March 31, 2024The San Francisco–based designer Nicole Hollis is a master of moody, warm modernism. Her meticulously edited, high-contrast interiors give priority to big, statement-making moves over endless layers of accessories. Deeply welcoming, they are also artfully composed. And even her neighbors are witness to her embrace of the unexpected: Hollis can lay claim to stoking the trend for black house paint after coating her own 1870s Victorian townhouse with the inky hue years ago.
Although almost every room she designs offers a hint of mystery or discovery, their deeper soul often comes from texture, and plenty of it: sculptural one-offs crafted by artisans, timeworn vintage furniture and weathered and leathered wood and stone.
“Mixing eras is very important to me,” says the 1stDibs 50 honoree. “I’m attracted to working with craftspeople to create new things, but I definitely also incorporate vintage pieces. I like the tension that creates.”
Now, 1stDibs shoppers will have a chance to bid on some of the character-rich pieces Hollis would normally reserve for herself. The designer has curated a special selection of 1stDibs Auctions finds offered with no reserve, from a brutalist 1960s sculpture carved from black stone to a twisted bronze 1990s work by the contemporary artist Mark Beltchenko to deceptively simple mid-century-modern furniture, including a slatted-wood side table and a weighty mahogany coffee table by Hendrik Van Keppel and Taylor Green.
Hollis recently talked with Introspective about her interiors, her latest inspirations and what she can’t resist on 1stDibs.
1. How are your projects different today than when you started?
I don’t think there’s ever been an abrupt change, but there’s been gradual change, for sure. The more I collaborate with clients, the more I travel and the more I’m exposed to art and design, the more it influences the work. It’s just richer now. I also have better relationships with craftspeople that I can leverage, and I have a greater knowledge of what’s possible. Once I get interested in something, I tend to do a deep dive, so my knowledge has deepened over the years.
I’ve even learned to love nineteen-seventies design, which has surprised me. There are some great ideas and takeaways I hadn’t referenced before, like the work of Pierre Cardin. It’s minimalism and geometry and the sunken conversation pit. The furniture is built-in, low-lying and more architectural. I’m still not into the eighties, though, maybe because I grew up then.
2. What was one of your earliest interior design inspirations?
I was very enamored with Philippe Starck and some of his hotels in the nineties. They were mind-blowing back then. It was such theater, the way he used lighting to create drama. To this day, I still think about his fantastic use of lighting.
3. What’s one thing that recently inspired you?
I’m always inspired by sculptural pieces, like the work of Faye Toogood and her exploration into materiality, restraint in form and purity of process. I also went to a dinner in January at the estate of sculptor JB Blunk [1926–2002], in Inverness, north of San Francisco, and it was just so beautiful and influential. To see his house and learn more about how he started in ceramics, how he met Isamu Noguchi and apprenticed with Kitaoji Rosanjin and Kaneshige Toyo in Japan, and how they collaborated right in my own backyard was amazing. I also admire the work JB’s daughter, Mariah Nielson, has done in preserving and furthering her father’s legacy with the gallery Blunk Space. There was a wonderful exhibition last fall with works by Martino Gamper that he made there.
4. What do you love about 1stDibs Auctions?
I love the thrill of an auction, especially if I think I’m going to get something for a good price. It does require a commitment of time, but I’m in. That’s why I love a curated auction. Somebody’s already preselected pieces that I can go to instead of being completely overwhelmed by the entire inventory.
Another thing I love about 1stDibs is that you can find pieces that nobody else knows anything about. Or maybe it’s a great piece that nobody’s into right now. With some, I don’t even know who the artist is, but I’m just certain it would be fantastic in a house. I’ve been known to buy things that I absolutely do not need but have to have.
5. What are some of your favorite things from 1stDibs?
I just bought a vintage photograph of David Bowie, a Ziggy Stardust outtake. It doesn’t even have a signature, but it’s just total rock ’n’ roll. We also have a large cabinet in our kitchen from Belgium that’s been with us for a long time. It has old white paint, and it’s just part of the kitchen cabinetry and holds our glassware.
I also collect Oceanic and African masks. When I see them come up, I buy them, and sometimes they’re much bigger or smaller than I expect. I should know better, because I’m a designer! But I just get so excited and click away.
