Showcase Season

My Powder Room in the 2002 San Francisco Decorator Showcase

Showcase season is upon us again, with exciting spaces being presented by veteran and new designers alike. I have painted in over 25 showcases houses around the Bay Area, and transformed three rooms for the San Francisco Decorator Showcase as a designer. This year, due to my travel schedule, I could not participate in the exhilarating rush of reshaping a room in a scant three months.

I missed it, actually, because it is during this time I get my one chance each year to spend time under the same roof with so many talented colleagues in the business, and there is an atmosphere of camaraderie when a large number of the area's best decorative painters are all working on the same house. Oh of course there can also be a little drama, but for the most part everyone is trying to do their best work and finish before the press arrive, sometimes working late into the night, often running to the next room to beg a roll of tape or ask advice.

Showcases are especially great for ideas. Working without a "client" the designers get a chance to show off what they are interested in, what inspires them, and their best new finds.
A few years ago a nice book came out called "Decorator Showcase Houses" which compiled the best 250 rooms of 50 different showcase houses from all over the country. I recently flipped through this idea-packed book looking for a room I remembered from a previous showcase, and was really struck by how fresh and interesting even 7 year old projects look. This is because these designs are not the "trends" so much as each designer's personal vision, which, if anything, will set the trends for the future.
(look for my work on pages 137, 176, and 186!)


See the 2009 San Francisco Decorator Showcase , through May 25 at 2830 Pacific Avenue.

Art Deco Chinoiserie

What a gorgeous, romantic bedroom, recalling silver screen Hollywood glamour, bias cut silk lingerie, martinis and cigarette holders....

Interior Designer Paula McChesney, designed this Hollywood Regency master bedroom for the 2003 Coyote Point Decorators Showcase in an historic Hillsborough mansion.
An expert colorist, Paula was understandably concerned about the astroturf green carpet, which we had to keep. The rest of the room- well, it had some problems:

Before: a long rectangular room with green carpet, white walls and a low ceiling beveled on two sides, dueling chandeliers, and not-quite symmetrically placed anything.

The solution: don't fight with the carpet- go green! The walls were painted with Benjamin Moore "Harrisburg Green" HC-132. The ceiling was painted a custom mixed green-grey and the rest of the palette was kept limited.

We paneled the room with three levels of silver moulding, including each corner, and a picture rail which settled the question 'where does the ceiling start?' The moulding was gilt with aluminum leaf in advance at my studio.

chinoiserie mural detail

For the insets of the panels I painted Chinoiserie murals, using restrained doses of brilliant color. The panels focus attention into the center of each wall, creating the illusion of symmetry, and balancing the architecture. And it was also just darn pretty.

Paula furnished the room all in ivory, like a splendid Jen Harlow gown.

After the showcase ended, the paneling and the murals were installed in one of our client's homes.

I've been collaborating with Paula for over 12 years now. I think this was one of our most challenging and successful rooms.

room photo by David Duncan Livingston

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Chinoiserie in Red

The Chinoiserie Powder Room I designed for the San Francisco Decorator Showcase House - David Papas Photography

Here's one of my favorite historic decorating trends: Chinoiserie.

For a number of years now I've been known for painting a certain style of flowering trees Chinoiserie mural using my own spin on the look that was all the rage in late 17th and 18th century French décor.
I adore the wallcoverings of deGournay and Gracie, which are still being produced today in much the same way as the hand-painted wallpapers found in the Royal Pavillion at Brighton, or Lustschloss Hellbrunn, Salzburg. These papers are lush, labor intensive, delicate, and worth every dime they cost.

For this room mural, rather than paint densely covered wallpaper-style panels, I used a light hand, and a more naturalistic approach, to keep this intimate-scaled space airy and uncluttered. Carnelian Red walls help make the room look larger as well as rich and fabulous. And we included California natives such as poppies and monarch butterflies, alongside the lilies, pomegranates, and peonies.

some mentions for this room:
Kafka blog
sfgate

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Singerie Screen in 7x7

September issue of 7x7 Magazine has included a shot of my singerie screen in their home and design section.

