Moving towards the light
By Page Porter
DOWNLOAD PDF (0.4 MB)A San Francisco 
artist gave his1,000-square-foot Edwardian flat a major facelift when he opened it to the light that had been there all along. William Salit had a recurring dream. After months of disheartening house-hunting in the San Francisco Bay Area, he would lie in bed at night and dream about his favorite abode, a flat where he’d lived in the 1980s. He would draw lines in his imagination, picturing the perfect remodel. When he was awake, he would walk past the building and wish it would come up for sale. Then one day, it did. “People say you should live in a place before you remodel it,” says William, a graphic designer. “Well, Idid. I lived here for eight years, so I was ready. I launched right into the remodel the moment the house was mine.” Built in 1905, the building had survived earthquakes and had dodged any drastic changes by previous owners. “Everything was original in it. It was literally untouched space, with beautiful hardwood floors and cove ceilings, a huge skylight, and a stained glass window at the top of the stairs. The heart of the house had such great light.”William’s primary goal was to open the space and thereby spread the wealth of light. “I’m quite sensitive to light and openness and color,” he says.“Perhaps I’m more aware of those things because I’m a graphic designer.” He also was cognizant of the building’s historical beauty and the importance of retaining its character. “I wasn’t trying to force an old Edwardian into becoming a loft. I wanted to make some aesthetic changes, none of them too forced, and take advantage of all the nuances that were already here.” He began by hiring architect Michael Mullin, whose design aesthetic is similarly organic. “William, being a designer, was incredibly thoughtful through this whole process,” says Mullin. “He’d mapped out a blueprint on his own and turned it over to me, but his ideas were in sync with what I wanted to do with the space.” The blueprint involved removing a pantry and laundryroom in order to elongate the kitchen and open it to the sun porch, inviting in more light. A larger kitchen would allow space for a table for six, eliminating the need for a dining room. The flat’s obvious dining room would become his bedroom, while the former bedroom space, just off the living room, would become his office.“One of the things I knew I would do right away was to tear off the doors to open it all up,” says William. Where he chose to maintain doors—into the bedroom and the bathroom—they are sand blasted glass. With that kind of open floor plan, however, William had to find a solution to the problem of hiding his full-time home office from the rest of the house. “I really wanted to be able to put it all away at the end of the day and not think about it,” he says. But William wasn’t interested in off-the-shelf solutions, so he went to work on his own computer to design a series of storage spaces, cabinets, and movable doors that would allow him to make his office disappear after hours. “I was able to create a space that is fully functional, yet very organized,” he says. The design features two large wooden doors, wrapped with bands of aluminum, that swing open to expose the work space, and close to conceal it. A third door in the middle, covered in green laminate, breaks up the mass and slides open, obscuring the bedroom while William works. “For me, everything revolves around coming up with a unique solution for a unique problem,” William says. Take the bathroom, for instance. The tiny 5 1⁄2 × 5 1⁄2-footspace once included a miniature claw-foot tub, which occupied most of the room and left little space to stand at the sink. “I decided to do away with the tub, hard as it was to part with, and create an open shower.” The all-white tiled bathroom boasts a gentlysloping floor, which drains water away from the sink and toilet area. “The bathroom is so light it actually feels twice its size,” says William. While the bathroom is all white, the rest of the house wears flirtatious shades of green, butter yellow, and paleaqua. “I experimented with colors I felt were pleasing to my eyes. I didn’t want to grow tired of anything in my house. I wanted my home to invigorate me. That, of course, was my dream all along.”
artist gave his1,000-square-foot Edwardian flat a major facelift when he opened it to the light that had been there all along. William Salit had a recurring dream. After months of disheartening house-hunting in the San Francisco Bay Area, he would lie in bed at night and dream about his favorite abode, a flat where he’d lived in the 1980s. He would draw lines in his imagination, picturing the perfect remodel. When he was awake, he would walk past the building and wish it would come up for sale. Then one day, it did. “People say you should live in a place before you remodel it,” says William, a graphic designer. “Well, Idid. I lived here for eight years, so I was ready. I launched right into the remodel the moment the house was mine.” Built in 1905, the building had survived earthquakes and had dodged any drastic changes by previous owners. “Everything was original in it. It was literally untouched space, with beautiful hardwood floors and cove ceilings, a huge skylight, and a stained glass window at the top of the stairs. The heart of the house had such great light.”William’s primary goal was to open the space and thereby spread the wealth of light. “I’m quite sensitive to light and openness and color,” he says.“Perhaps I’m more aware of those things because I’m a graphic designer.” He also was cognizant of the building’s historical beauty and the importance of retaining its character. “I wasn’t trying to force an old Edwardian into becoming a loft. I wanted to make some aesthetic changes, none of them too forced, and take advantage of all the nuances that were already here.” He began by hiring architect Michael Mullin, whose design aesthetic is similarly organic. “William, being a designer, was incredibly thoughtful through this whole process,” says Mullin. “He’d mapped out a blueprint on his own and turned it over to me, but his ideas were in sync with what I wanted to do with the space.” The blueprint involved removing a pantry and laundryroom in order to elongate the kitchen and open it to the sun porch, inviting in more light. A larger kitchen would allow space for a table for six, eliminating the need for a dining room. The flat’s obvious dining room would become his bedroom, while the former bedroom space, just off the living room, would become his office.“One of the things I knew I would do right away was to tear off the doors to open it all up,” says William. Where he chose to maintain doors—into the bedroom and the bathroom—they are sand blasted glass. With that kind of open floor plan, however, William had to find a solution to the problem of hiding his full-time home office from the rest of the house. “I really wanted to be able to put it all away at the end of the day and not think about it,” he says. But William wasn’t interested in off-the-shelf solutions, so he went to work on his own computer to design a series of storage spaces, cabinets, and movable doors that would allow him to make his office disappear after hours. “I was able to create a space that is fully functional, yet very organized,” he says. The design features two large wooden doors, wrapped with bands of aluminum, that swing open to expose the work space, and close to conceal it. A third door in the middle, covered in green laminate, breaks up the mass and slides open, obscuring the bedroom while William works. “For me, everything revolves around coming up with a unique solution for a unique problem,” William says. Take the bathroom, for instance. The tiny 5 1⁄2 × 5 1⁄2-footspace once included a miniature claw-foot tub, which occupied most of the room and left little space to stand at the sink. “I decided to do away with the tub, hard as it was to part with, and create an open shower.” The all-white tiled bathroom boasts a gentlysloping floor, which drains water away from the sink and toilet area. “The bathroom is so light it actually feels twice its size,” says William. While the bathroom is all white, the rest of the house wears flirtatious shades of green, butter yellow, and paleaqua. “I experimented with colors I felt were pleasing to my eyes. I didn’t want to grow tired of anything in my house. I wanted my home to invigorate me. That, of course, was my dream all along.”