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Late one Friday night, Sarah Holahan was checking her email when she saw an intake form from a San Francisco-based couple sitting in her inbox. (Holahan, the co-founder of the firm Studio Cabida, and her partner Cecily Mendell like to kick off their projects with a fun questionnaire to learn more about their clients’ general likes and dislikes). An absolute must-have design element? Taxidermy, one of the homeowners wrote. What’s a hotel that inspires you? Best Western, he answered. “I texted Cecily: ‘Did you see this? Is this real?’ And she was like, ‘I’m pretty sure it’s a joke,’” says Holahan.
The whole point of the form is to get a better understanding of their clients’ vibe. Mission accomplished. Their humorous responses set the tone for the project: Along the way, Studio Cabida played off the couple’s vibrant personalities with a turquoise pantry, whimsical chandeliers, and checkerboard flooring.
More laughs were had as the designers toured the house for the first time. While a quintessential Craftsman built in 1910, parts of the interior were stuck in the 1970s. Exhibit A: the sunken hot tub in what’s now the office. “We were like, ‘Gosh if these walls could talk…’” recalls Mendell. To kick off the meeting, the couple handed Holahan and Mendell a book on Deyrolle, the famously taxidermy-filled boutique in Paris. Bits aside, it was up to Studio Cabida to turn the place into the pair’s forever home.
How did you translate this couple’s fun-loving character to the design of the home?
Holahan: We asked them, ‘Can we go for it with color?’ And they were like, ‘Absolutely.’
Mendell: The mosaic tile in the entry started the story for the entire house, because there’s no consistency in the colors throughout the home. This was a nice baseline to say, ‘Welcome. Here we go.’ They had no interest in a white kitchen, which gives you a lot of information right away.
Is “no white kitchen” a request you’re hearing from other clients, too?
Mendell: I think people are more open to that now. (We’re actually doing a pink kitchen in Pacific Heights right now). There’s a trend toward not being super safe. I kept saying, ‘I think this red is going to read like a neutral,’ and it does. It’s not bright. It feels a part of the story of the architecture.
Were there any other challenges in this space you had to wrap your heads around?
Holahan: The kitchen has black and white marble [flooring] and then there’s a transition right after the island. So in the same room, you have hardwood and stone. There was a lot of communication and coordination with the builder to get the grout lines right, because we didn’t want a Schluter [trim] or any kind of interruption. We wanted grout against wood, and straight lines are very hard to achieve in old homes.
Mendell: We even had to think about how far the counter stools would pull out so they stayed on the marble.
Was the wall paneling in the dining room inspired by the home’s Craftsman roots?
Holahan: It’s funny because we took away a lot of the Craftsman [details] and then we added it back in. We wanted this space to be light and bright, because the two spaces that it’s connected to (the kitchen and living room) have really big color moments. This room needed something…but color was not the thing it needed.
Are you team rug in a dining room or no rug?
Mendell: It depends on how you’re using it. My dining room is our game room where we do LEGOs and play poker, so there’s a rug. But if it’s a space you’re eating in every day, I would do a really thin pile or no rug at all.
What’s your favorite paint color you used in this house?
Mendell: This might seem boring given that this is such a colorful house, but the Simply White walls throughout marry everything. It doesn’t feel stark against all the other colors.
It looks like there are some good antique scores throughout the house—any special finds?
Holahan: They have a very collected taste. There’s a console in the dining room that they found in Sonoma. The light in the solarium off the kitchen is vintage. A lot of the art came from one of the client’s moms. Sometimes, he would slip something in from Wayfair and be like, ‘It’s good, right?’ Then he’d return it…
This green living room is so soothing. Did you test a lot of paint colors to find this shade?
Holahan: We wanted to color-drench this room because of how heavy the millwork was. We wanted to make it quieter. I found the tile for the fireplace surround and then we just ran with it.
You have two different sofas in very similar shades. Did you reupholster those or was it just luck that you found them?
M: Good luck! Our clients love the hunt as much as we do. We turned them on to BBDW’s auctions, and these fell in our lap.
I love how low you hung the art in the corner.
Mendell: It’s fun to hang art in an unexpected place. There was a lot of conversation in the beginning about whether that was going to be a built-in below it. I drew it seven different times for seven different purposes (record storage, a bar, etc.). But sometimes built-ins just feel generic.
How did you picture your clients using this nook off the kitchen?
Holahan: The solarium or garden lounge, as we call it, was original to the house—we just painted it. We envisioned them having their morning coffee in here. It’s also the space you walk through to get to a little outdoor sitting area with a hot tub.
What purchase felt like a good save?
Holahan: They’re not inexpensive, but the light fixtures in the kitchen. We went back and forth looking at a big light, but we ended up going with these ones that are actually a little under-scale. The client was reticent about the size, he felt like they needed to have a larger diameter, but going small worked.
What’s the story behind the mural in the primary bedroom?
Holahan: We have a really excellent wallpaper installer. There was a very slight color discrepancy between the panels and she was like, ‘I can’t put this up.’ We had to have it all reprinted before we could hang them. There was a lot of perfectionism!
Was installing their bathroom sink a feat?
Holahan: The bathroom sink was like 600 or 800 pounds. It’s fully carved Nero Marquina. When it was delivered, the company dropped it in the driveway. Eventually, the clients had it craned into the house. We had to change the base of the vanity to be more structural and supportive because it was so heavy that it was tipping forward on the original legs.
It looks like there’s a ton of great storage in this bathroom.
Holahan: There’s not really a linen closet [in the house]. There’s the laundry room, there’s their closet, which is pretty small, and then there’s those cabinets. All their extra towels, toothbrushes, toilet paper—everything—goes in there. The vibe we were referencing was “London hotel.”
So, not a Best Western?
Holahan: It turns…not Best Western.
