Residence San Francisco, California
Photo: Alan Weintraub

This 1927 Tudor house is surrounded by Eucalyptus forest in a secluded San Francisco neighborhood. The owners wished to convert what had once been the servants quarters below the main portion of the house into a luxurious and private master suite. The servants' dark kitchen, cut into the rocky hillside in back of the house, was to be converted into a comtemplative master bath. One large mullioned window provides all of the available natural light, as well as views of a private garden from the whirlpool tub. Garden night lighting is controlled from within the bath. Opposite the tub platform is a steam/shower room large enough for the whole family. The tub platform, the floors, wainscot and the steam/shower room walls are all tiled with cleft green Vermont slate. Two undermounted clear glass lavatory bowls are set into the polished granite vanity counter. A hidden cabinet door gives access to the space beneath these bowls, so that arrangements of flowers or ornamental stones can be visible through them. The cabinet drawer- and door faces are stained Honduran mahogany, its' reddish brown tone contrasting with the green slate and granite. A polished stainless steel towel bar spans between the sides of the vanity. Two medicine cabinets are set flush into the mirrored wall, their doors hinged opposite each other so that, when opened, they give an all-around view from a sitting or standing position at the counter.

	Residence Berkeley, California
Photo: Karen Melvin