Practicality Perfected: Palmer Weiss

By Donna Sapolin

San-Francisco-based interior designer Palmer Weiss grew up in Charleston, South Carolina where furnishings passed down over several generations often stand alongside aged collections and newly purchased items, filling homes with an air of unstudied charm. Weiss is no stranger to the painstaking efforts designers take to achieve an eclectic, years-in-the-making look and to the unfortunate result that can follow as priceless antiques radiate preciousness rather than the comfort of surfaces touched by human hands. But this down-to-earth mother of two takes a decidedly unselfconscious approach to creating an undecorated, lived-in look, one absorbed both through the easy elegance that colored the environments of her past and her mother’s own interior design practices.

In a case of the right brain needing to gain important ground in a left-brain driven life, Weiss came to the design field after several years of pursuing an MBA and working in the business arena.

An ongoing penchant for the practical is evidenced in her design schemes-in them, buoyant living is favored over perfection, and inexpensive objects are frequently paired with extravagant ones to both protect the bottom line and forge an atmosphere of unaffected grace.

In the living room Weiss designed for a co-worker she met while working as a merchant at the Gap, she gave a modern edge to the more traditional styling used elsewhere in the home. “Though the room has a classic look, everything in it is very clean, tailored and pared down,” she says of her design. A frequent entertainer, the homeowner sought a scheme that would be both formal and friendly, one that could stand up to the forays of two young kids and large groups of guests. Counterbalancing asymmetrical arrangements with carefully matched pairings, Weiss rooted the design in a palette of blues and greens expressed through intriguing fabrics. “That’s where it all begins for me,” she says.

To make the most of the sizeable room, Weiss decided to create two vastly different seating areas and avoid the typical surround-the-fireplace arrangement. At one of the space, Weiss dressed the windows in pinch-pleated drapes made of a silk fabric from Nancy Corzine and hung from Silk Trading Company’s antiqued gold rods. In front of the windows, the designer placed a roll-arm sofa covered in a green Osborne & Little velvet. She then layered a geometric design onto it using Samuel & Sons tape. “I don’t do fringes,” says Weiss.

“Taping is my signature way of adding interest without fussiness.”

I measured out the squares over at Belmar, my custom upholster, and about half way through the upholstery process changed my mind and made the bottom tape thicker.” Joining the sofa are a O. Henry House slipper chair dressed in a citron Fortuny cotton and nailhead trim and an armchair covered in a subtly textured pale yellow fabric from Travers. A pair of Christopher Spitzmiller lamps and pillows in a robin’s egg-blue Cowtan & Tout fabric add measured doses of symmetry.

She extended the sense of variety through texture with an antiqued metal chinoiserie coffee table sporting a painted wood top from Dennis & Leen, a wood side chair from Shears & Window, an antique round bouillotte side table from Habite Antiques, and on the other side of the sofa, a reproduction rectangular wood table from Whitford. An inexpensive glass-topped demilune table rests next to the armchair.

“Designing is like cooking in the sense that it’s best done with a smidge of this and a pinch of that.” The more pairs of things one uses, the fewer opportunities there are to mix things up.”

“I like to bring in different materials-from metal and glass to ceramic and wood-with both aged and fresh items. By blending in reproduction pieces, I can convey an old-world feeling with the exact sizes the scheme demands.”

On the opposite end of the living room, Weiss created a secondary seating area alongside glass doors leading to an outdoor grill. Here, she emphasized symmetry and a tighter scale for a simpler look. “I avoided a large-scale sofa so that the clients could pass through easily,” she says. An antique bench upholstered in a Greek key-patterned cut velvet joins Epoca’s spare antique chairs covered in sueded brown leather and Mecox Gardens’ brass-and-stone campaign tables. “The two areas are unified by the sisal rug from Stark, which covers the entire room, by the blue-and-white porcelain objects that appear on the mantel and on the wall, and by the golden finishes and the drapes, used at both ends,” says Weiss.

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Scroll down to read Decorati’s tête-à-tête with Palmer Weiss.

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How do you get started on a project?

I’m a big fan of the “picture is worth a thousand words” concept. I have binders of hundreds of images. I ask the clients to flip through and I listen to them talk about what they like and don’t like. I need to get them to dissect their responses to an image because when it comes down to it, they rarely like every aspect of a given room, even if they say they love it. When I hear a positive response, I may target the layout when, in fact, they may have been embracing the colors. So it’s best to get at this fact early on, before spending hours of time on the wrong track. I also encourage the clients to pull images themselves. Image combing is the best way to get at things-language, especially style labels, is far too nebulous.

PALMER’S DECORATI FAVORITES
Sculpture by Shine Home	Wallpaper by De Gournay	Bench by Ironies	Mirror by Erika Brunson Couture Living
Lamps by Christopher Spitzmiller, Inc.	Pendent by Brighton Collection	Textile by Michael Devine Home	Chair by Niedermaier
Armoire by Artifacts International	Side Table by Ironies	Textile by Peter Dunham	Sofa by A. Rudin

After this phase, I generally have a very good idea of where I need to go. I’ll advance to fabrics; I almost always start with a fabric. For me, it could be one that has pattern and I’ll start working off the colors, or I may begin with a palette in mind and find fabrics that express it. Then I layer a few more pieces on top of that, say some tortoise and some crystal lamps. I’ll devise two takes to show the client. Take A might have five fabrics I want to use, but I’ll rubber band and bring a stack of backup fabrics with me as well.

