You don't need a Fifth Avenue mansion to live like a character on The Gilded Age. A couple in San Francisco proved it by transforming their 835-square-foot Edwardian into something that would make Agnes van Rhijn and Violet Bridgerton feel perfectly at home.
The homeowners, big fans of the period dramas, brought in Tim Tattersall of t3 Interior Design in Palm Springs — the same designer who'd recently redone their 2,000-square-foot second home in Indian Wells. The difference was striking: their desert holiday house had turned out nicer than their actual primary residence, so the main house got its turn.
The building dates to 1907 and its exterior is all original, but somewhere in the 1960s or 70s a previous owner stripped out the crown molding, baseboards, wainscoting and cabinetry. The renovation was essentially an act of restoration by imagination — recreating turn-of-the-century character where it had been lost, in a footprint of just two bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths and a small living room.
The owners set one firm rule: no white walls or ceilings. Instead, the house runs on earthy jewel tones, with grasscloth wallpaper from Phillip Jeffries, Osborne & Little and Serena & Lily in nearly every room, and ceiling colors chosen to match. Interior doors are painted Sherwin-Williams Iron Ore, and every window was replaced except the original ones facing the street.
The kitchen shows the approach best. The range is modern, but the hood looks vintage; the refrigerator hides behind cabinet doors; walnut cabinetry and warm counters sell the illusion. One deliberate departure from period accuracy is a backlit bar with translucent onyx and Taj Mahal stone counters, designed — along with the fridge — to read as furniture rather than cabinetry.
Modern life gets cleverly disguised throughout. Switches and outlets are black, with pop-out outlets in the kitchen backsplash that vanish into the wall. Ceiling heat ducts are custom gold mesh in an era-inspired pattern, matching gold mesh cupboard covers that hide speakers and internet gear. The printer lives in a closet shelf, and the TV is a Samsung Frame in an ornate gold frame. Even the air vents were relocated from floors to ceilings to reclaim floor space.
Upstairs, the bedroom is wrapped in a garden mural with a blue-sky ceiling, connected to a walk-in closet and half bath. The second bedroom became an office with a forest-themed mural and green ceiling, and the main bathroom is a tile-layering exercise in greens — the owners' favorite color and a classic of the era.
For travellers, this is a nice reminder that San Francisco's Edwardian and Victorian housing stock hides interiors that have been lovingly restored to another century — and that a small home can carry big-period drama. If period design gets you planning trips, the city's painted ladies and historic neighbourhoods like Pacific Heights and Alamo Square deliver plenty of the same flavour on the outside, too.
