All Kinds of Pets in Kentfield
The first email contact was the kind we love: frank, funny and a tad embarrassed. There was a sort of situation…there were reptiles. Plural. And a cat and a dog and three teenage girls. And parents with very active work schedules that often took them out of town.
We thought we’d seen everything, but we’ll admit to swallowing hard on first viewing. The house was large and light and lovely, but everyone had been awfully busy for the last 13 years – since they’d moved in. The Ikea living room furniture had held up quite well, but they were ready for grown-up life.
Mom – Natalie – wanted to keep costs down. She was thinking Crate & Barrel, not some custom -made hoo-ha from the SF Design Center. We knew what she meant.
The three girls’ rooms came first. The eldest is the reptile fan, and the creatures had been acquired in a scattershot fashion, which meant that there were enclosures in every square inch and almost no room for the girl. We ordered new, specialized housing for all her scaly friends – beautiful white and glass boxes that stacked floor to ceiling.
Next came excavation, and we don’t use that term lightly. The amount of stuff a teenage girl can gather defies the imagination, and much – most of it – had to go. Alice is a culling and organizing wizard, so she led the charge. It seemed that crickets – meant for a reptile’s dinner – had escaped and multiplied. Enough said…she handled it, with great aplomb.
Mom thought she was going to select the girls’ new furniture – but mom, no way. Home psychologists to the rescue! After long talks and Zooms with each of the girls individually – each had very specific, age-appropriate taste -- we developed mood boards for each room, got mom’s approval and ordered. Paint, new shades, hulking doors off those closets (open, they took up half the room), replaced with bright curtains.
The girls’ shared bathroom had limestone tile (a terrible choice for practically anywhere) and it was faded, stained and pitted. Our tile guy pulled us through, with new large beige porcelain tiles that nothing can damage. New lighting, new geometric patterned towels and bathmats – a whole new look.
When we – Cathryn and Alice – were deemed “cool” by these three teenage girls, we understood that there was no higher form of praise.
Next came new carpet throughout the upstairs and guest room level, and new light oak engineered wood for the main floor. It was starting to feel like a different house.
Natalie’s home office did not suit. She’d been working on an ancient kids’ PB desk. We selected some sophisticated wallpaper, ordered a built-in library wall complete with library ladder, added a cowskin rug, an elegant desk and a perfect armchair. New lighting completed the picture.
By then, it was evident that Family Friendly Designs would be re-doing every room in the house. The primary bedroom posed a challenge – it was to be serene, neutrals only. We were going to have fight boredom here with texture, and we did –with a warm wood four-poster bed, dresser and two nightstands, a pair of rough-hewn concrete lamps, floaty linen curtains, a steel-gray armchair, a bed piled high with luxurious linens and pillows – and finally, a single wall, behind the bed, of black, cream and brown abstract floral Swedish wallpaper that took us from meh to oh my gosh.
We redid the primary bathroom as well – new lighted mirrors, sparkling shiny nickel faucets, new towels and mats – even had the marble counter tops resurfaced.
The girls and the reptiles are happily settled, and mom and dad are sleeping serenely, while we work on the rest of the house. The family room, once home to a sectional that had seen much better days, is completely refreshed, with a two-chaise sectional, a big furry Moroccan rug on order, a couple of sexy swivel chairs, and a set of nesting coffee tables that give everyone a place to put down that cup of coffee or marshmallow fluff treat. Fortunately, all fabrics are performance.
The kitchen – certainly our biggest project at this house – is almost finished, with all new cabinet door and drawer fronts and new pendant lighting. We’ll post more pictures when it is.
Ditto on the living room – our last stop in this house. Everything’s been ordered from our favorite vendors, all of whom provide hefty trade discounts – and now, we wait…
Perhaps the biggest pleasure for us has been watching Natalie go from a no-involvement “please just get it done,” to “I’m now a design freak, hanging out on IG.” That’s exactly what we want to see happen.
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“I had tried working with more “full service” (read: fancy) interior design firms and had bailed out, feeling overwhelmed, over-fussed, and overpriced, with no idea of what the plan was or why the proposed costs were so high.
I discovered FFD simply enough, on Next Door, and once I visited the website, I had a strong sense that this was exactly the help our family needed. Meeting Cathryn for the first time sealed the deal – creative, pragmatic, efficient -- and with the sense of humor that all such endeavors require to make the process fun.
What stands out from our first two-hour meeting was the efficiency with which we were able to get down to business – identifying my top priorities, articulating our parameters, and developing a work plan in the moment. It appealed to all my executive sensibilities about what’s needed for good execution. I signed up on the spot.
We had seven reptiles and amphibians living in a 10x10 foot room, along with my 17-year old daughter. My two other daughters also had bedrooms that needed a complete re-do. There was general wear-and-tear all over the house from 13 years of hard use by a family of five – the hardwood floors, the bathroom tile, some mysterious leftover smell in my very inadequate home office, which needed EVERYTHING.
The organizing and culling process was daunting. Alice and Cathryn made it as painless as possible– bringing supplies, an extra set of hands, a big truck for dump runs, and help with donating things that could live another life with a new family.
The scope creep was somewhat inevitable – we had a three-tiered workplan from the beginning, and as one element of the house was updated, it became clear that its neighboring elements could also use some help. The house slowly transformed from a cobbled-together-over-the-years mishmash into a cohesive home. It was fun to get inspired and develop my own sense of style.
I LOVE working with Cathryn. We developed an easy rapport and were very candid with each other about design choices – both what I liked and didn’t like, and also what I was ok spending more money on (e.g. beautiful hand-made rugs from Morocco) and what I was not (e.g. window treatments). When my work became consuming, Cathryn stepped up and stepped into take a more directional role.
Cathryn was great about finding alternatives that saved the budget but are still beautiful and function well. The kitchen is completely transformed and is completely fabulous. My office is now exactly the way I’ve always dreamed. And the Moroccan rugs – they aren’t even here yet, but I love them already.
FFD handled our family dynamics and needs exceedingly well – we have some tactile sensitivity in our family, and Cathryn quickly understood what sorts of textiles would work best for us.
The most challenging element of the workflow was scheduling the big, disruptive projects when we needed to be out of the house to coincide with our planned vacations. We had a major family health emergency come up just as the hardwood floors were scheduled to be replaced. Cathryn and team were able to work with the vendor to make sure the project was finished ahead of schedule so we could get back into our house as quickly as possible.
Having in-house art expertise has been a great additional service. I had admired a local artist’s work for years, and Alice was able to negotiate the purchase, handle framing and installation for us. The painting makes me smile every time I walk past it.
The FFD team – Alice and Cathryn--are dogged in their problem solving. When we couldn’t quite get the stain right for the kitchen cabinets, Alice went above and beyond – multiple backs-and-forth with the vendor, buying and trying their own stains, identifying a hardwood stain specialist in Berkeley as a last-resort solution, which wasn’t needed. The end result is perfect and stunning – literally and figuratively the center of our home.”
— Natalie
