Looks fantastic. I love seeing Victorians with modern interiors, but still keeping some period details. I'm laughing that the founder of Blue Bottle Coffee is not afraid to admit that he chose a wrapping paper station over an espresso bar.....!
4
Imagine having to make the agonizing choice of whether to install a second espresso bar or a gift-wrapping station on your second floor. Relatable!
4
@Melissa Wayne have you looked at all the past "on location" articles? Like all the shelter magazines, it is really to highlight the work of designers or architects, which is an honor for them (they probably will mention on their portflio to get more clients). Most likely only rich people can afford such high end architect or interior designer (and produce high end enough to get featured). It isn't about being relatable. Why complain?
2
That kitchen is tiny! Where on earth do they put enough food for a family of five? Or plates, glassware, pots, etc?
@Kiki
Perhaps there's a pantry
1
I love all of the cameras hanging on the outside of the staircase.
1
I own a Queen Anne in Chicago with the traditional tiny rooms and heavy, dark stained woodwork and floors. I’m a preservationist at heart (and bought this house largely because so much was still intact), but it’s hard not to tear the walls down and paint over everything after viewing these photos. Well done.
1
Those dining chairs are unbelievably uncomfortable, even for short periods of time.
4
Wonder where Blue Bottle workers live?
Unless Mr. Freeman pays his workers six figures it's unlikely they can afford The City. If they did it would have been in an older neighborhood like Alamo Square, which abuts the Fillmore district that was historically (in SF it's the 60's to 80's) Black, both middle class enclaves as well as Brutalist public housing projects.
The City has replaced the block towers with low-income townhouses but a few years ago creeping siliconitis set in: early every weekday a line of fancy buses unmarked but for destinations like Genentech, Google, Apple, Facebook, Intel, etc., begin creeping up the hill towards the Square where mostly young, mostly white garbed in hip nerd/geek, are punching their morning prayers into smartphones as they shuffle on board their luxury coaches to toil another day disrupting and breaking things. Same scene all over SF.
Blue Bottle is a reputable employer but it sells boutique coffee and, even with Nestle owning part of it, I doubt if baristas or cafe staff earn what Apple or Google pay their workers to afford the rents SF landlords now charge.
Mr. Freeman could use better brand or pr counsel. Showing off a $500,000 do over after flipping a lower apartment for $1.35 million smacks of a mid-level Silicon Mogul, not a diligent craft food entrepreneur.
At least the mogul pays his worker bees enough to rent a hive in SF whereas Mr. Freeman's employees are lucky if they sleep in SF like Hobbes their dog does.
11
Wow. Skimped by selling the basement unit, and other in house scalebacks. And, definitely not planning on having the kids “boomerang” home later! LOL
1
We just returned from San Francisco and visited the Painted Ladies houses around the Alamo square. When I saw the picture, even before reading that it's in SF, I guessed it so I must have seen it.