Postcards from Tuscany
P. 136
An inspiring trip to Italy and a great design team for a house in Northern California
Pamela Shamshiri created Studio Shamshiri in 2016 with her brother Ramin after they left Commune, the famous design team they helped co-found with Roman Alonso and Steven Johanknecht. Her vision of the home as refuge, a place in which to recharge, becomes even more pertinent today, as we all rediscover our domestic spaces in greater detail. Born in Tehran, raised in Los Angeles, after a degree in architecture and art history at Smith College Shamshiri took a Master in Fine Arts at New York University, focusing on set design. This interdisciplinary background might explain her way of mixing old and new, legendary and modern.
Our story, however, begins in the 1980s, when the present owner traveled to Italy with architect Ned Forrest and designer Rory McCarthy to study historic rural homes and pre-Renaissance estates. Back in California, the house was built in four years, and the legendary American decorator Mark Hampton worked on the finishes and architectural details.
Fast-forward 20 years, same owner, but with a new wife and family. The house needed a functional update. The couple turned to Commune for the project. Recently, the renovation has been perfected by the team of Studio Shamshiri.
Part of the challenge involved the presence of the previous interiors by Mark Hampton: «First I observed, then I analyzed and implemented, carefully paying tribute to his talent», Shamshiri explains. The living room with its intense green walls was the most intact portion. The extensive change was to the «Great Room», previously a zone of transit and now the true core of the house. Other new developments have to do with the colors. «There wasn’t much color at first, and I am glad I have been able to bring more. I use many tones, though in the end I often focus on green, because I like the idea of bringing inside something from the outside».
«As a child I spent lots of time in the cottages they built.When I brought Tone-Beathe here,she fell in love with the place.So we began to think about a cabin of our own»