Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: Room Addition Kicks Off a Big Transformation
A San Francisco condo blends 1890s Edwardian architecture, contemporary lines and modern European style
“In adding on to a Victorian-era house, we wanted to be interpretive and natural and make it reflective of our time,” Lum says. The addition doesn’t pretend to be original to the building, but it respects what was there.
This low-slung sectional sofa, upholstered in a mix of solid colors and stripes, is a statement piece in the family room that’s comfortable and inviting. Wall shelves with midcentury style provide a spot for books, photos, toys and other favorite things.
Sofa: Roche Bobois
This low-slung sectional sofa, upholstered in a mix of solid colors and stripes, is a statement piece in the family room that’s comfortable and inviting. Wall shelves with midcentury style provide a spot for books, photos, toys and other favorite things.
Sofa: Roche Bobois
Kitchen Embraces Its Starring Role
The renovated kitchen opens to the family room addition. “The kitchen became the center of the house, where previously it was an afterthought,” Lum says. “Our clients are European and were used to small spaces. They were more focused on quality than size and did not want to compromise on the modernity.”
The minimalist ornamentation reflects the homeowners’ penchant for clean-lined style. The grid composition of the oversize subway tiles (4¼ by 12¾ inches) is a Scandinavian style element, as are the laminate cabinets and stainless steel appliances.
One section of cabinets adds a powder blue block of color, while a modern Skygarden pendant from Flos adds a sculptural touch and a large dollop of black.
Subway tile: Modern Dimensions in semigloss, Daltile; Skygarden pendant light by Marcel Wanders, Flos; laminate: Abet Laminati; blue laminate color: 853 Bleu Spazio
Find wooden counter stools
The renovated kitchen opens to the family room addition. “The kitchen became the center of the house, where previously it was an afterthought,” Lum says. “Our clients are European and were used to small spaces. They were more focused on quality than size and did not want to compromise on the modernity.”
The minimalist ornamentation reflects the homeowners’ penchant for clean-lined style. The grid composition of the oversize subway tiles (4¼ by 12¾ inches) is a Scandinavian style element, as are the laminate cabinets and stainless steel appliances.
One section of cabinets adds a powder blue block of color, while a modern Skygarden pendant from Flos adds a sculptural touch and a large dollop of black.
Subway tile: Modern Dimensions in semigloss, Daltile; Skygarden pendant light by Marcel Wanders, Flos; laminate: Abet Laminati; blue laminate color: 853 Bleu Spazio
Find wooden counter stools
High Traffic and Lots of Storage
Setting up the kitchen right was important to the flow of the condo. The layout maintains a clear hallway space from the front of the apartment to the family room in the back, and the storage is hardworking. The blue block of cabinets includes a panel-front refrigerator and a tall pullout pantry cabinet. Dipped-in-paint stool legs play off the blue cabinets.
The lower corner cabinet is outfitted with a Hafele half-moon storage accessory (a wire lazy Susan-like shelving unit that can be pulled out of the cabinet for easy access). The island contains a sink, dishwasher and pullout cabinet for trash.
“We wanted a fresh look that also spoke to the original beadboard in the hallway,” Lum says. So they wrapped the island in the same beadboard that covers the new family room ceiling. The oak floors in the kitchen and family room are new but are stained to match the original floors.
Setting up the kitchen right was important to the flow of the condo. The layout maintains a clear hallway space from the front of the apartment to the family room in the back, and the storage is hardworking. The blue block of cabinets includes a panel-front refrigerator and a tall pullout pantry cabinet. Dipped-in-paint stool legs play off the blue cabinets.
The lower corner cabinet is outfitted with a Hafele half-moon storage accessory (a wire lazy Susan-like shelving unit that can be pulled out of the cabinet for easy access). The island contains a sink, dishwasher and pullout cabinet for trash.
“We wanted a fresh look that also spoke to the original beadboard in the hallway,” Lum says. So they wrapped the island in the same beadboard that covers the new family room ceiling. The oak floors in the kitchen and family room are new but are stained to match the original floors.
Open shelves prevent the kitchen from feeling closed in. The simple clear glassware and plain china create a neat, European look. “The back of the home is more casual than the front, which faces the street and has a more urban character,” Lum says. The kitchen entrance marks the spot where things become less formal.
Interior designer Baker dubs the front room “a fainting room in a neo-Edwardian style.” They kept the bones of the original architecture intact while adding an eclectic mix of midcentury-inspired furniture and bright color. The space serves as a lounge-y den for listening to albums or reading.
Hutch: West Elm
Hutch: West Elm
The proportions of the round mirror are in balance with the almost-square fireplace surround. The floor lamp is shaped like an oversize anglepoise desk lamp, another play on proportion. And the lounge chair is just the spot to curl up with a book or lie back and listen to favorite tunes.
