Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, we look to our neighbor Mexico and recognize the architect and landscape architect Luis Barragán (1902-1988). Barragán's color-saturated geometric buildings etch the contemporary architectural consciousness.
Read MoreDesign Associate Wyatt Shigley started as a Design Assistant at COUPAR a little over three years ago. Wyatt segued effortlessly into the role with a B.A.S. in Interior Design from Colorado State University and nearly nine years of visual merchandising experience. One of his current projects is a four-story Pacific Heights Edwardian designed by Julius Kraft, and another is a contemporary ranch house in Portola Valley.
Read MoreHow do young connoisseurs collect now? Art historian, designer, and author Michael Diaz-Griffith explores this topic in his book The New Antiquarians: At Home with Young Collectors. His compendium will be one of the books featured at the COUPAR-sponsored Authors' Alcove during The San Francisco Fall Show.
Read MoreBefore The San Francisco Design Center’s development in the 1970s, interior designers frequented "To the Trade" showrooms North of Market in historic Jackson Square. Just as it took vision, ingenuity, and hard work to transform SOMA's vacant warehouses and factories into a design mecca, so did the restoration of the neglected Classical Revival and Italianate commercial buildings in Jackson Square.
Read MoreLead Project Manager Mary Eaton has been with COUPAR for over four years and comes from an interior design background. After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Design from High Point University in North Carolina, she immersed herself in the industry, working at various San Francisco Bay Area firms. Now she is a vital asset to our Studio team, helping guide projects from beginning to end.
Read MoreJune is Pride Month for the LGBTQ+ community, and COUPAR profiles the "King of Hollywood Regency," William "Billy" Haines (1900 – 1973). Haines was an accidental interior designer. The Virginia native came to Hollywood via New York City, where he lived openly as a gay man in bohemian Greenwich Village, working as a model.
Read MoreWabi Sabi, the ancient Japanese philosophy of using organic materials with natural imperfections and embracing authenticity, originated in the 15th century. Wabi translates to living with humility and simplicity while being unified with nature, while sabi refers to accepting the lifecycle of anything, even with all its flaws.
Artist, furnishings designer and landscape architect, Isamu Noguchi (1904 to 1988) straddled Western and Eastern cultures; born in Los Angeles to an American mother and a Japanese father. His father, Yone Noguchi, was an acclaimed poet who settled in the bohemian San Francisco Bay Area for seven years. He eventually traveled to New York City and met editor and writer Léonie Gilmour.
Read MoreSenior Lead Designer Paige Bellante has been with COUPAR for over three years and nimbly transferred her skills in visual merchandising to interior design. The Northern California native worked for companies such as Anthropologie and Nordstrom for eight years.
Read MoreThe 44th San Francisco Decorator Showcase opens to the public on April 29th. While Sea Cliff is the address for this Spanish Revival estate, Pacific Heights was home to the first Showcase.
Read MorePhotographer Cecil Beaton captured Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl (1865-1950), wearing her "Apollo of Versailles" velvet cape in her Paris apartment during the late 1930s. Elsa Schiaparelli designed the one-of-a-kind couture piece for de Wolfe to reference her taste for eighteenth-century fashion and the spectacular. It also celebrates the Apollo Fountain and its proximity to the interior decorator and socialite's home, Villa Trianon, in the Parc de Versailles.
Read MoreAaron Douglas (1899-1979), a significant African American figure in the Harlem Renaissance, was a Renaissance man, painter, illustrator, visual arts educator, and philosopher. New York's Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s was the focus of black intellectual and cultural activity.
Read MorePantone has announced its color of the year for 2023: Viva Magenta. This vibrant, bold hue possesses an undeniably strong energy.
Read MoreRené Gregorius and Stephanie Pineo, aficionados of early antique furnishings, craftsmanship, and design, opened their Los Angeles business Gregorius/Pineo in 1984 at the back of a North La Cienega Blvd storefront. They later moved to an elegant showroom at 651-653 North La Cienega Blvd. Interior Design Hall of Fame honoree Melvin Dwork told Architectural Digest almost ten years later, "Gregorius/Pineo is one of the best places out there."
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