was to keep the paint neutral but have as much fun as we liked with the furniture. And we did, do you see how fun this table is?

Model Unit 2: Same directive - and we are having more fun. Sober fun!

Epic renter-hack; get a big jolly dog and you will be so happy! jkjk; the hack is we wanted to use wallpaper but there were RULES, so we papered four panels in Antoinette Poisson and mounted them on the wall behind the bed.

Have we reached peak-checkerboard? We picked this out in 2019 bay-bees and I still love it

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RAD Team: Technically many people have worked on this since we started designing it in 2019: Maria Wu kicked it off, Taylor Shanahan pitched in, but Anel Clay and Veronica Aguilar brought it over the line in 2023. I got to work with my friend and neighbor Whitney Welsch, who, along with Janice Thatcher and Chris Meany, showed us how substantial needle-moving things get done gracefully. Tim Slattery and all of Hart Howerton have been an inspiration, and Rand Williams from TCA Architects has been our clutch partner. I’m so appreciative of the opportunity, and to have been on such an amazing team.

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That’s all for this month, yet again I flirted with the post too long for email warning and bravely blasted through it. Thanks for sticking with me, this is so much fun.

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Last Word: A nip of my omnivore’s book club where I never tag the author because I like to let ’er rip on all books great and sleazy. Almost 150 book reviews of all flavors saved in stories - Samantha Irby’s Substack linked here, she’s a treasure, people