For this installation of Famous Homes, we need look no further than our own backyard. Here in Northern California, we have a beautiful country house located in Woodside, nestled between the San Jose and San Francisco metro areas.
Known as the Bourn-Roth Estate, the home sits among 16 acres of formal gardens surrounded by a 654-acre estate. Designed for William Bowers Bourn II, the owner of one of California's wealthiest gold mines and president of the Spring Valley Water Company, which provided water to San Francisco, and his wife, Agnes Moody Bourn, this impressive residence was crafted by San Francisco architect Willis Polk. Spanning 54,256 square feet, the house features 56 rooms, including a ballroom, a reception room, a dining room, cozy family spaces, and servants' quarters. The structure was built between 1915 and 1917 and the estate's name is an acronym created by combining the first two letters of the key phrases from William Bourn's credo: "Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life."
From 1917 to 1936, the Bourns used Filoli as a country house when they wanted to getaway from their main residence in San Francisco. After William and Agnes Bourn's deaths in 1936, the house was sold. Thankfully the next owners also came from wealth: Mr. William P. Roth and Mrs. Lurline Matson Roth (heiress to the Matson Navigation Company) were able to properly care for the property. In 1975, Mrs. Roth donated Filoli in its entirety to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the estate is now both a California Historical Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The estate operates as Filoli Center, and you can visit the house and gardens throughout the year.
Filoli Reception Room circa 1936
Filoli Reception Room now
Filoli Library
Filoli Dining Room
Filoli Kitchen
Filoli Ballroom circa 1927
Filoli Ballroom now
Filoli has appeared on both the big and small screens: it was an exterior location for scenes in Warren Beatty's 1978 film "Heaven Can Wait," it served as the Stanhope residence in the 1997 film "George of the Jungle" starring Brendan Fraser and, despite the fact that the show was set in Denver, Colorado, it was the home of the Carrington family on the 1980s ABC television series "Dynasty."
Just last year, in 2023, it hosted President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping for informal talks during the 2023 APEC summit in San Francisco.
Meeting in the Ballroom Photo: Brendan Smialowski AFP|Getty
During the winter holidays, Filoli is the location of a spectacular outdoor light display while the interiors are dressed for Christmas.
For this installment of the History of Furniture, I propose a look at a style known as Sheraton, based on the work of Thomas Sheraton, an English writer and furniture designer who lived from 1751 to 1806. He was trained as a cabinet (furniture) maker but is best known as the author of many volumes illustrating what came to be known as the Sheraton Style, starting in 1791 with The Cabinet Maker's and Upholsterer's Drawing Book.
Scholarly sources put the start of the Sheraton Style at either 1780 or 1790 (Wiki splits the difference and cites 1785) but most agree that it saw its end in 1820. As I have said before in this series, if you want to discover why a certain style or movement looks the way it does, you simply need to look at the styles immediately preceding it and you will see that, generally, the style is a reaction to and against its antecedent. And what came before this period was Baroque and Rococo, a highly detailed, heavily decorated, and dizzyingly ornamented style championed by Louis XV. When Louis XVI took over, tastes turned from such sinuous ornamentation--or rather I should say tastes returned to something sleeker, cleaner: Classicism.
This Neo-Classicism and the reign of Louis XVI ran from 1774 - 1793. As you can see by all the dates involved, Sheraton was simply following the fashion of the day. So Sheraton (as well as some other styles around and overlapping Sheraton, like Directoire--previously here--and Empire--previously here--in France, and the Federal style in the United States which saw a tremendous amount fo Sheraton-style furniture) embraced the silhouettes and motifs of ancient Greece and Rome, all based on symmetry and the straight line. Chair and sofa legs are straight, not the old cabriole shape of the past. They were round, sometimes slightly tapered, often with fluting like a Greek column--although it is not uncommon to see splayed back legs. The overall sense of Sheraton furniture is one of elegant, well-proportioned geometric shapes commonly made out of satinwood but mahogany and beech were also popular. Seat backs for chairs and settees are usually rectilinear. Pieces are decorated with small, low-relief carvings consisting of swags, lyres, ribbons, festoons, rams' heads, urns and flowers in the neoclassical tradition or inlaid with parquetry and veneers of exotic woods.
I am always searching for unique lighting options for clients, and Hubbardton Forge has just released a new collection that fits the bill. Called Snaps, the configurable design features differing lengths of leather strapping (in brown, black, or white!) punctuated by round LED lights housed in alabaster, all held together with riveted snaps! As you can see below, it looks great in many settings and provides a great sculptural focal point.
I am excited to use the Snaps Collection in a project! Contact me if you want to include Snaps in your remodeled space.
One of my favorite wallcovering companies, Porter Teleo (previously here) who make exquisite handmade and hand painted products, has several exciting new patterns to choose from!
Inspired by a walk in the South of France, AMITIÉ is a large scale botanical print that features branches adorned with abstracted blossoms of alpine rose, orange blossoms, and silver wattle. It comes in three colorways: Argent, Bleu, and Copper.
The sinuous forms of ECHO reference the wire sculptures of Ruth Asawa. Available in four colorways: Blush, Copper, Polished Bronze, and Zinc.
Representing human touch, botanical life, dreams, and the essence of artistic composition, the symbols of SIGNATURE reference the origins of Porter Teleo and the brand's core values of humanity, nature, and aesthetic individualism. In Cadmium, Creme, Noir, and Verdatre.
And finally, IN THE WILD is a striking, complicated pattern reminiscent of dynamic flowers, leaf-like abstractions, oversized shells, and curiously playful shapes which comes in Brown Umber, Cadmium Red, Graphite, and Ultramarine.
If you're interested in discovering these or any of the other beautiful Porter Teleo patterns, reach out to me so we can craft a magical, artistic environment together.
Sometimes the shape and size of a space is great but the details inside seem wrong. That was what my clients thought about their primary bathroom in their newly purchased mountain home. As only the second owners of this large house built in the early 90s, they were eager to be rid of an array of artifacts from that period: a wall of glass bricks at the shower; a huge Jacuzzi tub and deck; and an odd, unnecessary run of shelving about a foot down from the ceiling line. These clients spent many years living on the east coast and brought with them a wonderful classical sense for their interiors—so I created a space that would give them that feeling of Classicism while simultaneously feeling fresh and current.
To start we chose a cooler color palette for the entire space. Tiles that look like Statuario marble are set off by a white and blue marble Arabesque mosaic medallion in the center of the room.
Once the space-hogging Jacuzzi tub was removed, I was able to fit larger, dueling vanities in a lovely French green (a grey with a slight, cool olive tone). These furniture-style units feature a breakfront sink base flanked by fluted columns topped with rosettes. A sculptural, contemporary tub now sits in the alcove looking out over the lush hillside.
The Neo-Classicism of the Georgian aesthetic inspired my choices for light fixtures. The central chandelier and vanity sconces feature glass finials and simplified flourishes.
We removed the glass bricks and rebuilt the entire shower to accommodate a linear drain, making it a true zero-clearance shower without a curb. My clients are now able to waltz into the shower without navigating oddly placed walls and an unusually high step into the pan.
Even the adjacent make-up vanity got a make-over—and a beverage refrigerator concealed by a panel of the same French green--to blend with the new, lighter style of the space. Finally, I designed custom Roman shades in a stunning embroidered material of cream and aqua to complete the room. The high style of the space references the past while reveling in a current moment of comfort and convenience.
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
Photo: Bernardo Grijalva
And for those who are curious, here are some side-by-side Before and After composites to boggle your mind!
If you have an unruly 1990s bathroom you want to tame, give me a call!
