In Hinduism, there’s this concept that who you marry, who’s born to you, and where you live is destiny,” says San Francisco–based designer Anu Jain, founder of Atelier Olana, who spent her childhood in India. “We walked into [this house] and we just knew. It’s like falling in love with somebody. I think we were destined to live here.” When she and her husband bought the house, “It was dark and it had all this ornateness. I knew that it was going to have to be more modern for me, but I loved the original bones of it—the wood carvings, the cremone bolts, the 100-year-old fireplace.”
So Jain embarked on what she calls “a cosmetic renovation-plus,” juxtaposing the 1920s home’s original architecture with modern lighting and a rich palette of color. “Growing up in Delhi, you’re exposed to centuries-old architecture, and then you also have these really contemporary buildings, so you get a love for the old and new mixed together. You don’t feel married to a certain era, and that’s very reflective of my design.”
“The dining room is one of my favorite spaces to design,” she adds. “When I was dating my husband, we fell in love with the fact that we both loved family dinners, and that’s something we hold really sacred,” she notes, especially now that the couple has two children. Swathing the room in apple green, with modern olive velvet chairs surrounding a classic trestle table, Jain chose a less-expected silk-lampshade pendant that hovers between modern and traditional. “I always tell my clients lighting is my love language,” she says.
Variations in green—from the walls to the velvet chairs to the ceiling—swathe the dining room in verdant hues that echo the views outside.
Alexandra Sapp & Pedro GarciaWhen designing for herself, Jain often falls in love with a piece and then designs a room around it. In the case of her bedroom, that was Schumacher’s Woodland Leopard velvet—“one of my favorite fabrics of all time”—which she upholstered on an old sofa. The dusky blue ground became the impetus for the color-drenched walls, trim, and ceiling, while the taupe and sand tones of the leopards influenced the curtains, rug, and bedding.
Anu Jain snuggles with her daughter in the living room, where she drew the color palette from the 100-year-old fireplace mantel, adding welcoming touches like the window seat.
Alexandra Sapp & Pedro Garcia“A great room has tension,” notes Jain. “It has texture, color, materiality—all speaking to each other. It has a point of view. I think a lot of times folks are afraid of using pattern and color because they want a space to feel soothing, but that’s a missed opportunity.” Another common mistake she sees is “too much going on. We can all benefit from editing our homes. Focus on a piece that really defines the room—a color, a wallpaper, a light fixture—and then edit around it.”
Since that fateful day when Jain and her husband first toured the house, it has “become like a fifth family member to us,” says the designer. “In many ways I feel like I’m a steward of the house. Whatever I’ve given to the house I’ve gotten back 10 times.”
