(camera snapping)
- My name is Nicolo Sertorio
I'm a photographer, both commercially and fine arts.
I live in this space with my wife, Seonok.
- I am research scientist, working for a biotech company.
- We moved here about three years ago
We fell in love with the neighborhood,
it's more of a artist community
than a traditional suburban live space.
In terms of the space itself,
it's an artist live/work space.
Hence, the luminosity and the openness.
- The light is amazing in this space.
It was something that I fell in love with.
- [Nicolo] But when we first moved in it was very raw
From the floors, the walls, to everything.
Part of the design was to add
some additional interior walls.
- Because Nicolo is an artist,
he has more specific vision and ideas.
And then I had a wishlist that needed
to be contained within the design.
- We started from a place of mutual requirements, I think.
- I wanted to have a big kitchen or a beautiful bathtub
and a closet where I could store my clothes.
Practically, I wanted to have laundry area
next to my office.
Where I could just incorporate it into my daily activities.
- It's important for me to have a studio,
or a space to work and create.
I need more of a multi-functional space
than your traditional empty camera studio.
I need a space where I can shoot and I also need a space
where I could prepare for shows and print my work.
And so the draw of the creation of the wall
so behind the wall there is the full bathroom
and the storage space.
The space upstairs was one giant open space,
with just the platform of the mezzanine.
We have to have a separation
between public space and private space.
- [Seonok] Mezzanine not only I use as my office,
but also use as a guest bedroom.
So we had to somehow create divide,
to create intimacy and privacy.
- [Nicolo] We started playing with different ideas
of where to put the walls and how to build the walls.
We created the new master bedrooms,
new bathroom downstairs.
We separated, a little bit, the kitchen.
Oh this stirfry's gonna be amazing.
- Kitchen is very inviting.
It's all white.
Enough space and plenty of storage.
It's really open, but also very functional.
The way we designed cabinet that vertically open
instead of horizontally open.
We put a lot of energy into designing it.
- [Nicolo] How would you like this sliced?
Tiny or small? - Tiny, yes.
The bedroom is one of my favorite place to be in the house.
It is just the right size,
and enough space for my clothes.
High ceiling and skylight allows
light to float in the morning.
I believe that bedroom is not a place to go to sleep
and become unconscious,
but also where we dream and come back rejuvenated.
That's how I feel in my bedroom.
Living surrounded by beauty is very important for me.
I think that brings sense of health and healing
and I think this space brings that opportunity
to create beauty and surround ourselves in that environment.
And obviously Nicolo is an artist
so it's like a blank canvas on which we can create.
- Me and my wife very much converge and agree on
modern, clean, pure lines.
Basically white on white aesthetic.
Throughout the space the only color coming in
is the color of the floors
that brings a certain warmth.
- [Seonok] Bringing the warmth and Zen-ness
into a very minimalistic, elegant line is something
that very intentional, and something we love.
- The minimalist and modern can sometimes
go a little too far.
Bringing in some older elements makes the space feel warmer.
- My desk used to be antique Chinese door
that has been converted into table
by artists in San Francisco.
They were moving away from the city
so Nicolo was able to obtain it.
It's such a beautiful table that I really love,
I feel privileged to use it as my desk.
We choose things based on connection to an object.
it is not just something we buy from a fancy high end store.
They all have their own story,
how it came about into our lives.
- The dining table is an interesting story.
It's from the old San Francisco Public Library
from there it had gone to the Oakland Museum,
at some point it became too big for the museum,
and one of my neighbors got it from the Oakland Museum.
She eventually came offered me the table,
at that time, I didn't have the space,
so it ended up going to a woodworker.
And he decided to store it away.
At that point, I got it and I started sanding
to see what the surface looked like underneath.
And the details started to come out
and beautiful red color of the wood.
- [Seonok] Not only the light in the daytime is beautiful
but also the nightlight.
Every light fixture we purchased has intention around it.
Ambience or mood.
- From using dimmers to light bulbs that change color,
every room has at least three different lighting set ups,
the ability to change the light in a space,
change the space itself,
and to me it's a big part of the design.
- I cannot imagine my life without having art in my space.
- [Nicolo] It was very inviting to start
putting some of my own work up.
Over the years I've come in contact
with a lot of other artists so we have exchanged work.
Artwork that I inherited from my family.
- The idea of building a bookshelf we both loved.
- We always had this dream of having a big bookshelf,
but even in this giant space we were starting
to run out of storage space.
Well, we had one giant wall.
Maybe we put everything into the one space?
We ended up building it ourselves.
- It was such a labor of love.
It took a lot of work,
during which I was going through health issues.
Hello darling.
I gained a lot of respect for Nicolo not giving up.
- [Nicolo] As we were piling the elements
of the bookshelf up we realized that nothing was straight.
And that required a lot of additional work.
And eventually basically digging into the drywall.
- [Seonok] Watching him being so patient, persistent,
perseverant gave me a courage.
And a sense of love and home.
I know. (laughing)
We love to feel the warmth
and uplifting element of the house.
It's not just the refurbished, reinvented warehouse,
where we just live.
This is actually, we build our lives.
(peaceful instrumental music)