West Portal

San Francisco, USA

Single Houses

Architects: Piechota Architecture

Location: San Francisco, USA
Year: 2010

On a residential street in San Francisco’s sleepy, friendly West Portal neighborhood, a small residence becomes a warm, refined oasis. Custom millwork of rich, vertical-grain cherry wood and flooring made of golden oak line the entire interior, carefully threading spaces together. In the kitchen, the cherry wood marks cabinets and drawers, and even the underside of a stark-white melamine island that choreographs movement through the space. Moving toward the adjacent dining room, the cherry wood makes a graceful appearance as the thin edge of the deep threshold that links the two spaces.

In the living space, the warm oak floors fold up into a stair, shielded partially by a wooden screen, that leads up to the more private rooms. Cool beige tile in the kitchen, oatmeal curtains in the bedroom, and gray chairs in the dining room offset the wood’s warm glow and give the eye a place to rest before the lively wood grain picks up again and spills out onto a back porch, ultimately connecting the refuge of the home with its neighborhood.