San Francisco-based Jeffrey Schlarb heads up two businesses, his eponymous interior design studio and Green Couch, a home staging firm he co-founded 20 years ago.
Mr. Schlarb, 45, brings his “contemporary classic” aesthetic to all his projects, whether that’s a lakehouse north of Geneva, a private home in Healdsburg, California, or a co-working space and business accelerator bringing entrepreneurs together in Menlo Park, California.
For the classic part: “We love the authenticity of woodwork in interior architecture and we love crown moldings, even though we reimagine them a little bit,” he said. “Then the contemporary is today, but not in a faddy way, but in a way that feels like we’re still moving along, we’re still reimagining things, but with an eye to the past and an eye toward what’s historic or long-lasting.”
Mansion Global caught up with Mr. Schlarb, who was outside of Geneva working on a project, to discuss avoiding trends, using more color in rooms and incorporating Barbie dolls into a dining room design.
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Mansion Global: What kind of style sensibility do you bring to your projects? What inspires your design?
Jeff Schlarb: We’re not trying to reinvent any of the forever classic versions of interior design. But the artistic part is where we get to be playful with all kinds of wallpaper and window coverings and materials that clients bring to us. The range is from something like a cream or light blue, layered, classic look with contemporary patterns in the primary suite or living room to a rainbow dining room where some of the artwork is a Barbie doll collection and behind each one of those lucite boxes is wallpaper specifically picked out to go with the outfits of the Barbie dolls. When our clients want to do something that’s exceptional in their minds, we’re ready to explore that and effectively deliver that.
MG: What are some trends in design you’re seeing for fall?
JS: We’re trying to stay away from trends. We don’t want something that burns out in three to five years. So I almost think in the opposite way, to see when trends emerge and to try to avoid them. But I have seen sort of a mindset trend…I believe this pandemic has changed the way people will explore what designs to do in their homes. They need more variety due to them being so sequestered there every day. When we’re doing design projects, we’re going more colorful. We’re still weaving a common thread throughout the home, but each room could be a little bit less or a little bit more exciting depending on what we want the rooms to deliver. It’s more colorful and more saturated than I’ve seen in earlier years.
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MG: Have you run into problems because of labor shortages or supply chain issues? How are you managing that?
JS: Everyone wants things with the click of a button, but that’s not how interior design works. It’s just so analog. All the vendors who do fabrication or who reupholster; the wallpaper installers; the wallpaper printers—there are so many hands that literally build items. But here’s what I’ve observed: People get it now. They used to get frustrated, but now it’s not just our sector; there are shortages all over the business world. They realize it is out of our hands and it’s likely out of the vendors’ hands too.
MG: With homes selling so quickly, how important is staging in today’s market?
JS: The agents and sellers keep asking to hire stagers because it helps sell their homes faster and for more money. It’s kind of like if you were going to sell your 1969 Jaguar XK-E, you’d probably get it detailed before you sell it off—polish up the rims, fix any damage. At this point, sellers may not have to do it, but the person next door who does do it will probably see more activity on the house and sell faster or for more.
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MG: What’s your favorite part of your own home?
JS: I have a vacation home in Healdsburg, California. It’s on a knoll and it gets all-day sun, there’s a vintage ’80s pool and a new bocce ball court. My favorite part of the house is that it’s just open. You come up a long driveway up to the middle of the property with a pasture on one side and a pasture on the other side with these black fences—instead of making them white picket fences we painted them black, just to be rad. When you get up to the very top of the drive, you get out of the car and it’s a breath of fresh air.
MG: What does luxury mean to you?
JS: Space. There are rooms in a home that are nice and neat and formal and you may not use them all the time because you’re in the back of the house where the family room and kitchen and great room are. But you need those other rooms because they complete the whole story. My idea of luxury is to have a formal living room and formal dining room to use when I want to, not necessarily every day, to have variety. That’s on top of views and on top of decoration that’s really energetic or calming or whatever you need.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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