More of the West's best rooms

Sunset, Nov, 1992 by Daniel P. Gregory

Last month, we featured most of the 19 winners in our first Interior Design Awards program (page 107 in the October Sunset). Here we spotlight the jury's other five selections: one honor award (worth study by the profession), and four special awards (notable for a specific aspect).

The Sausalito house pictured here led juror Tim Street-Porter to say, "There's a perfect delicacy to it." Juror Marcia Johnson remarked on the luminous quality: "It looks as though it has a fabric skin." Indeed, this house resembles a machine-age tent. The jury particularly liked the attention to detail that unites furnishings and architecture in an overall design emphasizing openness and understatement, and framing dramatic views.

For the open loftlike living-dining room, Luchetti designed the glass and steel coffee and end tables, a gray granite and steel Parsons table behind the long sofa, and a high-wire act of suspended halogen lamps. The open-cable design of each piece complements the room's exposed steel structure.

In a dialogue between hard and soft, warm and cool, the unpolished gray granite of hearth and fireplace squarely faces the smooth texture of white canvas covering the overstuffed sofas and chairs. In contrast to the coolness of stone and steel, stripes of maple and red oak in the floor amplify the fire's glow.

Upstairs in the master bedroom, a warm-toned, bow-front Hepplewhite bureau stands out against white walls and the light, elegant steel bowstring truss overhead.