My job is to be the editor here-I have found that people don’t do well with tons of choices.

I don’t do presentation boards. So much of what I do I learned from my mom, who rolls in with a bag of fabrics and starts throwing things out in an informal way. The discussion with the client remains an open dialogue.

Palmer recently transformed an empty room into a sophisticated teenage girl’s sanctuary in this year’s San Francisco’s Decorators Showcase.

Will you work in just about any style-in accordance with the notion that a designer should not be putting forth her own?

I am not of the mindset that I should take just any client-I don’t subscribe to that at all. I’ve got a very definite sense of what my style and vision is and I can operate 25% to either side of that. If you like really stark modern, I’m not your person. If you don’t like any of the photographs I’ve collected of work I admire, then it’s doubtful that I would produce the best result for you. When the designer and client have similar tastes, it makes the designing process much more exciting and enjoyable for both parties.

What’s your approach to budget management?

Clients can tell me their pie-in the sky wish list and I’ll tell them what that will cost or they can give me a number and I’ll devise a scheme that works for that. The latter approach is best. But necessity really is the mother of invention. I’ll mix the high with the low to get the desired result. I call this the ‘Portfolio Approach to decorating’. I’ll tell a client where to pinch and scrape and where to let it rip. For example, I make almost everyone spend more than $500 on a pillow at some point. That cost stems from the fabric; I always inject a high-end animal print into my designs-one that probably costs between $750 and $1000 a yard. We might just use a yard on a single pillow or even on just one side of a pillow.

What inspires you?

Getting out and combing through antique stores. The other day, I spotted some huge cobalt blue porcelain ducks. I thought to myself ‘I could build a whole room around these’; a blue and purple palette came to mind. I get a lot of inspiration from fabrics, China Seas‘, for example. And, of course, nature inspires me. Fortunately, I live in San Francisco where we’re outside a good part of the year. Just think of the room you could create with the colors in a flower that has celadon leaves and bright orange petals dotted with pink. I also love the work of other designers. I consider Ruthie Summers an absolute genius. And I love the work of Miles Redd, Amanda Nisbet, and Jeffrey Bilhuber.

What else influences your work?

Being a mother of two young children, four- and two- years-old. That fact helps me not to take myself too seriously and has influenced my design by making me want to be more of a minimalist. Children come with so much stuff and that has prompted me to rein my style in and make it simpler and lighter. I am constantly asking myself: ‘What are smudgy fingers going to do this fabric? Will this get turned over? Can it hurt somebody?’ Of course, I don’t want anyone to live in a rubberized house; houses are meant to be lived in. They should be designed with a full life in mind.

Living Room Photographs by Laura Plageman.

San Francisco Decorator’s Showcase Photograph by Matthew Millman.

Family Room Photograph by Matthew Millman.

Resource List:

Living Room Images 1-2: Sofa by Belmar-Tedrick. Sofa Fabric by Osborne and Little, Varese in green. Trim by Samuel and Sons 977-27919-9002, Bellagio Border in sage/blue/taupe. Side Table Left- Antique. Side Table Right- Witford Vail JA-106 end table. Side Table Front- Owner’s collection. Coffee Table by Dennis and Leen, Bamboo Chinoiserie table DL-TB 16. Lamps by Christopher Spitzmiller. Drapes by Nancy Corzine #NC0310-294, Zhandara in Robin’s Egg.  Side Chair by Shears and Window (Loaner).  Slipper Chair by O. Henry House #340 Chair. Fabric by Fortuny, Severs No. 5358 Bayou-lime green and beige. Lounge Chair by Belmar, Romeo Chair. Fabric by Travers 402279, Buxton in yellow. Blue Pillow by Cowtan and Tout, #L2012-29 Shan in Wintergreen. Leopard Pillow by Scalamandre 26168-001, ivory, gold and black.

Living Room Images 3-4: Lamp- owner’s collection. Chair Left, Antique from Epoca. Chair Right, Antique from Epoca. Daybed Antique. Recovered by Belmar in Clarence house #34129-4 (Labyrinth, Brown). Mirror- owner’s collection. Drapes by Nancy Corzine #NC0310-294, Zhandara in Robin’s Egg. Art- owner’s collection. Wall Hardware by Heather and Company. Tables by Mecox Gardens, #FNT-GV-005: acorn, brass and marble small rectangular side tables.  Wall Decor by Tom Hayes, Chinese Blue and White Plates. Wall Decor by Toby West #1811 Pair of mid 19th c. Chinese blue and white lidded vases.

San Francisco Decorator’s Showcase: Canopy/Wall Fabric by China Seas, Banglore Paisley, New Blue on Tinted Linen. Sconces by Circa Lighting. Daybed- Custom 3/4 Bed created by Belmar. Fabric: Manuel Canovas #04574/02, Montego in Tourmaline. Coffee Table by Design Within Reach. Slipper Chair- Antique, recovered by Belmar in Keleen Leather. Ikat Pillow by Madeline Weinrib Atelier. Peace Pillow by Jonathan Adler. White Garden Stool from Bae. All other pillows- Custom made.

Family Room: Club Chairs by Travis Style #766. Fabric: China Seas #6310-03, Macao II, Jungle Green Multi. Tables by Bungalow 5, JAC-40 Jacqui Tea Tables. Sofa by O’Henry House Jordan Sofa #2012-80. Fabric: Dedar - #1037/16, Allure. Lamps from Past Perfect.  Shades by Cowtan & Tout, #J322F-11, Mina Yellow.