|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Interior designer Suzanne Tucker is the co-founder of San Francisco firm Tucker & Marks. While her work can be found throughout the Bay Area, including inside homes along the Midpeninsula, Tucker’s influence in the design world extends well beyond the region.
She has been repeatedly lauded by Architectural Digest, who named her among the top 100 designers of the world, has won numerous awards and was the 2023 recipient of the Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York School of Interior Design. She’s released several books and also has branched out into home furnishings and other products, from shoes to dinnerware to textiles (including her just-launched fall 2024 line).
During a recent Q&A with this publication, Tucker shared a few insights into her love of textiles and antiques, some memorable requests from clients, her work in Palo Alto, and what she thinks is key to a successful design project.
Q: When taking on a design project, what are the most important elements you keep in mind?
A: The most important element in any design project besides a client’s personal preferences are scale and proportion. A room or a house can be completely off if the scale and proportion are wrong. Scale has to do with size and proportion with balance – and the ability to manipulate both is critical to achieving beauty and comfort in a room, a house, a garden. Unlike color and style, scale and proportion are not subject to individual tastes: Experimentation and experience are the best resources and the eye must be developed. When the scale of the pieces in a room is just right and works within the architectural proportions, the room sings, and it is blissful to be in it. The achieved harmony translates across every style and all tastes – casual or formal, modern or traditional, French, Italian, Japanese, English, you name it.
Q: How does a house’s architectural style influence your design work? Can you share with us any memories of working on the custom-built Spanish Revival style home in Palo Alto’s Crescent Park neighborhood that is currently on the market for $15.9 million? I understand that you incorporated reclaimed ceiling beams, handmade tiles and wrought iron fixtures to give the home an authentic look and feel.
A: The architectural style is absolutely influential to my work, and one cannot be separated from the other. After studying interior architecture, I toyed with the idea of going on to architecture school but the “real world” beckoned. How lucky am I that I get to work with some of today’s most gifted architects: Skurman Architects in San Francisco, Appleton Partners in Santa Barbara, Ferguson & Shamamian and Gil Schafer of Schafer Buccellato Architects in New York.
Tour the San Francisco Fall Show with Suzanne Tucker
Suzanne Tucker, award-winning interior designer and event chair, will highlight notable antiques and art pieces on display — as well as her personal favorites — during a special one-hour fieldtrip of the 42nd annual San Francisco Fall Show scheduled from 10 – 11 a.m, on Friday, Oct. 18. The international art, antiques and design fair features more than 40 dealers and is reportedly the longest-running event of its kind on the West Coast. The show takes place at Fort Mason on Oct. 17-20.
Working with architect John Northway of the Palo Alto firm Stoecker & Northway, this project in Palo Alto was a joy to design. It was all about creating a highly functional compound for a young family while honoring the neighborhood architectural style as well as working within the limitations. A room for every child, family and living rooms that opened up to the elements, light captured at every opportunity, a spacious lawn complete with a cabana, pizza oven and pool party planning were all part of the dream scheme.
Q: What are some of your most common design requests from clients?
A: Oodles of closet space and en suite bathrooms are on everyone’s lists. Functional kitchens versus enormous kitchens are preferred, spa environments are becoming more requested and garages with lots of storage … and separate dining rooms are making a comeback!
Q: Do any unusual projects or requests stand out in your memory?
A: I have designed my share of special custom rooms and projects. We recently transformed a dilapidated carriage house behind a San Francisco residence into a Parisian-style garden pavilion, the perfect spot for morning coffee, midday lunch or cocktail hour drinks (and even first kisses, or so we have been told). On a smaller scale, we have engineered a fire pole from an upstairs party room back down to a kitchen and designed hidden pullout steps in the pet pantry so the aging cat can reach his food on the counter and not be bothered by his bigger four-legged dog friends. Other than the stripper pole and urinals in every bath, we’ve pretty much accommodated every request!
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your product lines, including your textile line? What do you think are your signature style elements?
A: I have always had a great love for textiles. I studied them in college, always try to use antique pieces in my projects and have been collecting them for a number of years. My textile passion is constantly fed by my global travels (Sweden and India next year). It was a long-time dream to build a textile line, and it was also an obvious segue to my growing design practice. Besides the design aesthetic, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to the quality of fabrics. I work with mills all over the world to offer the best possible quality and craftsmanship, and I am especially drawn to truly handcrafted fabrics. In addition, we pay special attention to the finishing process, to enhance the overall feel, suppleness and “hand” (the way it feels when touched) of the textiles, a step that I feel is extremely important and too often overlooked.
Q: What advice would you give someone looking for a simple way to add a bit of style or revitalization to their home design?
A: Go for the unique! Every room needs something old – and you don’t want to be it! Whether it’s a charming vintage piece or a precious antique, the appeal lies in a patina only achievable with time, and their very imperfections speak of character and life lived. They activate our emotions and memories in ways more recently produced furniture cannot, and add instant personality to a room. So, here’s a shameless plug: Head on over to the 2024 San Francisco Fall Show on Oct. 17-20 at Fort Mason’s Festival Pavillion (I have been the show chair for the last 10 years).
For anyone interested in art and design, furniture and the decorative arts – buying, collecting, or simply learning about art and antiques – this show is not to be missed and offers four wonderful, vibrant days filled with terrific dealers, fascinating lectures, and gobs of eye candy.
More information is available at suzannetuckerhome.com.