Family dog Ellie sits in the new nursery, formerly half of a double parlor that had served as a second bedroom. Since the clients had a daughter on the way, they transformed it into her room. Baker’s design was inspired by the crocheted stuffed animals the baby’s grandmother made. The blue ceiling echoes the smiling clouds rug and the other pops of blue in the house.
Light: Ikea; pillow: Jonathan Adler; find more kids’ rugs
Light: Ikea; pillow: Jonathan Adler; find more kids’ rugs
Placing the dresser in the center of the former double parlor’s double doors makes them look more like an intentional architectural element of the room, especially with colorful flags hung in front.
Giraffe lamp: Jonathan Adler
Giraffe lamp: Jonathan Adler
Squeezing a Bathroom Under the Stairs
Previously the unit had one bathroom, accessible only through the master bedroom. Lum was able to carve another out of an awkward hallway alcove and a space under the building’s front staircase leading to the upstairs unit. The bathroom measures 9½ by 3½ feet. In addition to being narrow, it has an angled ceiling that created a headroom challenge. Laying out the space took some thought.
Using a long and shallow (just 12 inches deep) wall-mounted custom cabinet made the most of the space. The vanity, topped with classic Carrara marble, nods to Scandinavian modern style.
There’s a subtle emphasis on geometry in the room. The mirror, sconces, faucet silhouette and cabinet pulls are all circle shapes. The subway backsplash tiles in a running bond pattern are a nod to the Victorian era. And the 3-inch Thassos marble tiles are an oversize take on a typical Victorian floor in 1-inch hexagonal tiles.
Previously the unit had one bathroom, accessible only through the master bedroom. Lum was able to carve another out of an awkward hallway alcove and a space under the building’s front staircase leading to the upstairs unit. The bathroom measures 9½ by 3½ feet. In addition to being narrow, it has an angled ceiling that created a headroom challenge. Laying out the space took some thought.
Using a long and shallow (just 12 inches deep) wall-mounted custom cabinet made the most of the space. The vanity, topped with classic Carrara marble, nods to Scandinavian modern style.
There’s a subtle emphasis on geometry in the room. The mirror, sconces, faucet silhouette and cabinet pulls are all circle shapes. The subway backsplash tiles in a running bond pattern are a nod to the Victorian era. And the 3-inch Thassos marble tiles are an oversize take on a typical Victorian floor in 1-inch hexagonal tiles.
The grid pattern of the smaller rectangular glass tiles in the shower echoes the European modern look we saw in the kitchen. The location under the stairs worked out for the shower at this end of the bath; the ceiling here is 11 feet high.
Takeaways
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Takeaways
- Create harmony between a historic house and a new addition by nodding to the original architecture via proportion and materials.
- Plan thoughtfully for traffic patterns through rooms, particularly when the room provides the only route from one part of the house to another.
- Elements that lend a clean, modern European look to a kitchen include laminate cabinets, tiles in a grid pattern, lots of crisp white and simple china and glassware.
- Wall-mounted cabinetry is a great space saver in a tiny room.
- Continue motifs from room to room for a cohesive feel.
- If you skipped the early link to check out the unit upstairs, do it now that you’re familiar with the downstairs one. It’s not often we get to see two different takes on what’s essentially the same space.
More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple who work for Apple and Pixar and who love color
Location: San Francisco
Size: 1,454 square feet (135 square meters); two bedrooms, two bathrooms
Designers: John Lum (architecture) and Regan Baker Design (interiors)
Two sets of homeowners agreed to add on to their shared 1890s Edwardian building in San Francisco. Their separate units sat one atop the other and each had a covered back porch in shoddy condition. They shared an exterior back staircase that was in even worse shape.
Architect John Lum designed a two-story addition that eliminated the porches and extended the footprint of the building. The new construction added a 225-square-foot family room on the back of each unit, as well as a new shared backyard staircase. The downstairs owners sold their condo to a European couple who were expecting their first child, while the homeowners upstairs had Lum’s firm do a full renovation of theirs. (See it here.)
The new downstairs homeowners, who love color and European style, were impressed with the work Lum had done on the upstairs unit. So they hired him to do a renovation that included finishing off the family room addition, giving the kitchen a full renovation and carving out a new guest bathroom. They also hired interior designer Regan Baker, who worked on those spaces as well as the front parlor and the nursery.
New Addition Meets 1890s Architecture
“The previous homeowners had just left this kind of a drywall box and didn’t do anything with it before they moved,” Lum says of the family room addition, which he finished for the new owners with new trim, flooring and more.
The architecture of the room pays homage to the home’s 1890s Edwardian architecture while also being contemporary. For example, Lum had sized the windows with Edwardian proportions in mind, but he also gave them a contemporary look. “The windows do relate to the proportions of the windows in the rest of the house, which is very vertical,” Lum says. “But we used aluminum windows to keep contemporary, which contrasts with the painted trim, which is more traditional.”
Another way Lum nodded to the home’s original architecture was by adding beadboard on the ceiling that matches the original beadboard in the hallway. This brought a cozier feeling to rooms with 10½-foot ceilings.