A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
I honestly think the best-kept secret is that double sheepskin rugs are so reasonably priced at Costco. (Gasp!) And it serves as a great place to play and roughhouse with our son.
My other pride and joy is my vintage Lucite chair. Every time I look at it I’m like, “Damn, that’s classy.”
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
The color tones on my mantle are my favorite. Also, it’s a perfect ode to my love of femininity mixed with a little ‘I don’t give an eff.’ The mirror is vintage and the frames are from RH Baby, but everything else was thrifted!
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
I start every day on this chaise lounge. There’s something about a window seat that is good for the soul. I inherited this piece from my mom. I am a big fan of reusing and repurposing furniture. So much better than having it end up in a landfill! The vintage typewriter table is also reused, found at a garage sale.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
The Outer Richmond area of San Francisco can be pretty gray and foggy. It was important to me to have a light and airy living room to push up against that gloomy vibe while also being creamy enough to not look out of place in the environment either.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
I love the character our vintage 1960s floor lamp adds to the room. I think it’s needed. Craigslist FTW!
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
This picture is very sweet and I love reading to my son. But... truth be told, most mornings you’ll find me in and out of my 8 am nap while my son is either coloring on the walls or throwing a book at my head.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
My dining room is my favorite room (visually) in the whole house. It’s just so yummy. I tried to go for a beachy, modern, wabi sabi vibe to create an interesting but peaceful place to have family dinners and entertain.The table custom made by my friend Casey Jones and I found the chairs from a local favorite Mixed Nuts.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
We used a plastic outdoor rug under our dining room table (even though it looks like a fancy woven piece). It’s perfect for clean-up after dinner with a toddler. I forget where I got it originally... it was so long ago! But you can buy ones like it on Amazon.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
This surf print by my friend Jaymee Harney is so special to me. 1) Because I love her, 2) Because I love it, and 3) Because it really brings my husband's love for surfing and the ocean into our home.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
Entryways are tricky! They are the first impression a guest gets of your home and they are also heavily used, so I had to find a way to make it beautiful yet functional. The Moroccan wool pom blanket, which I found on Etsy, makes it warm and welcoming.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
Here’s that skateboard I was telling you about! Vintage Powell-Peralta! So choice! That framed art was a gift to my husband and I on our wedding day. It’s 1,001 hand-folded origami cranes formed into the Japanese character for love. It’s perfect there because it feels like love guards our home.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
If this were Cribs, I would say, “This is where the magic happens," but it’s Homepolish, so I’ll say "This is where I sleep with my retainers in." Sometimes I sneak in here and read Harry Potter and pretend my son isn’t getting into trouble.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
I brought the Japanese influence into the bedroom as well, but this time, I added some midcentury flare. The dresser is from my favorite thrift shop. I found it for 50% off... sorry, not sorry.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
I love Anouk Aimée and I love living in the Outers of San Francisco! This framed movie poster captures both perfectly. The art print is from 3 Fish Studios in the Outer Sunset.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
It’s hard designing a room for a person you haven’t met yet, so I guess I just tried to create a room that would inspire my son. Bright rich colors, art from Creativity Explored, and a rug he could go crazy on and not stain. The cool minimalist crib is from a place called Stokke.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
A comfy modern rocking chair is surprisingly hard to find. After much searching I found this one at EQ3. And how great are The Muppets? Am I right? Couldn’t pass up that 1970s gem.
Photos by Miha Matei.
A Designer’s Fun Family Home in San Francisco
Confession: I am horrible at and hate cooking. My husband, on the other hand, loves it and is a killer chef. I think it’s a great quality in a man, so I wanted to encourage my son to love it too. We bought him this Ikea kitchen and "pimped" it out to inspire his inner little chef.
Photos by Miha Matei.
For Homepolish designer Alex Waidley, "home" should be a reflection of the person who lives in it. Tour with her through her wabi sabi, surfer-meets-skater, thoroughly California (and thoroughly Alex) abode.
Photos by Miha Matei.
It’s my deepest conviction that the design of your home should reflect who you are and what you care about. And the beauty of designing your own home is that you really get to dive deep inside the client’s (aka your own) head, sometimes dangerously deep, to find the answers.
So what’s in the mind of Alexandra Waidley? Well, once you brush aside all those loose Snickers wrappers and random Buffy the Vampire Slayer quotes, you’ll see memories of 6 year-old me skateboarding barefoot under the scorching LA sun, or my intrigue and love for my husband’s Japanese culture, or you may even catch a glimpse of my dad’s garage full of old rock memorabilia. You most definitely would see my need to defy conventions from a very young age. This is my aesthetic–personal, unapologetic, and yeah, I guess a little Mick Jagger meets wabi sabi.
My favorite elements of our home all have a story. Our dining table was made by our good friend Casey Jones and the surf line-up photo above it was shot by another friend Jaymee Harney. The skateboard in our entryway was my brother’s Powell-Peralta from the 90s (classic!). I used to ride it when he wasn’t looking. The kimono above my son’s crib used to be my husband’s when he was a cute little hapa boy growing up in Hawaii, and the art to left of his crib is from Creativity Explored, an art studio for developmentally disabled adults and hands down my favorite place to source art in the city. They create the most beautiful and interesting pieces of art!
I love that I get to live in such a richly meaningful but still well-designed and pulled-together home. I do not believe you have to sacrifice one for the other.
