San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
High-contrast design beauty in Carmel.
High-contrast design calms by using a palette of darkness and light
Carissa Duncan describes the sunsets in Carmel Valley as a “warm fire sky.” She enjoys the light show almost daily from the west-facing deck of her renovated 1970s hillside kit house. While mesmerizing, this atmospheric pageantry could be considered a diversion from the subtler, but nevertheless hypnotic, interplay of light and shadow happening inside the home beyond a slidingglass threshold.
Duncan, the principal of the Carmel design studio Salt + Bones, has coined a tableau of “lush minimalism.” The phrase describes strong sculptural pieces in shades of black — from the living room’s angular Mountain chair by Plane Furniture in Los Angeles to the round, custom steel dining table — that anchor an all-shades-of-white setting. Even the exterior, painted an earthy black (Sherwin Williams Iron Ore) presents like a shadow. When the sun angles its late-afternoon rays inside the home, many dark, jaunty shapes are emblazoned upon surfaces from the home’s original Saltillo tile floor to the asymmetrical ceiling.
“Sometimes people get scared of high-contrast interiors,” says Duncan, formerly the design director at Maisonry, Napa’s art, furniture and wine collective. “This house feels a lot warmer because not everything is crisp white or true black, but all the tones in between. Since I’m looking at color and pattern all day long, this setting is a calming, restful antidote.”
The decor in the 1,500-square-foot open-plan space is neither too sleek nor too layered, but rather keenly curated — each surface and object is a thoughtful move toward artful livability. New steel cabinet faces in the kitchen have a glossy black sheen that bounces light around the small space. In the living