Artisans Create a Beautiful Room
Various crafts came together to finish the beautiful walls and ceiling of this new dining room, a contemporary vision with a nod to the work of Greene and Greene.
Known for her revival furniture, Debey Zito also offers design services to her clients, helping them create personal interiors that are harmonious and sympathetic to the architecture. This dining room was a recent project. The challenge was to create an artful interior space, floor to ceiling, in the manner of iconic Arts & Crafts houses.
Zito and her partner, Terry Schmitt, created the mahogany woodwork. A high wainscot with tapered battens incorporates a carved panel surmounted by an open frieze; graceful arches frame passages to other rooms. Schmitt carved the poppy-flower frieze, which was molded and cast in plaster by Lorna Kollmeyer. Eucalyptus leaves done in gesso, gold-leafed by Lynne Rutter, mark the corners of the plaster frieze. Rutter also polychromed the poppy frieze.
The ceiling, by wallcoverings designer David Bonk, features gilded dragonflies randomly stenciled on silk. It was hung by Heidi Wright [Oakland: (510) 541-9546].
When the two men who own the 1935 Storybook-style hose saw similar paneling in Zito’s booth at a show, they vowed they’d find a way to use it. In their dining room, the lustrous wood led to gilded leaves as jewel points in the top frieze. Gold on silk and shimmering polychrome naturally followed. “I might have chosen just one motif,” Debey says, “but the clients got excited about poppies, eucalyptus, and dragonflies! Since they share texture and a golden shimmer, it works.”
The owners’ collections of pottery and art, along with beautiful new lighting fixtures and lamps, finish the room.
RESOURCES
- Debey Zito and Terry Schmitt Fine Furniture & Design, Sebastopol, CA: (707) 861-9126, artisticlicense.org/members/zito
- David Bonk Handpainted Wallcoverings, San Francisco, CA: surfacesbydavidbonk.com
- Lorna Kollmeyer Ornamental Plaster, Berkeley, CA: lornakollmeyer.com
- Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting, San Francisco, CA: lynnerutter.com
Patricia Poore is Editor-in-chief of Old House Journal and Arts & Crafts Homes, as well as editorial director at Active Interest Media’s Home Group, overseeing New Old House, Traditional Building, and special-interest publications.
Poore joined Old House Journal when it was a Brooklyn-brownstoner newsletter in the late 1970s. She became owner and publisher and, except for the years 2002–2013, has been its editor. Poore founded the magazines Old-House Interiors (1995–2013) and Early Homes (2004–2017); their content is now available online and folded into Old-House Journal’s wider coverage. Poore also created GARBAGE magazine (1989–1994), the first unaffiliated environmental consumer magazine.
Poore has participated, hands-on, in several restorations, including her own homes: a 1911 brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a 1904 Tudor–Shingle Style house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she brought up her boys and their wonderful dogs.
