VICTORIAN UNBOUND
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Contractor
Essex General Contractors

Photography
Aaron Leitz

This beautiful Victorian home received an unsympathetic remodel in the 1990s, which JKA set about undoing by gutting the house, restoring it to its original splendor, and modernizing it along the way. The dining room and kitchen doorways were enlarged, as was the kitchen window to afford a more generous view of the backyard.

New floors, doors, hardware, and custom cabinetry were installed alongside vintage lighting – a nod to the building’s past. The kitchen, which underwent a dramatic transformation, features dark soapstone countertops and a walnut-topped island, recalling the traditional while living solidly in the present. Dramatic blue paint in the dining room is an ideal background for the client’s burgeoning map collection, and a painstakingly restored period fireplace mantle in the living room sets the tone for the home, which radiates a feeling of burnished warmth.