Suzanne Tucker is not one to shy away from a challenge. “I don’t take no for an answer,” she admits. “when I’m told something can’t be done, I keep digging, I keep asking why not. There is often a way, you just have to get to the root of it and then you can decide if it’s worth it.” So, when presented by clients with a California coastal beach house that was bought purely for location and had much to be desired aesthetically, she jumped in. “It was very uninteresting architecturally,” says Tucker. “it had been remodeled 20 years earlier and it was someone else’s dream, definitely not my client’s. They wanted the house to evoke a local aesthetic, which was more akin to California Spanish style. They asked, ‘is it possible to make this house more Mediterranean in style?’” Of course, to Tucker, anything’s possible.
Partner in the renowned San Francisco interior design firm, Tucker & Marks, Tucker is considered one of the top designers in the world, having been named to the best-of-the-best A-lists in the most important industry magazines, and winning more awards and honors for her work than I can list here. Talking to her about design is a master class in the subject, and her enthusiasm and knowledge is infectious. Our conversation kept swaying to properties she has designed around the world and after a tangent on sublime doorknobs or beautiful grill work, we would find our way back to the beach.
The Bones
“I always start by looking at the bones of a house,” she explains. “the scale of the room, ceiling height, window openings, doorway openings, the actual structure; every house has a skeleton.” Tucker feels any home can be re-invented. “A Georgian house can be turned into French,” she says, “a Victorian can become modern. It has to do with details, ratios and proportions. Is the scale of a room good? If you only have 8’ ceilings and there is a floor above, you can’t raise them, but you can correct proportions. There is a sense when you enter a room, where it feels comfortable or not, that has to do with scale. A small powder room with very tall ceilings is not comfortable–you’ll feel like you are in the bottom of a well. Proportion and scale are huge in a home–it’s the classical order of things, ancient or modern –Vitruvius,” she explained, referencing the Roman author and architect who wrote of ‘perfect proportion in architecture’ in his multi-volume work de architectura which architects still reference today.
For the beach house, they decided to take the house down to the studs. Why not just tear it down and rebuild? Isn’t that easier? I asked. “Remodeling is decidedly more expensive,” she said, but you have to look at the tradeoffs: with a rebuild, there are permitting issues and you may not be able to build on the same footprint or so close to a property line. To me it’s really fun looking at a remodel because it’s like a puzzle to be taken apart and put back together. But it can be like Pandora’s box, as you find things once you take it to the studs–you have to be prepared, both financially and emotionally.” With clients, I don’t speak about budgets as much as “comfort zones”. There is a psychology to it,” she shares.
The plan was to make the house more charming, and make it blend into the area. “It was a full transformation stylistically,” says Tucker. “We brought in old beams to make it look like a much older house, with elements of Spanish vernacular architecture: a clay tile roof, plaster walls, iron hardware. I couldn’t raise the ground floor ceiling, but I could drop down further into the living room to increase the ceiling height that way. There was a slope to the property that allowed us to do that and we gained an extra foot of height; It needed it because we opened it up to make quite a wide, spacious living room with multiple seating areas.”
Inspiration
Any great design starts with inspiration. And for Tucker, travel has always been a big source. She takes tons of pictures, sometimes buys things just for the color, feel or texture or does quirky things like take a piece of moss or tree bark and bring it home if she likes the color, or texture to recreate the look and feel in a textile for her Suzanne Tucker Home line. “I always say travel, travel, travel as much as you can, especially when you’re young. Now that we’re not able to travel at all, I have found old photographs from 15-20 years ago and I revisit past trips: that doorknob, those steps. These days, I have been travelling virtually with my books and pictures,” she shares.
Another source of inspiration is the local region of the property she is working on. For the beach house, this was easy as the surrounding area was the stunning California coastline. The indigenous environment is a crucial element to good design, and Tucker starts with that to create a color palette. “I look locally” she says. “What’s the overriding style of the neighborhood? You don’t want to create something that is completely out of place. What’s the regional architecture, the feel of the area, the native landscape?
Starting Point: The Common Thread
Tucker starts most projects looking at the overall property before concentrating on individual rooms and details. “I look at the house as a whole in terms of flow- I want it to come together appropriately, the rooms need to have continuity,” she says. “In a smaller house this is especially important. When you are visually experiencing rooms together, you need to have harmony; you can’t go from dark stained floors to bleached floors. It’s not about paint color, it’s more about what’s the common thread. We put in rusticated beams to make it look older, so we made sure those beams, in the same color were throughout the house.”
