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Designer Philip J. Meyer uses antiques to bring a new home into the new millennium
When Philip J. Meyer first entered the penthouse apartment his new clients had
purchased in San Francisco’s elegant Nob Hill neighborhood in 1999, he encountered an array of vivid colors and country-style upholstered furniture. “The building had been rebuilt in 2001, and the apartment had been finished at that time with a lot of pink taffeta,” he says. In addition, the rooms were filled with the cheerful blue-and-white and yellow chintz-covered furnishings that his clients—a top-level executive and her retired husband—had brought with them from their prior home, an 18th-century Philadelphia farmhouse.
While the couple weren’t precisely certain what they wanted from a redesign, they were abundantly clear on what they didn’t want: the existing fixtures and color scheme. “Their goal was simply to make a change from the country style they had lived with in Philadelphia,” says Meyer. “But my goal became to create the transformation they wanted while simultaneously elevating the quality level of the home to suit its environment.”
Specifically, Meyer wanted to introduce a neutral but warm color scheme, and then fill the rooms with important furnishings and decorative pieces. “We began by redecorating every wall in the apartment,” he says. San Francisco decorative painter Shirley Robinson utilized a range of finishing techniques, including crosshatching, stippling, and applying parchment glazes. The hallway was painted with broad stripes, and the master bedroom gained luster through the use of opalescent paint on its ceiling.
All of Robinson’s work was executed in shades of cream, pale blue, flax, and ivory. By the time she was finished, the apartment had metamorphosed into a quietly sophisticated shell—the perfect vessel for a collection of fine antiques. Meyer had spent several years prior to founding his 20-year-old firm, Philip J. Meyer Interior Design Ltd., as director of international sales for an antiques dealer, so he knew just where to begin.
“My clients owned an 18th-century Dutch Baroque secretaire that I loved,” he explains. “It gave me a starting point for selecting additional pieces that I felt they would like, and which would work as a collection.”
Over the course of many months, as the team moved gradually through the apartment’s rooms, Meyer assembled an impressive array of unique and significant furnishings and accessories. In keeping with the Dutch secretaire, most of his selections were 18th century, including the French Bouillotte table and walnut commode that flank the living room sofa; the richly incised, ceiling-height Chinese Coromandel screen set behind it; the Louis XIII walnut table in the bedroom; and a Swedish landscape painting that graces one corner of the dining room.
Meyer’s acquisitions (as well as his chosen color scheme) met with his clients’ full approval. In fact, their new furnishings have had a rather far-reaching affect on the homeowners. “We included some 17th-century Korean porcelains in the decor,” Meyer says. “This couple had never really collected before, but now, as they travel the world, she’s begun adding ceramics to the collection.”
For his part, Meyer has become a great fan of his clients, with whom he continues to work. “They remain my favorite clients,” he says, “because they are so willing to let things evolve. There wasn’t an overall plan to begin with. With each and every item, they allowed me to take time and find special, unique antiques and carpets. That’s a luxury designers don’t always have.”
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