Home & Garden San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | Section L By Chantal Lamers SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Baylor Chapman’s San Francisco home isn’t about for- mal floral centerpieces or huge houseplants. For the sought-after designer, known for sustainable gardens and floral arrangements, home is about personal touches, re- purposing materials and using nature’s knickknacks to their utmost potential. DESIGN Art from nature’s oddities Unexpected displays bring rooms to life Russell Yip / The Chronicle Baylor Chapman, owner and floral designer of Lilia B. Design in the Mission District, is known for sustainable gardens. Durable and decorative as they are, spider plants tend to be taken for granted. According to a team of Penn State scien- tists, though, the plants may be performing a vital service: re- moving ozone from indoor air. That may also be true of snake plants and golden pothos. Ozone is a paradoxical gas. In the upper atmosphere, it helps shield the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation; thinning ozone layers over the poles have been a major environmental concern. At ground level, ozone is a bad actor, a major compo- nent of smog. It’s also a worri- some indoor pollutant in offices and homes, with copy ma- chines, laser printers, ultraviolet lighting and some electrostatic air purification systems as known or suspected sources. Human health consequences include pulmo- nary edema, lesions on lung tissue and other respiratory disorders. The Penn State group, head- ed by Heather L. Papinchak and E. Jay Holcomb, published their findings in a recent issue of the journal HortTechnology. They chose spider plant, snake plant and golden pothos as test sub- jects because they were cheap and readily available. The ex- perimental plants were grown in a greenhouse with a char- coal-filtered air supply system that kept ozone levels at 5 parts per billion — comparable to the average ozone emissions from a photocopier. Placing the plants in sealed chambers, the scien- tists pumped in ozone until a concentration of 500 ppb was reached, then measured how long it took for ozone levels to return to baseline. For all three houseplant spe- cies, the ozone concentration fell faster than in plantless con- trol chambers. There was no THE DIRT By Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan It’s a plant — and an air filter Mark Costantini / The Chronicle 2006 In a follow-up to a 1980s NASA study, Penn State scientists found spider plants remove bad ozone from indoor air. Sullivan continues on L2 Inside: Nearly indestructi- ble house- plants. L2 In many ways, the choices that Chapman makes with foliage are second nature. It’s not simply because as the owner of Lila B. Design (named for her grandmother and great-grand- mother), she isn’t limited to premixed supermarket bou- quets and hardware store houseplants. It’s Chapman’s knack for knowing how some of the most unobvious of nature’s greens can be integrated as decorative objects throughout her airy Mission District studio. “I try to connect food with flowers,” says Chapman. “Something that will come in useful later.” No matter the level of whimsy, she manages to give her peculiar-meets-practical Chapman continues on L3 FALL DECOR: GREENING THE HOUSE www.carpeteria.com *Offer expires 12/31/09. Special terms of no payment, no interest option for 12 months will apply to purchases charged with approved credit to your Carpeteria card issued by Citibank. No payments are required during the option period.The no interest option means there is no interest if your purchase is paid in full within the 12 month period; otherwise, interest accrues from date of purchase at the regular APR for purchases. The regular APR is 26.40% as of 1/1/09.The APR may vary. Not valid with any other discount or promotion. Financing Minimum $500 purchase required. 10% deposit required on all orders. See store for details. $.99 special pricing on select in stock Carpet, Laminate,Tile and Vinyl while supplies last. Professional installation available at additional cost. Minimum purchase required. Tile and laminate sold by full boxes only. Photos for illustration only. Contractor's Lic. #397779. FREE Shop-At-Home 1.800.338.5555 San Francisco 2930 Geary Blvd 415-668-2234 Mountain View 612 San Antonio Rd 650-965-9600 Campbell 415 E. Hamilton Ave 408-374-1550 Newark 5741 Stevenson Blvd 510-440-1366 Dublin 6632 Dublin Blvd 925-828-5330 San Leandro 1933 Davis Street 510-569-1600 Pleasant Hill 1625 Contra Costa Blvd 925-676-3121 Salinas 148 John Street 831-757-2974 99 ¢ per square foot (material only) FLOORING AS LOW AS 99 ¢ per square foot (material only) FLOORING AS LOW AS
Transcript
Home&GardenSan Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | Section L
By Chantal LamersSPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Baylor Chapman’s San Francisco home isn’t about for-mal floral centerpieces or huge houseplants. For thesought-after designer, known for sustainable gardens andfloral arrangements, home is about personal touches, re-purposing materials and using nature’s knickknacks totheir utmost potential.
