Jessica and Stig Olson’s home is a common enough sight in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood: a stucco-clad 1928 row house with living spaces stacked atop a two-car garage. The garage was also pretty typical, with exposed joists, pipes, and wires at the ceiling, a sloping concrete floor, and little natural light to infiltrate the gloom. The couple purchased the property in 2018, and rather than park the cars inside and call it a day, they decided to tap into the garage’s potential.

Before: Garage Interior

Before: Jessica and Stig Olson bought their San Francisco home in 2018. The two-bedroom, one-bath home had about 1,300 square feet of living space above a large, unfinished garage, which has about the same square footage. In a 2020-2021 remodel, the couple kept one parking spot, and turned about 700 square feet of the garage into living space.

The Olsons previously lived in a rented flat in a Hayes Valley Victorian, and while they were excited to have a place of their own, their previous home had much more connected living spaces. “This house was never remodeled, so it was really chopped up,” says Jessica. “We said, ‘Oh no, we don’t have any of that big, open space we used to have—how are we going to create it?’ That was the seed of the idea for the downstairs.”

After: Living Room

Jack Hotho Architecture + Design and Innen Studio helped the couple convert the garage into livable space. The team excavated a portion of the floor to gain ceiling height, and the lounge now connects to the backyard via a glass bifold door. “On beautiful days, it becomes this indoor/outdoor room that can host twice as many people,” says Hotho. A Timothy Oulton Haven sectional in Old Loom provides plenty of seating capacity, joined by a Chairish Rush House rug, vintage coffee table, and &Tradition Little Petra chair.

Two iron sconces by Steven Handelman Studios flank original photography by Bess Friday. The design team furred out foundation walls in key places—such as behind the couch here—to create functional ledges, and straighten sloping walls.

In 2020, Jessica reached out to her friend, interior designer Hana Mattingly of Innen Studio, for help. In short order, Mattingly brought in another friend, architect Jack Hotho—and when the design meetings started, they felt more like dinner parties than work sessions. “Jess is an amazing cook—she would make this fresh bread, and then Stig always had a signature cocktail waiting for us upon arrival,” says Mattingly. “It was definitely not your typical project in that regard.”

In fact, the couple’s love of entertaining informed how they wanted to use the new downstairs space. “The primary goal really was hosting, because that’s such a big part of our lives,” says Jessica. The first step for the design team would be to address the challenges of the existing space. “There was almost no light,” says Hotho. “We knew from the very beginning that diffusing light throughout the garage was going to be our goal.”

Before: Garage Center

Before: It was difficult to introduce natural light to the middle of the garage.

After: Office

Hotho added a clerestory window and an open shelving unit, which divides the space without limiting the flow of light. The vintage campaign table serves as a desk, but it can be broken down and swapped for a mattress so that the room can serve as a guest suite.

The streamlined shelving system is from Ikea.

The team opened the garage up to the backyard by installing a bifold glass door and a new exterior concrete slab, for seamless indoor/outdoor flow. At this end of the space, they placed a comfortable lounge that can seat 12, and they painted the walls and ceiling white. “I like to do that in a lot of my projects—painting the ceiling the same color as the walls,” says Mattingly. “It’s a bit more dramatic when you use a color, but with white it just makes the whole space feel bigger.”

An adjacent kitchenette has its own trick for accessing the sun: A serving window runs along the counter, enabling it to serve as a bar with stools positioned outside. Open shelving lines on one side of the living room, partitioning off an office space without blocking light. “We wanted to define different spaces within the one larger space, but we also needed light to pass through to each of them,” says Hotho.

Before: Rear Garage

Before: Fortunately, the garage was on-grade with the backyard, which made connecting the interior and exterior easier.

After: Kitchen

The design team retained the old supports, which now frame the kitchen. Jessica picked DeVol cabinets and systems for their traditional-meets-streamlined style.

The window wall counter is M. Teixeira Soapstone: “We needed something durable for both outdoor and indoor use,” says Mattingly. Stig stained and installed the wood counters, sourced from Home Depot, for both the sink wall and island.

A DeVol marble sink and faucet are lit by Ramsey Conder 8″ brass sconces.

The wall shelf with rail and cabinet hardware are also by DeVol.

Hotho and Mattingly then strategized how to make the garage feel less like a garage, and more like a living space, while still incorporating key existing features. “I’ve always loved the process of keeping the good things that are old, like the patina and the history of the home,” says Jessica.

To that end, the team retained the exposed joists and wood support columns while adding acoustic insulation to dampen sound from upstairs—which has the added bonus of hiding plumbing and wires. They repoured the concrete floors, creating a new base at a wood support post and flared steps at the bottom of the stairs. “We had this idea of ​​dipping the whole floor plan into polished concrete,” says Hotho.

Before: Stairs

Before: The couple wanted to keep the connection between the main house (upstairs) and the new living space (downstairs)—down to the patina on the steps.

After: Stairs

“Jess is a treasure hunter at heart,” says Mattingly, noting that she brought the antique metal handrail back from New York. The team repoured and reshaped the bottom two steps, and framed a new alcove and drop zone with a bench. The walls are covered in wood paneling.

An oversized antique mirror (sourced from friends) bounces light throughout the space.

The new scheme had to be comfortable, inviting, and not skimp on the patina, so the team carefully mixed Jessica’s favorite vintage finds with functional new pieces, like the oversized sectional in the living room and Ikea shelving units.

“Hana was able to take all of my eclectic, wayward, crazy ideas—and all of my pieces, from random antique things to stuff that I had inherited from my mother—and then help us bring it all together and edit,” says Jessica . “That simplifies the aesthetic so that it doesn’t get cluttered.”

