CALIFORNIA HOMES May 2006 DOWNLOAD PDF

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Green Room: For her glamorous and very much admired sitting room at last year's San Francisco Decorator Showcase, Martha Angus selected de Gournay wallpaper to
create an elegant backdrop to contemporary art, Swedish and French antiques, and a notable book collection. Angus's art: mixing witty contemporary art and furniture
with grand and classic décor.
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designer profile
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER FLACH
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Martha Angus
The San Francisco Interior Designer
Creates Chic New Decor With A
Modern Attitude
BY DIANE DORRANS SAEKS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW MILLMAN
I
n the last decade, Martha Angus and her San Francisco-based
firm, Martha Angus Inc, have carved out a special niche in the
decorating world. Angus, an art collector, has become a design
favorite with art gallery owners and art connoisseurs. One of her
design signatures is her fresh mix of major paintings with witty
new works of art on paper, in pared down interiors.
In Angus’s world, contemporary paintings and exceptional
collections of English and continental antiques are showcased in
crisp, pure rooms. They feel as cool and comfortable as a classic
white linen jacket on a summer day.
Martha Angus is known for her elegant, urbane interiors
and for the worldly and polished style she applies to city apartments and grand houses around the Bay Area. She founded
Martha Angus Inc. seven years ago and has become the design
darling of young couples embarking on their first house, as well
as leading art collectors and art museum patrons.
One example of Angus’s work is her family’s apartment on
Nob Hill. It’s a welcoming mix of fine antiques from Therien &
Co, and iconoclastic etchings by Chuck Close.
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designer profile
When Angus and her husband, photographer Christopher Flach, built their handsome
new house in the vineyards just north of St.
Helena, friends and admirers were curious to
see how she would translate her polished city
approach to country living.
“I wanted the architecture to have a timeless neoclassical feeling without the country
clichéés,” says Angus, who worked with her colleague, building designer Phillip King Parton,
on the plans. “From the first sketches and conceptual drawings and early discussions with
Phillip, we worked to pare down the interiors, to
keep them plain and simple, and to give the
rooms a restful, serene feeling.”
Today her country house as well as her
light filled city apartment are setting the pace
for dynamic new interiors.
Neutral Mood: For a San Francisco Decorator
Showcase that took place in the historic Presidio,
Martha Angus painted the living room walls in a pale
and soothing taupe tone. In contrast, she chose
graphic art, and a spirited mix of earthy and fine
antiques, along with shapely upholstered pieces.
Q & A With Martha Angus
Pauline de Rothschild inspired our green sitting
room in last year’s San Francisco decorator showcase. It was an “indoor garden” with gorgeous
jade green wallpaper by De Gournay. The paper,
CH: When precisely did you commit yourself to
Estee Lauder (another former boss) always gave
which has the look of antique French handpainted
a design career and found your own firm?
me tips on how Mark Hampton or the Duchess
wallpaper, is a device I use as often as possible. It
MA When I graduated from Carnegie Mellon
of Windsor would do things. The tales were such
is available from Sloan Miyasato, at the San
University in painting, I had to figure out what in
fun, very insider, and I learned a lot from them.
Francisco Design Center. www.degournay.com
the world was I going to do. My mother sug-
She showed me how to use blue and white
gested decorating.
Fortuny everywhere and even ruched it on lamp-
CH Who has been a mentor to you?
CH: Which are the favorite rooms you have
shades with ruffles or pompoms. It was chic then
seen on your travels? France? Anywhere?
and still sounds so chic and fun today.
MA: At Malmaison, in the Paris suburbs, I adore
MA: The late Naomi Leff of Naomi Leff &
the Pavilion d’Ete. I love the hexagon shape and
Associates, in New York City. She was an
CH: Which designer has inspired you the most?
the simple banquettes which so simple and so
absolute genius. She did such a range of design
MA: I love David Hicks—pop art colors meets
elegant. www.chateau-malmaison.fr.
yet was not tied to any one specific style. She
classicism. He deftly combined contemporary art,
TheVilla Kerylos, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on
could—and did—do it all. The late, great Mrs.
antiques, classic interiors and fabulous color.
the Cote d’Azur. It is a reproduction of a classic
DESIGNER PROFILE CONTINUED ON PAGE 72
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