Decor with pink? that's missing color from white, blue and red so amazing

David A. Keeps: This is a fabulous glass box of a house. And yet the decor is hardly minimalist — all those florals and pink curtains!
Chloe Warner: There is usually an arranged marriage between contemporary architecture and interior design: lean rooms, minimal furniture, neutral palette. But this Bay Area house is a spunky love match between the masculine style of the original architect, Jim Jennings, and my feminine sense of color and pattern. And since the owners have school-age children, they wanted it to be both beautiful and bulletproof.

How did you accomplish that balancing act?

We used a lot of indoor-outdoor sisal and antelope-print rugs, which are so forgiving with traffic and spills. Instead of a formal dining room, the clients wanted a multipurpose space where they wouldn't care if the kids used crayons or paint on the table. I designed two tables in Corian and brass. The chairs are covered in a linen that's been specially coated for wipeability — it's a floral that served as the curtains in their last home. That was a real triumph of Yankee repurposing!

In addition to pink, you gravitated here to classic red, white and blue. Why?

Growing up, I spent summers with my family in Maine, and we used to visit houses designed by Sister Parish. She often used that scheme, and it has become part of my aesthetic. My red is a cranberry, like this living room's sofa. And the blues are brighter than navy. The white is more of a bone color — a thick and creamy hue that looks like it has a layer of dust on it.

Do they entertain much?

Their lifestyle is casual. They'll have other families over for game nights or to hang outside by the pool. In the dining room, they can push the two tables together and seat 12, but I don't think they host lots of adults-only parties. If it were my house, though, I sure would.

What color lessons did this home impart?

The architectural envelope was flawless, so the challenge for me was to make the interior feel warm, glowing and happy. When you have all this natural light, any color or pattern is possible. I never worry about interiors being too lively — that only makes life more interesting. For instance, this kitchen has a reading nook with a floral sofa and a bookcase wall that I painted a deep teal. The chairs are moss-colored velvet, very similar to the teal but deliberately just a tad off. I can't stand matchy-matchy.
The adjoining kitchen and breakfast area feel almost Scandinavian.

In a kitchen, functionality rules, and they wanted a quiet workhorse. The architect Charlie Barnett installed bleached-oak cabinetry. White pendants over the island create a focal point. Most people force white into being the backdrop; it's fun to reverse that.

So you're not "beyond the pale"?

Light colors can be very powerful and give patterns room to breathe. In the master suite, I used large-scale floral prints, bold Sister Parish wallpaper with a creamy background and fabrics in lighter watercolor tones. So, yes, even though I love deep, rich hues, there's a place for pale in my heart.