DESIGN
Art fromnature’sodditiesUnexpected displaysbring rooms to life
Ru
ssel
l Yip
/T
he
Ch
ron
icle
Baylor Chapman, owner and floral designer of Lilia B. Design in the Mission District, is known for sustainable gardens.
Durable and decorative asthey are, spider plants tend tobe taken for granted. Accordingto a team of Penn State scien-tists, though, the plants may beperforming a vital service: re-moving ozone from indoor air.That may also be true of snakeplants and golden pothos.
Ozone is a paradoxical gas. Inthe upper atmosphere, it helpsshield the planet from harmfulultraviolet radiation; thinningozone layers over the poles havebeen a major environmentalconcern. At ground level, ozoneis a bad actor, a major compo-nent of smog. It’s also a worri-some indoor pollutant in officesand homes, with copy ma-chines, laser printers, ultravioletlighting and some electrostaticair purification systems asknown or suspected sources.Human health consequences
include pulmo-nary edema,lesions on lungtissue and otherrespiratorydisorders.
The Penn State group, head-ed by Heather L. Papinchak andE. Jay Holcomb, published theirfindings in a recent issue of thejournal HortTechnology. Theychose spider plant, snake plantand golden pothos as test sub-jects because they were cheapand readily available. The ex-perimental plants were grownin a greenhouse with a char-coal-filtered air supply systemthat kept ozone levels at 5 partsper billion — comparable to theaverage ozone emissions from aphotocopier. Placing the plantsin sealed chambers, the scien-tists pumped in ozone until aconcentration of 500 ppb wasreached, then measured howlong it took for ozone levels toreturn to baseline.
For all three houseplant spe-cies, the ozone concentrationfell faster than in plantless con-trol chambers. There was no
THE DIRTBy Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan
It’s a plant— and anair filter
Mark Costantini / The Chronicle 2006
In a follow-up to a 1980s NASAstudy, Penn State scientistsfound spider plants removebad ozone from indoor air.
Sullivan continues on L2
Inside: Nearlyindestructi-ble house-plants. L2
In many ways, the choicesthat Chapman makes withfoliage are second nature. It’snot simply because as the ownerof Lila B. Design (named for hergrandmother and great-grand-mother), she isn’t limited topremixed supermarket bou-quets and hardware storehouseplants. It’s Chapman’sknack for knowing how some of
the most unobvious of nature’sgreens can be integrated asdecorative objects throughouther airy Mission District studio.
“I try to connect food withflowers,” says Chapman.“Something that will come inuseful later.” No matter the levelof whimsy, she manages to giveher peculiar-meets-practical
Chapman continues on L3
FALL DECOR: GREENING THE HOUSE
www.carpeteria.com
*Offer expires 12/31/09. Special terms of no payment, no interest option for 12 months will apply to purchases charged with approved credit to your Carpeteria card issued by Citibank. No payments are required during the option period. The nointerest option means there is no interest if your purchase is paid in full within the 12 month period; otherwise, interest accrues from date of purchase at the regular APR for purchases. The regular APR is 26.40% as of 1/1/09. The APR may vary.Not valid with any other discount or promotion. Financing Minimum $500 purchase required. 10% deposit required on all orders. See store for details. $.99 special pricing on select in stock Carpet, Laminate, Tile and Vinyl while supplies last.Professional installation available at additional cost. Minimum purchase required. Tile and laminate sold by full boxes only. Photos for illustration only. Contractor's Lic. #397779.
FREE Shop-At-Home 1.800.338.5555
San Francisco 2930 Geary Blvd 415-668-2234Mountain View 612 San Antonio Rd 650-965-9600Campbell 415 E. Hamilton Ave 408-374-1550Newark 5741 Stevenson Blvd 510-440-1366Dublin 6632 Dublin Blvd 925-828-5330San Leandro 1933 Davis Street 510-569-1600Pleasant Hill 1625 Contra Costa Blvd 925-676-3121Salinas 148 John Street 831-757-2974
99¢per square foot
(material only)
FLOORINGAS LOW AS
99¢per square foot
(material only)
FLOORINGAS LOW AS
HOMESan Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | L3
handmade creations anair of organic sophis-tication. They could in-clude a simple gatheringof cheery persimmons oran abstract piece of gingerroot displayed amongframed photos.
Typically, it meansutilizing unpredictablegroupings or bits andpieces others would castoff as waste. Mini water-melons on a crisping vine,displayed over a stack ofbooks. Or a dainty straw-berry vine draped along atelevision console. Dog-wood, cotton or figbranches, as well as un-ruly piles of cedar cones,carefully arranged horsechestnuts and acorns yetto pop from their pods allhave promise.
