My Houzz: Walls and Shelves Are This Collector's Colorful Canvas

Every room in Deanne Delbridge’s one-bedroom apartment features a different primary color that reflects the room’s distinct personality. “The living room illustrates my anthropological side,” she says. The shelves are filled with things she has found on walks or in flea markets or has been given as gifts. “The bedroom is my fun, playful side, and the kitchen reminds me of my summers in Kansas, staying with my grandmother,” she says.

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Deanne Delbridge
Location: San Francisco
Size: 1,000 square feet (93 square meters), 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom

In her work as a creative consultant for advertising photographers, Delbridge has a refined sense of graphic design, art direction and color. It’s balanced by her background: Her mother was an interior designer and a risk taker, so Delbridge grew up living with items such as a horse collar mirror and a gilt steamer trunk used as a coffee table. Both sides of her personality and style merge into a surprising whole.

Although at first glance the apartment seems filled with color, only two walls in each room are painted. “You don’t need to paint the whole room,” Delbridge says. A bold color around a window is particularly dramatic, she says.

Although each room has a predominant wall color, there are references to all colors in the accessories and furniture throughout, a good trick for tying everything together.

Sofa slipcover: Ikea; drapes; Bed, Bath and Beyond; rugs: Ikea; coffee table: Max Lieber


A classic example of Delbridge’s style: Her father’s saddle and riding boots hang on one wall. They coordinate well with the packing paper covering the nearby decorative wall sconces, which was there when she moved in, giving the space a rustic look.

For those worried about fire danger, the paper sits well away from the fixtures, which give off very little heat.



Her anthropological side is reflected in her collections, which she groups on walls and shelves.


The long black shelves house her collections of natural, organic and rustic objects. These include old books, vegetation, rocks, wires and wooden boxes, all carefully organized.


A petite grand piano has found a home in the corner of the living room.


Part of the charm of Delbridge’s home is her flexibility in displaying her finds. Here she displays a book on a simple music stand …


… while a plate rack serves as a display stand for materials gathered while hiking.


Summers spent on her grandmother’s Kansas farm were Delbridge’s inspiration for the apple-green walls, white cupboards and hanging pots in her kitchen.


Taking that inspiration one step further, she replaced every kitchen cabinet door with either glass or screens to match her grandmother’s cabinets as well.


Small kitchen tools and supplies form a unique display and are close at hand when it’s time to cook.


She also looks for pots, pans and accessories in reds and greens to match the walls throughout the home.


Delbridge lived in Paris for years, so the kitchen includes displays of some of her French flea market finds.

How to Get That Paris Flea Market Look


The bedroom shows off Delbridge’s love of folk art. The print that dominates the wall is a reproduction of a famous painting in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Bedspread: Macy’s; drapes: Bed, Bath and Beyond


The multicolored rugs are actually blankets from Bulgaria.


Colorful and playful pieces she has collected are displayed on shelves throughout the room.

Display Ideas for Collections of All Kinds


Her antique toy collection comes from travels to Mexico as well as from Chinatown and Cliff’s Variety Store in San Francisco.


The large pencil in the corner was an Art Center College of Design student project.


Although the apartment is small, Delbridge makes great use of every available space, including display shelves built above the doors.


Visitors to the apartment are greeted by a jacket, apron and hat she found in Chiapas, Mexico.


Most of the artwork in the hall is from Delbridge’s photography clients.


The photo of the dog with a pipe in its mouth is from The Manipulator, a magazine from the 1980s.


Additional shelves were fit into the long hallway by Paul Woodford Services. Woodford also placed LED string lights in the hall alcoves to light up some of Delbridge’s antiques.


The Basquiat movie theater poster was a gift from a friend and hangs in the dining room, where it’s visible from the hallway.


Throughout her space Delbridge mixes inexpensive pieces with expensive ones. In the dining room, a hardware trowel hangs beside a vase of handmade glass from Murano, made by Paolo Venini. The girl and cat artwork is not an original painting but a print professionally framed.


One of Delbridge’s antique musical instruments is a yellow ukelele that is a perfect match to the wall it hangs beside.


The original bathroom is still is great shape, and the pink and blue mix well with the rest of the home.


Even the medicine cabinet is beautifully art directed.


Delbridge relaxes in her color-filled home.

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