In the living room, Gioi Tran clad the fireplace and entire wall in Italian marble, turning the space into a permanent work of art. He added a pair of green velvet chairs from Poliform and a leather sofa by Nathan Anthony. The cushions are upholstered in a striped mohair fabric by Misia Paris that looks like a blanket. A coffee table by Gallotti&Radice and a Poliform end table complete the room.
Architects and designers like to talk about working with the beauty of a blank slate, but sometimes, the challenging constraints of existing components inspire the most creativity.
Take the case of the 1990s Mediterranean/Colonial residence San Francisco-based Applegate Tran Interiors redesigned in an international style for a client and her two children. Situated in the hills of the Bay Area town of Moraga, the house was gutted, its interiors opened up to create a more casual space for living, dining, cooking and entertaining. “But we didn’t move or change any of the windows or doors,” notes Gioi Tran, founder and principal designer of the studio. “The client wanted the space to have a European feel, something that was striking and bold.”
To create drama, Tran painted the walls white and the floors, window casings and door trim black, then added large abstract paintings for jolts of color. “With my design, I don’t like to be predictable,” he explains. “And in this case, I had a big-picture vision. But the client was flexible, so some things were not planned out on paper; they just happened.”
Originally, Tran and the client envisioned buying art and searched showrooms and galleries. But they couldn’t find pieces that were of the correct scale and color, so she asked Tran to paint them. “The works either coordinate or contrast with the furniture, depending on what effect I wanted to achieve,” he describes.
The ultimate sense of accomplishment, Tran admits, came from “transforming the house into something that looks like we started from scratch, from the ground up.”
Photography by Christopher Stark.
For more from Gioi Tran, be sure to check out our exclusive interview with him here.
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