Layout, Balance & Flow
Tucker starts every project with three crucial elements: Layout, Balance and Flow. “These three are hugely important;” she says. The furniture layout comes first. Tucker wanted the furniture to have an aspect of funkiness, with a wonderful age and character to them. To accomplish this, she searched from California to New Orleans to New York to Atlanta and always custom makes her own upholstery to the scale of the room. “It’s about anchoring soft goods with hard goods,” she says. “How many legs are there? You don’t want too many legs in a room. Some things need air and space, and some need to go to floor. We spent a year and a half collecting furniture, one-of-a-kind antiques, high and low, which makes it feel more accessible. They wanted it to be approachable for friends and kids; for people to feel they can come in from the beach in a bathing suit with sandy feet and sit down and be comfortable.
Once she has done the furniture layout, Tucker turns her focus to balance, or more specifically, what’s balancing a large room? “So the room doesn’t tilt,” she explains. How will the room be weighted? With an 8’ painting on a wall? A grand piano? The key is keeping it both open and intimate.”
Finally, the all-important flow. “In the case of the living room, we defined how we wanted the room to flow, where we wanted to pull people and where you would be drawn to at different times of the day. We anchored either side of the room with two area rugs,” she says. Laying out the kitchen, we wanted to be able to be in the kitchen and at the same time engage with everyone in the living room.”
Focal Points
Every room has a focal point, but Tucker explains, multiple focal points can be challenging. “With a project that’s under construction I have to look at site lines. Are we looking down a hallway? Is there a fireplace? A view? A television? Ideally you don’t want those on three different walls in a small space. You have to consider it all. Do I want verticality? That can be achieved through long curtains or a four-poster bed. Or do I need to bring it down—roman shades, for example, which are horizontal? Bad architecture and proportions can be vastly improved by good design, and vice versa.”
Color and Texture Balance
Color balance is important to Tucker and that means too much of a good thing takes away from the overall effect. “You don’t want everything smooth and shiny,” she explains. “You want to catch the light; I like the yin and yang; I love to put sleek with texture, warm with cool. Look at how warm colors are complimented with cool colors; this is the success of layering. If you have a blue sofa with a blue pillow on it, it can be fine. But if you put a warm color, it will have a wonderful juxtaposition; it’s color and light.” Color sets the conversation of the room—”you can’t have all blue over here with all orange over there—you need to bring one color to the next,” she says.
And for Tucker, color is where the regional landscape most profoundly comes in. What are the colors outside? For this property it was the blues of the water and sky, the sand, driftwood, seaweed, grey fog, and the local trees– thanks to the talented garden designer, Elizabeth Everdell, “we were able to place an old growth olive tree just outside the living room,” she says “and we pulled in those tones, and the silvery greens of the olive leaves. All these tones from the surrounding environment, that is the color palette right there. And for color, light is the most important factor as it changes the tonalities depending on the time of day. I always need to consider light when I look at colors, and what direction the room is facing. Is it northern light, warm western light? This affects color” she says.
The Color Test
With clients, to find their favorite colors, Tucker starts out with her version of a simple Rorschach test. “I will hold up different fabrics or images and see how they respond. I can tell more from what they don’t like that what they do, their expressions and reactions. The obvious question is ‘what’s your favorite color?’ Most people can answer this. But I go further–I ask why do you love it, is it the texture, feel, emotion? It’s hard for people to free their mind that way. There is a lot of psychology behind it. I listen to people differently; in my job, you have to be a really good listener. My staff call me the ‘client whisperer’, I will get into their heads and figure out what resonates with them.
When in Doubt
I asked Tucker what design mantra she follows with every project. She shared a simple piece of advice from her former mentor, the legendary interior designer Michael Taylor: “When in Doubt, Take it Out“. If something is not resonating correctly, if something is not sitting right, listen to your gut,” she explained. “If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. I am not too proud to tell a client I have changed my mind.”
Tucker is quick to recognize her crew. “As with any of my work, I can’t take all the credit because it truly does take a remarkable team of creative minds and supportive staff around me,” she says. “The builders Schultz Construction were fantastic and brought marvelous local craftsmen to the project. And my own creative team of senior designers, Amanda Ahlgren and Alex Hobbs, were simply stellar to have by my side every inch of the way!” The final home was a transformation. “I wanted it to feel easy and relaxed, very approachable,” she says. “ My clients love the house; it is definitely well-used.”
Top Image of Exterior (back of house): Outdoor seating by Janus et Cie with cushions in Perennials, outdoor loveseat with canopy by Dunkirk, 19th century Burmese rain drum tables, limestone slab floor. Photography by Roger Davies
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Didi Granger
Love this article. What a transformation! I’m a huge fan of seeing before and after photos. So inspiring. I particularly loved hearing about Suzanne’s process. Thanks for sharing!
Ariane Trimuschat
Thank you! I’m so glad you liked it.
Olivia T
Wow! I love this post that you did, you added a lot of detail in your writing and i think you should write a book someday! You have inspired me greatly.
Olivia T
Wow! I love this post that you did, you added a lot of detail in your writing and i think you should write a book someday! You have inspired me greatly.