In the kitchen, the team opted for a suite of DeVol cabinets and accessories, paired with butcher-block counters Stig found at Home Depot and stained, as well as a large apothecary cabinet that’s now topped with a new counter to serve as a central island .

In the bathroom, where no outdoor connection was possible, the team “embraced the dark and decided to go with a lot of different textures to make it feel really cozy,” says Mattingly. Here, rich, dark tile meets a textural plaster finish on walls and ceiling, a vintage concrete sink, and brass faucets.

After: Bathroom

A custom mirror and cabinet by the contractor conceals full-height storage. Jessica found the oversized concrete sink on Craigslist, and Mattingly matched it in scale with the brass faucet. A ledge made of leftover soapstone from the kitchen forms a shelf that runs into the shower.

The walls are covered in Portola Paints Roman Clay in Anchor, and the floors are Bedrosians penny tile.

Mattingly encased the shower in two-inch-by-two-inch zellige tile from Clé, in Battled Armor.

The project wrapped in 2021, and the couple have used the new space for all sorts of gatherings with friends and neighbors—from children’s birthday parties, to movie nights, to casual dinners. “Ever since we’ve been done, we have a weekly, or biweekly, gathering with some families—we meet down there and do dinners together, and then sit around the couch and sort out our lives,” says Jessica. “It has really turned into the space where we do a lot of our communal living.”

Architect Jack Hotho and interior designer Hana Mattingly in the Olsons’ new living space. “This was a group of friends really coming together, because we trusted each other’s vision of what could be done,” says Hotho.

Floor plan of Outer Sunset Garage Renovation by Jack Hotho Architecture + Design and Interior Studio

The post Earlier than & After: A Gloomy San Francisco Storage Is Retooled as a Charming English Cottage appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

By Tracy Brown / Los Angeles Times

“Poupelle of Chimney Town” manages to do something most people would tell you is impossible: Feel empathy for a pile of smelly trash. It’s a fitting feat for a film that encourages you to keep believing in your dreams even if everyone else believes them or tells you you’re wrong.

Based on a picture book by Akihiro Nishino, who also wrote the screenplay, “Poupelle of Chimney Town” is set in a city with so many chimneys that a thick layer of dark smoke hangs between it and the sky above. The authorities have convinced all residents that there is nothing beyond the smoke — or outside the city limits — and those who believe otherwise are persecuted as heretics.

But Lubicchi (voiced in English by Antonio Raul Corbo) — a young chimney sweep who recently lost his father — believes in the existence of stars and dreams of being able to see them one day. After he befriends a sentient, anthropomorphic pile of garbage that he names Poupelle (Tony Hale), he becomes intent on proving it.

There’s a rustic charm to the stylized 3DCG animation, particularly in Lubicchi’s design and movements. There’s also a playfulness in the way the film toggles with perspective in depicting the dense, smoky, steampunkish town, and in sequences that are reminiscent of video games. Director Yusuke Hirota even throws in a lively, Halloween-themed musical number that likely will appeal to kids.

The strength of Nishino’s adaptation is in its heart. “Poupelle” takes big emotional swings in depicting Lubicchi’s relationship with his father and his new friendship with Poupelle. And Poupelle is an endearing amalgam of the Tin Man and Scarecrow from “The Wizard of Oz.”

Less effective is the film’s attempt to channel story time, which for anyone but the youngest viewers will make parts of the narrative feel repetitive.

The film also takes aim at engaging with larger themes in both subtle (the perils of pollution) and overt (stifling oppression) ways. The most intriguing — if underdeveloped — is the critique of capital and centralized banking presented within the late exposition surrounding the origin story of Lubicchi’s smoky town.

But those shortfalls do not distract from “Poupelle’s” most resonant messages. Even in a world where people would rather stifle imagination, it’s important to keep looking up. “Poupelle” serves as a good reminder for viewers of all ages to not let their fears — or those of others — keep them from pursuing their dreams.

The film, rated PG for violence and thematic elements, is showing at the Meridian and Thornton Place theaters.

The post Charming ‘Poupelle of Chimney City’ dares you to maintain dreaming appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Alternative band Charming liars shared an emotional new live video for their track “loser. “Check it out here now: youtu.be/ZlON2zQUvvM. “Losers” is the latest in the band “Live sounds from 2020“Video series filmed in an LA warehouse late last year and showing”In the mirror of the blood,”“influence“,”ACCUSE,” and more.

Charming Liars recently announced their new EP Sequence 2: The After, should appear this summer. Lead single “Afterglow”Is out now and can be streamed here.

Fans can look forward to hearing new music live this December when Charming Liars tour with the English rock band The Hunna. The tour begins December 3 in San Francisco and includes stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, and more. For a full schedule of dates, see below, and tickets are available now at www.charmingliars.com/tour

Charming Liar is:
Kiliyan Maguire – vocals
Karnig Manoukian – guitar, production
Mike Krüger – bass

For more information, please visit:
Website: http://www.charmingliars.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/charmingliars
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/charmingliars
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/charmingliars

Sequence 2: The after-track listing:

1. Afterglow
2. The haunted one
3. Beautiful roses

Upcoming tour dates with The Hunna:
12/3 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
12/4 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
12/6 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
December 8th – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
09.12. – Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s
10.12. – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
12.12. – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
12/13 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
15.12. – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
16.12. – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom

Download a high resolution press photo here.
Download high-resolution single images here.
Download a high resolution tour admat here.

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The post Charming Liars Shares Shifting New Stay Video “Losers” – Music-Sports activities & Leisure Journal appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.