Combined, these curi-ous details are successfulin Chapman’s 850-square-foot space. Before shemoved into the convertedAllied Box Factory, shewas inclined to favorrustic, vintage furnish-ings. To better suit thedecidedly urban palette —and because Chapman’spenchant for reusing andrepurposing isn’t limitedto offbeat botanicals —she mixed in refined mod-ern wood and metal piec-es.
Yet her partiality to-ward salvage still pays offhere, such as when a dis-mantled light fixturebecomes a vase. Tar-nished silver urns displaysucculent bouquets.
On her 500-square-footdeck, a dining bench(doubling as storage) isborn from an old metalstorage container pluckedfrom the back of a truck.Found shutters given acoat of paint and thenplanted with succulentswrapped in weed clothadd some height to herpotted garden.
To make up for the lackof walls inside, she as-sembled mini vignettesthat mix her signaturepared-down casual charmwith the practicality ofstorage space. “Eventhough I don’t have fullwalls, I like to createrooms within the onelarge space. I use rugs andfurniture to delineate thespace. I like flow and easymovement from one placeto the next.”
Still, Chapman reliesheavily on botanicals of allkinds to provide patternsagainst a subdued back-drop. “I look for shapesand textures, somethingwith high impact. Anarrangement of flowersmay not have the sameimpact as a big moss ball.”It’s a method that can beachieved without plants,she says. Twig shapedhooks, prints from vin-tage horticultural booksand floral-printed textiles.(Her own dining roomtable bench is made cozywith throw pillows cov-ered in vintage frondprints her sister collectedin Thailand.)
No matter, the spareand chic collections aredictated by a few simplerules: They have to beeasy and they have to
endure. “I look for thingsthat will last. Quality overquantity.” Rather thansplurging on flowers thatmight not make it throughthe weekend, Chapmanaccessorizes with trios ofbumpy Osage oranges, alone dried thorny devil’sclaw and, perhaps, anarchitectural dried euca-lyptus pod to adorn herbedside table.
These small, spareaccessories also provideversatility. “I like to movethings around,” saysChapman. “I like people totouch things, experiencethem, raise questions.”
Her craving to experi-ment with uncommonplants and flowers recent-ly led her to cultivate herown supply. She uses therooftop of neighboringStable Cafe and shares the
perimeter of a paved com-mercial lot in Dogpatch totend to her own unusualand locally grown blooms.
What makes her choic-es even more ingenious isthat they help solve anage-old problem: how tokeep touches of naturepresent without theirwilting. Securing a plantthat’s easy to care for andcomplements a design is achore. Another issue, saysChapman, is time.
“But there are so manyplants and/or naturalthings that one can use tobring the outdoors in.They are easy, in yourhome already and youmight even be able to eatthem after you admirethem for a while.”
Building Resources:“Beautiful tumbled glassto pour into the bottom ofa vase. Our old shutters,turned succulent wall,came from here.”
701 Amador St., San Fran-cisco, (415) 285-7814.buildingresources.org
Cliff’s Variety Store:“More than just nails. …You can create a ton ofarrangements with theone-of-a-kind vases,planters and pots. Look forsmall wood bowls, cheesedomes for terrariums andinteresting chains.”
479 Castro St., San Francis-co, (415) 431-5365. cliffs-variety.com.
Molte Cose: “Vintageheaven: beautiful napkins,teacups and more.”
2044 Polk St., San Francis-co. (415) 921-5374.
San Francisco FlowerMart: “The most amazingflowers, fruits and plants.”(Some vendors are opento the public from 10 a.m.to 3 p.m. Monday throughSaturday.)
San Francisco ScrapMetal: “The outdoor din-ing bench/storage unit forgarden supplies camefrom here. It was once onthe back of someone’struck.”
99 Mississippi St., SanFrancisco. (415) 863-3508
S.F. designer has a sense of repurposeChapman from page L1
This centerpiece adds color to Baylor Chapman’s dining table.
Baylor Chapman traded a refrigerator for this chest, above.The vase is a repurposed light fixture, and the candlestickscame from her grandmother. Osage oranges, below, give apleasant scent. Right: A grafted euphorbia (left) and orchidadorn her grandmother’s cabinet. The lamp is from her sister.
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Russell Yip / The ChronicleDischidia pecteniodesfrom Berkeley Bowl.
Major Two Day AuctionSaturday/Sunday Nov. 7-8
Stained Glass Windows of San Franciscoscenes, from the Hilton Hotel Union Square
