At Home on Nob Hill (continued)
San Francisco designer Jiun Ho's precision-crafted renovation of a landmark apartment makes room for family heirlooms and a collection of modern art
Like a curator, Ho combed through the homeowner's collections of vintage and antique furniture, objects and art to furnish the newly renovated rooms.
Many pieces are family heirlooms with great personal significance for Ho's client. The 18th-century oak side table in the living room was his childhood desk in Germany; as an infant he crawled on the rug that now livens up a sunny, glass-enclosed sitting area. Throughout the home, pairings of modern and traditional mix effortlessly: Mies van der Rohe chairs and a 19th-century French Empire mantel clock in the dining room, a marble-topped Saarinen side table, a bed from Poltrona Frau and a rustic wood armoire that belonged to the homeowner's parents and is now in the master bedroom. "Sometimes it's tricky working with antiques and pairing them with art, but everything the client had we really liked," enthuses Ho.
Also in the mix are new purchases from local vintage shops and antiques dealers; pieces from Ho's line of furniture and lighting; and custom-designed furniture, including the master bedroom's handsome walnut nightstands with cinnamon-hued brass accents (they hold lamps by George Kovacs). Completing the picture, so to speak, is the homeowner's top-notch art collection, which includes works by a range of important 20th-century painters, from Frank Stella to Donald Sultan and Keith Haring, and prints by the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Dine and Ellsworth Kelly.
For this Renaissance man, a home inspired by so many interests and tastes is the natural reflection of a complex mind.
What the Pros Know
As in many pre-World War II homes, the original fire- and mold-resistant interior walls of this 1930s San Francisco apartment were plaster over wooden lath. Jiun Ho's renovation added several new walls, which are made of drywall over metal studs. To make the new surfaces match the originals, Ho applied four layers of plaster to the drywall -- a process that took a month to complete (each coat had to dry for seven days and was sanded before the following coat could be applied). While he was at it, since the homeowner is an avid piano player, Ho installed R-13 foam acoustical insulation between the studs of the new walls. The insulation needed several days to dry before the drywall could be installed over it. The new walls were then painted -- in Benjamin Moore's popular Designer White. The original surfaces were in excellent condition and did not require any repair patching or even priming.
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