June 1, 2011 By AD House Beautiful
DOUGLAS BRENNER: How is it that you settled on a black and white palette for a San Francisco Victorian?
KEN FULK: I’m notorious for using lots of color in my interiors, but there was something so calm and ethereal about this house, it felt like it didn’t need color. Just some pops of red.
DOUGLAS BRENNER: The exterior is like a geisha—a ricepowder face and red lips.
KEN FULK: Exactly! And black eyeliner. Victorians can be too precious and fussy, and I had to talk my client into even looking at the house. She was convinced she would never want to live in one. But I said, ‘Imagine the whole thing painted white.’ And so we painted it Ralph Lauren’s Picket Fence White— so aptly named. It’s the iconic Tom Sawyer–Americana white, the perfect white: pure and bright, but with enough warmth not to be harsh.