The COUPAR Edit
Your go-to for design industry insights and education. Explore our monthly blogs, meet industry leaders in our Take 10 series, and learn from historic design icons. Enhance your business with practical marketing and design tips. Subscribe for monthly updates!
Trailblazer: Architect Paul Revere Williams
February is Black History Month, and COUPAR celebrates trailblazing African American architect Paul Revere Williams' prolific career. Nicknamed the "Architect to the Stars," Williams shaped the Hollywood landscape designing elegant, perfectly proportioned mansions for gilded celebrities like Tyrone Power, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Lucille Ball.
Paige Rense: Remembering the Queen of Hearths
When Paige Rense posed for her Kodak moment in 1976, the Architectural Digest editor-in-chief had won the Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year. Sadly the Queen of Hearths, as the newspaper dubbed her, passed away on January 1st, 2021, at her home in West Palm Beach.
Take 10 With Builder Mark Grassi
Northern Calfornia native Mark Grassi opened his eponymous Napa construction firm in 1989. Grassi & Associates works with elite architects, interior designers, and discerning homeowners to craft bespoke residences and wineries that meld into the Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara landscapes.
Back to the Future: Interior Design Trends for 2021
COUPAR gazed into our crystal ball to forecast what will be the trends for interior design in 2021. With the pandemic still raging outside, the home reigns supreme.
Cecilia Chiang: A Life Well Lived
Culinary icon Cecilia Chiang, who brought authentic Chinese cuisine to San Francisco and the United States, passed away at 100 on October 28th. In 1961, she took a small space on Polk Street and opened The Mandarin Restaurant, introducing diners to Szechwan and Hunan dishes accompanied by an excellent wine list.
Take 10 With Architect Mark Cavagnero
While Covid focuses our attention on private spaces, public places are equally crucial to our well-being. Mark Cavagnero and his eponymous award-winning firm concentrate on this external world, working on projects for the arts and culture, science and technology, education, civic, and master planning.
The Show Must Go On: The San Francisco Fall Show Goes Virtual
Every October, COUPAR looks forward to attending The San Francisco Fall Show Opening Night Gala at Fort Mason Center, featuring the best in international art, antiques, and design but that, like so many other events this year, needed to be canceled. The show will take place virtually this year from October 16th through October 25th.
A Designer and a Gentleman: John Wheatman
Interior designer, educator, author, and gentleman, John Wheatman, passed away at 94 on September 26. Living on the ground floor of 2500 Steiner Street, the elegant Art Deco tower soaring over Pacific Heights, Wheatman created edited interiors, restrained yet poetic.
Why Do a Newsletter?
Email marketing has always been a beneficial tool, but recently it has become invaluable. Newsletters are one of the best ways to connect with your professional community, increase leads, and boost social media and website visitors.
Remembering Ann Getty
San Francisco has lost its grand patron of the arts and culture; on September 14th, Ann Getty passed away at 79 from a heart attack. Mrs. Getty, a striking couture figure attending the Symphony, Opera, and San Francisco Fall Show galas, generously opened up the Broadway mansion she shared with her husband, Gordon, to help raise funds for charities.
John Elgin Woolf: Architect to the Stars
Do you remember going to parties? In the pre COVID world of Hollywood in the forties, fifties, and sixties, entertaining was gloriously hedonistic. The backdrop for many of these gatherings were homes designed by the architect to the stars John Elgin Woolf.
Kesha Franklin of Halden Interiors’ Effortlessly Elegant Spaces
New York, full-service design firm, Halden Interiors is attracting well-deserved attention from all corners of the design industry. Founded and led by talented principal designer, Kesha Franklin, Halden is transforming a wide array of commercial and residential spaces on both coasts.
Anatomy of a Room: Martin Young’s First Showcase
Martin Young, founder, and principal designer, of Martin Young Design, is honored to participate in the 2020 San Francisco Decorator Showcase. This year has had its constant curveballs, but the Showcase and its designers seamlessly adapted to ensure the show continued even during the pandemic.
Take 10 With Showroom Owner Greg McIntyre
Now that the San Francisco Design Center has closed, reopened and closed again during the Pandemic, how are showrooms coping? COUPAR checked in with Greg McIntyre, CEO of Shears & Window, to find out.
Form + Field Designs Retail Spaces for Ayesha Curry
The talented Ayesha Curry, actress, cooking television personality and cookbook author wanted to relaunch her Homemade lifestyle brand with a curated pop-up shop. Curry collaborated with San Francisco Interior Design firm, Form + Field, to bring this vision to fruition opening for a month in 2019.
Aperture Cellars: Wine, Art, and Architecture
COUPAR'S client Grassi & Associates recently completed construction on Aperture Cellars situated in Healdsburg, California. The brainchild of youthful, wine professional, Jesse Katz, the compound provides a unique visual experience.
Misery Loves Company: Isolation in Film
For COUPAR'S third posting on Quarantine Culture, we look at films about isolation, physical, psychological, or both.
How Designers & Creatives Help During the Pandemic: Face Masks
As COVID continues to persist and face coverings remain a constant in our everyday lives, why not make them a fashion statement? While COUPAR diligently follows proper precautions, Krista Coupar, our CEO, and Founder, wanted to ensure that each of her employees stays safe and stylish by sending everyone a variety of bespoke masks.
Designer Phillip Silver: A Sense Of Timelessness
Interior designer Phillip Silver reflects on his nearly four-decade career "In all my work, I try to achieve a sense of timelessness, I'm not a great follower of instant trends."
Take 10 With Stonemason Ed Westbrook
Now that the Shelter in Place order is gradually lifting in California, how has it impacted master stonemasons QuarryHouse and their projects? We checked in with the company's co-founder and CEO, Ed Westbrook, who manages not only a regional staff but also an international one during the pandemic.