PALMER WEISS

TWICE THE FORMER investment banker enrolled in courses to study color theory—and twice she dropped out within a week. But something about this felt purposeful, says the San Francisco–based designer. “I didn’t want to learn rules. I wanted to train my eye to what is relevant and important to me.” And she wasn’t starting completely from scratch: Her mother is the Charleston,

South Carolina, designer Kathleen Rivers, who modeled their childhood beach house on the tenets of the late California designer Michael Taylor. Today, one could argue Weiss is swimming in the other direction than Taylor did, weaving Southern and English influences into the West Coast vernacular. “California offers sort of a wholesome approach to contrarianism—there are so many productive ways to be rebellious here.”

A QUIET BOHEMIAN BEAT “I’m drawn to female realist painters, and Paula Rubino’s work is beautifully graphic,” says Weiss of the oil on linen she layered atop an Indian block-print fabric in this California guest room. “There’s almost a Matisse quality. Her coloring is rich and complex, and sometimes odd, so there’s nothing sweet and saccharine about it.”