Camino Del Mar, San Francisco, California
Often when a well-known person's home shows up in a magazine, it means he's going to sell it. You can't beat that kind of advertising.
That's exactly what happened with this "bungalow by the bay" in San Francisco.
The bungalow is actually a 4,165 square feet Mediterranean-style house on the South Bay that was built in 1927. It was bought in 2008 by a venture capitalist couple. It was "neglected but full of potential" at that time, so the couple brought in designer Ken Fulk to realize that potential.
And boy, did he. Ken has a flare for the theatrical and bills himself as a bit of a magician with design. The house turned out well enough to be featured in C Magazine in the fall of 2011. Guess when the house was then put on the market?
It eventually sold a little over a year later, after a slight price adjustment. Now we have updated photos from when the house was for sale yet again in 2020. Ken's designs were completely changed. See if you agree with me that some of the magic is gone.
The foyer before, with Ken's design:
The foyer in 2020:
This is Ken's living room design that got my attention in the first place:
And now:
Family room before:
And now:
The dining room looks much narrower without the mirror it had before:
The kitchen has had the fewest changes:
The other family room has changed more:
Going upstairs, we can see that Ken's leopard carpeting has been tamed:
The lavender master bedroom is now white.
The master bathroom's tile is now gone.
Finally, the other bedrooms and bath (there are four bedrooms and five bathrooms in total) have also seen their share of changes.
The outside, like the kitchen, is another space where the changes were mostly cosmetic:
What hasn't changed at all? The incredible view of the Golden Gate Bridge! Mr. If It Were Mine was able to combine the photos from both real estate listings:
But wait, there's more. This is where the couple moved after they sold their home by the bay:
They traded their "bungalow by the bay" for a villa in a vineyard.
It's a 1992 Mediterranean-style home with 3,697 square feet, three bedrooms, and two and a half bathrooms.
Former home/New home
What can I say, they like what they like. The interiors of the new home, though, are pretty much a blank slate:
If it were mine... (which would be weird, because that would mean I'd be moving in with them). If it were ours, we'd be calling Ken Fulk again, to get it to look this:
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(At first I thought I had actually stumbled upon the new design, but this one pre-dates the listing photos.)
If you see the villa in the vineyard featured in a magazine, let me know and I'll start checking the real estate listings for it. I'll want to see how Ken worked his magic.
The San Francisco house listing with Ken's interiors is here. The newer listing is here, and the villa is here. The C Magazine story can be found here, and a blog by its feature writer Diane Dorrans Saeks is here.
