Pottery Barn pumps up its classic American style with Ken Fulk’s designer line


The September Pottery Barn catalogue has propelled San Francisco designer Ken Fulk to the coffee tables of America.

On the cover is the Fulk-designed caramel quilted leather sectional sofa, a wool giraffe-print rug and antiqued brass golden retriever bust. His coffee table, a cast aluminum model with a textured crocodile skin top, is edgier than the reclaimed wood and glass-topped iron tables the national chain is known for.

And that’s exactly why Fulk, who hails from Harrisonburg, Va., was asked to design Pottery Barn’s first major designer collection, which launched in August. His 60 pieces of furniture, tableware and accessories, including swizzle sticks and hooks shaped like hooves, are priced at $6 to $10,000.

It’s a fresh new direction for the purveyor of classic and modern American style since 1949. With 199 retail stores and a big e-commerce business, Pottery Barn is known as one of the country’s major retailers of casual home furnishings.

As tastemaker and party designer for the deep-pocketed Silicon Valley crowd, Fulk is known for drama, whimsy and an amazing attention to detail. For example, in 2013 he planned every last fur pelt and garland for the Tolkien-inspired, multimillion-dollar Big Sur wedding of Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker (another fellow Virginian) to Alexandra Lenas.

Fulk grew up in rural Virginia and went to University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. He got into the textile business in Boston and wrote children’s books. When he moved to San Francisco, he started throwing elaborate dinner parties and helping friends decorate. For nearly two decades, he has been a major player on the San Francisco design circuit, creating arresting interiors for homes, offices and clubs, and tossing shindigs for the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier.

He and his team at Ken Fulk Inc. do traditional architecture and interior design jobs, branding and graphics, as well as stage events and parties. He has a home in San Francisco, a ranch in Napa Valley and a Victorian cottage in Provincetown, Mass.

Fulk says he was excited to get the call from Pottery Barn last year, “Pottery Barn is comfortable in its own skin and I really love that about it.” Fulk says when the president of Pottery Barn asked him to do the collection, she said, “I want you to be you. We don’t want the Pottery Barn version of you.”

I spoke to Fulk last week just before he headed off to catch a plane to Greece.

Were you a Pottery Barn shopper?

I was very familiar with the company and the brand. They are a big, classic, unapologetic American company. They know who they are. I would go to them for entertaining basics: votives, glasses, hotel silver, things like that. Also seasonal pillows and big sea-grass rugs. All of these classics have become almost shorthand for a Pottery Barn look.

How did you decide what to include in your collection?

I literally walked through my houses. I looked at the things that fill up my life, the rituals that I love to have around me. Those are the things I took away. Those were what I wanted to share. . . . It’s so much more honest to say ‘this is a piece of me’ instead of doing a collection that I sort of designed and handed off.

From Virginia, I have my love of animals, and I have my three golden retrievers who inspire me. The Virginia hunt country sensibility is here — the retriever ice bucket, which could be for flower arrangements, dog treats or champagne. From Provincetown, I took wonderful nautical chairs and yacht stools based on vintage ones I have there. And the bar cart has a yachty feel.

Which pieces stand out?

I love the leather sofa. It’s the most comfortable and sexy piece that’s from my own house in San Francisco. It inspired this one, it has great depth and comfort. We tweaked it and added great components. I think it’s one of the heroic pieces of the collection. The big room-maker of a sofa.

What look were you after?

In all the jobs we do, the main thing is I don’t want them to look “decorator-y.” I don’t want it to look obvious that you hired someone to put the room together. I wanted to put together a collection so you could have this life-well-lived quality to things. Things that have disparity, yet make for a very interesting home. You can grab them and layer them with what you have.

How was design a part of your childhood?

In the South, the rituals around food and entertaining are all ingrained. It was part of life. I was always in charge of the holidays; I would set the table and cut the flowers and pick the vases. It was important to me that things looked a certain way and happened a certain way. I thought life was better when you took the time and had these rituals. This is actually what I grew up to do.