The Hillsborough Residence, originally a 6,000-square-foot mid-century structure in the San Francisco Bay Area, had suffered through incongruent remodels. Rather than erase this palimpsest of architectural interventions, Studio AHEAD – the San Francisco-based interior design firm led by creative directors Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia – collaborated with acclaimed architects Marmol Radziner to orchestrate a comprehensive transformation. This partnership between interior and architectural vision allowed the team to weave disparate elements into a cohesive narrative about place and belonging.
Rajai and Dendiberia created encounters between objects separated by continents and centuries. A Pierre Chapo chair from 1960s France is mixed with contemporary ceramics by West Marin artist Nathan Lynch. Bauhaus master Josef Albers’ geometric works hang alongside the organic forms of JB Blunk’s carved wood sculptures. The dining room’s mobile chandelier by Michael Anastassiades embodies the husband’s interest in astronomy, while custom rugs designed by the studio create rounded edges that psychologically soften the transitions between spaces.
Throughout the home, ceramics serve as both functional objects and sculptural anchors. Pieces by Berkeley potter Peter Voulkos, founder of the university’s ceramics program, share space with Heath Ceramics tableware and vessels by contemporary artists like Ben Peterson and Liza Riddle. The neutral backdrop of walls and ceilings painted in Farrow & Ball’s Clunch No. 2009 allows these earth-toned vessels and sculptures to resonate with particular clarity.
The project’s most striking achievement lies in its treatment of the primary bedroom, where floor-to-ceiling windows dissolve the boundary between interior and exterior space. As further described by the designers: “No matter how one placed the bed against the walls, the magnificent vistas outside the window could not be seen if lying in bed. So we positioned the bed in the middle of the room, then designed a custom bedframe with built-in desk behind the headboard. A large painting by Gordon Onslow Ford, invited by Andre Breton to join the Surrealists and long-time resident of Inverness where he was friends with J. B. Blunk, watches over sleeping humans who set off every night on a dream voyage to the subconscious.”
For more information on Studio AHEAD, visit studioahead.com.
Photography by Ekaterina Izmestieva.
