#edwardian-architecture

#edwardian-architecture

The house is packed with charm, and its spirit was felt by Emily the moment she first saw it. "I'd just had Bea, and through the sleep deprivation I could see very clearly that this house was fully magic," she writes, explaining that it reminded her of the "glowing family life" set designs of Richard Curtis, something she wanted to emulate. "A family house where I could tie balloons on the gate for birthdays and enough space for learning to ride a bike."

When a project involves young kids, interior designers know they're striking a delicate balance between sophistication and sheer survival. Behind-the-scenes essentials-stain resistance, sturdiness, safety-quietly shape the most polished rooms. The fantasy, of course, is to have an ivory cashmere-covered sofa-and to let the kids eat cake while sitting on it, too. Lauren Geremia of San Francisco-based AD100 firm Geremia Design had both goals in mind when designing the richly hued, intriguingly layered interiors of this historic house in the city's Pacific Heights neighborhood.

The elevated plain just north of Van Cortlandt Park was transformed into a neighborhood of winding and leafy streets with commodious dwellings beginning in the late 1880s. The opening of a train station nearby offered easy access and the developer behind the neighborhood, the American Real Estate Company, added a further enticement by installing an elevator from the station to their new neighborhood on the hill. They enthusiastically pitched their project in booklets, ads, and advertorials with the promise of relief from tiny city homes.

The shimmering, ceramic-clad, entrance of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway matched the ambitious, Baroque revival South Eastern Railway side, with its heroic-scaled figurative sculpture.