A Delicate Matter - Care for your bare necessities with these pretty picks for your laundry room. by Leilani Labong


This large screen made its debut my "Vintage Laundry" in the 2007 San Francisco Decorator Showcase.
Each panel is 90" high by 26" wide and 1.75" thick - sturdy enough to serve as a room divider, or to create a dressing area from a larger room.



One side of the screen is painted in a blue/gray neoclassical motif with singerie scenes in which the monkeys are all playing with clothing, sewing, etc.

Contact Lynne Rutter for details about purchasing this screen or commissioning a custom piece.

My thanks to David Papas Photographer for these photos.

How to attract paparazzi...

1. show up late
2. wear a turban
(also handy to cover that sweaty "i just worked all day" hair)
3. pick up flute of champagne on the way in, completely ignoring the bank of photographers that are by now following you
4. hook arms with the tallest, best looking guy you can find: in this case, Rob Delameter of Lost Art Salon

Here is my exceedingly rare appearance on the society page
"signature look" translation = "we don't get it"




circa 1920 Chinese robe from Torso Vintages
turban by Kathleen Crowley

Photo by Drew Altizer\

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Vintage Laundry

Lynne Rutter's Vintage Laundry, at the  SF Decorator Showcase

I've recently designed a room for the 2007 San Francisco Decorator Showcase, which is being held in the spectacular house at 2901 Broadway, a 1927 neoclassical mansion in near- original state.
A wonderful example of passive preservation, the house's original laundry room had never been painted, or really cleaned, as far as I could tell. The walls are raw plaster and the giant double enamel sinks are in perfect condition.

So I designed the room as a sort of a valentine, to what this house used to be, and to the era in which it was built. It could almost be 19th century Europe, except with reliable electricity, and prohibition.

My assistants and I hand-washed 80 years worth of filth off of the walls and ceiling, exposing a lovely lime plaster finish with a natural patina. We stripped the old wax off the concrete floor, cleaned it, and painted a matte faux marbre finish; we also restored the dark painted finish of the 12 foot long solid redwood work table.
The opaque window glass was changed out to clear, revealing an amazing view of the bay. An ugly water heater heater was disguised with a folding screen, custom built by Chris Yerke, and painted with neoclassical motifs and singerie painted by Lynne Rutter with help from Adrian Card.  All we needed now was a period sewing machine and a hand-made low-tech wooden drying rack from Amish Home Place.

The fun part of course is the laundry itself- lots of vintage 1920's lingerie, all in ivory silk and lace,  with the styling help of Erika von Petrin; and a collection of period linens, many of which belonged to my grandmother, Jane Coley Kittredge, whose bright coral wedding ensemble is also peeking out of the mending basket.

The showcase is open to the public through May 28, 2007.

mentions:
Remodelista
sfgate.com
7x7
Erling Wold: The Laundry Room
SF Chronicle "Swells"
Yelp
LuxLife
7x7 Home and Design

photo by David Papas.

"All the World's a Designer Showcase..."

May 2003

The more theatrical aspects of this year's San Francisco Decorator Showcase are discussed by Carol Lloyd in the San Francisco Chronicle.

For this showcase I designed the Lift, more than just a personal elevator, this carriage was custom built to my specifications of solid cherry, and its raised mouldings parcel gilt in 23 karat gold. I painted three large scale portraits of eyes to add a surreal element. People entering the lift are either rapt or disquieted.


photo by David Papas

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Edwardian bath featured in Sunset Magazine

click on images to see large enough to read.

Sunset Magazine has published an article by Mary Jo Bowling about the bathroom Paula McChesney and I did for the 2001 San Francisco Decorator Showcase House. We restored this Edwardian era bath to its circa 1915 look, preserving the original tiles, sink, and toilet. The tub, faucets, and lighting are new historic reproductions. Translucent color enlivens the room in both the painted wall glazes and the wonderful resin room divider by Marcia Steurmer of Fossil Faux Studios.

Diane Dorrans Saeks, on the SF Showcase

April 28, 1999
I got a brief mention in this San Francisco Chronicle review of the 1999 San Francisco Decorator Showcase House by Diane Dorrans Saeks