October 19, 2025For interior designer Marea Clark, transforming a recently rebuilt Queen Anne Victorian row house into a soulful, family-friendly home meant undoing much of what made it feel new.
“When we first saw the house, it was essentially a white box, and everything felt harsh and a little abrasive,” Clark recalls. Her clients, a young couple with two children, had purchased the developer-flipped, six-story residence in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood in 2023. Clark’s mandate from them was to infuse it with warmth and depth while preserving its breathtaking views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay.
The result is a 6,000-square-foot sanctuary infused with a sense of intimacy despite its generous size. “We focused heavily on materiality,” Clark says, explaining how she managed to accomplish that. “Layering in natural and textural materials, removing the synthetic stone in the kitchen and replacing it with marble with colorful veining, wallpapering various spaces, adding grasscloth rugs and other tactile finishes.”
Venetian-plaster walls and ceilings now reflect light — streaming through the large windows and emitted by fixtures from Urban ElectriC Co. and Liz O’Brien — across the top-floor living spaces, while below, family bedrooms, guest suites and a library each take on a distinct personality.
Throughout the interiors, Clark placed antiques and vintage pieces — like the foyer’s mid-century Italian chairs and the primary bedroom’s 1920s Just Andersen decorative bowl — which, she notes, “softened the newness of the architecture and introduced character.” Balancing those older elements are contemporary pieces by such makers as BDDW, Nickey Kehoe, Rose Tarlow, Robert Kime and de Gournay, whose craftsmanship and timeless sensibility nod to earlier eras.
The home’s art collection, assembled in collaboration with CHB Art Advisory, emphasizes serenity. “Thematic ties to nature, as well as a focus on color harmony, ensured that each piece complemented the rooms rather than overwhelmed them,” Clark says, pointing to the landscape photographs of the American West by Robert Adams and a suite of silkscreen prints by Jake Longstreth depicting pine trees. “Because we were selecting art and designing the interiors simultaneously, there was an ongoing dialogue,” she continues.
Clark’s favorite room is the library. “It has a lot of the qualities I love: layers, color, texture and pattern mixed in a way that feels classic and comfortable,” she says. “It’s the kind of space where you want to linger and that encourages connection and conversation. That’s always my goal.”
Here, she takes us on a tour of the home.
FOYER
“By combining soulful, artisanal pieces with carefully chosen antiques, the interiors feel layered and timeless rather than over-styled,” says Clark. She centered the foyer on an oak-and-brass mirror mounted over a waterfall console table with a pair of ottomans covered in a Michael S. Smith fabric underneath. Both the Italian mid-century chair and the antique Thai celadon ceramic piece came via 1stDibs.
LIVING ROOM
In the living room, Clark placed a sofa from A. Rudin, which she had covered in a Dedar weave, and complemented it with a set of circular oak coffee tables of varying heights. “The living room and dining room have insane views of the bay and an incredible sense of light,” she says. “The painting by April Gornik feels like another window to the outside and captures that connection and dialogue we were aiming for throughout.”
DINING ROOM
In the formal dining room, oak dining chairs surround a walnut table. The custom banquette is covered in a Kerry Joyce velvet. Holland Sherry drapes frame the views, and an oxidized-brass-and-crystal ceiling light hangs above. The artwork is by British photographer Richard Learoyd.
KITCHEN
Clark had the kitchen’s iron counter stools upholstered in a Holly Hunt fabric and hung Urban Electric pendants above. The Calacatta Viola marble’s expressive veining offsets the dark millwork and pale oak floors.
BREAKFAST NOOK
An upholstered banquette is the centerpiece of the cozy dining nook, which looks out to the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. Chairs by Robert Kime surround a custom oak table, while a vintage sconce from Urban Electric hangs on the wall. The artwork is by Kibong Rhee.
POWDER ROOM
A Gubi reedition of a mirror designed by Gio Ponti for Fontana Arte in 1933 forms a focal points in the powder room. The wallpaper reimagines French Art Deco and Wiener Werkstätte patterns from the 1910s, and the brass sconces are, once again, from Urban Electric.
FAMILY ROOM
A suite of silkscreen prints by artist Jake Longstreth lines the wall above a sectional sofa. The oak side table, sourced from Woodbridge, is topped by a mid-century glass lamp from Tarquin Bilgen.
LIBRARY
“We turned a random spare room into a library that doubles as a space for predinner cocktails, flowing directly into the formal dining room,” says Clark. A Nickey Kehoe chair sits across a lacquered coffee table from a custom BDDW sofa accented by throw pillows covered in a botanical print that matches the roman shades.
OFFICE
The office is anchored by an oak desk by San Francisco–based furniture studio Ted Boerner, behind which is a Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller office chair. In front of the bay window is a custom sofa from Lawson-Fenning.
PRIMARY BEDROOM
The primary bedroom was designed in a spare style, to keep the focus on the views through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Oak nightstands from Nickey Kehoe, topped by handmade ceramic lamps, flank an oak bed covered in Belgian linen. The hemp grasscloth wallcovering, by Phillip Jeffries, creates a sense of cocooned serenity.
