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“It was really bad,” says designer Regan Baker of the original state of her recent project, a boring blank canvas that had been flipped a few years prior. Zero personality and build-grade finishes as far as the eye could see. The twist? It wasn’t a traditional home, but a 1970s houseboat—a first for Baker and her team at Regan Baker Design.
Her client, a founder located in the San Francisco area, had a clear vision for the house located halfway between the city and Marin. He wanted a home that would support his hybrid live/work lifestyle—think a bike ride with friends in the morning followed by a place for everyone to sneak away for a Zoom call in the afternoon. His interior style was heavily influenced by the Bauhaus movement, so incorporating that design direction was a must. Plus, because it’s on the smaller side, every nook and cranny needed to be utilized.
For Baker, it was an immediate yes. When smart space planning and custom millwork are your favorite design tools, a houseboat is a dream project.
The Mission: Make the Boat Feel Like a Boat
Visually speaking, Baker’s main initiatives were to warm up the space and accentuate the natural curves of the boat. Where the previous owners tried to hide the ceiling curve, Baker leaned in. Wood paneling immediately helped with the “make it feel like a boat” goal and custom kitchen cabinets fit to the shape of the ceiling highlighted the design feature in a unique way.
Look closely at the entry staircase and you’ll see rope-wrapped steel poles. Inspiration struck Baker while visiting Copra, a local restaurant specializing in South Indian fare—they also happen to have multiple floor-to-ceiling rope installations. She left dinner thinking, “This is exactly what we’re going to do.” They wanted to let light in, but creatively avoid the usual glass/railing combination. The added texture and nod to boat life was a bonus.
Seeking Wave-proof Design Solutions
Every single detail was designed to accommodate life on the water. Foremost, for comfortability purposes, but the team also tapped a structural engineer to make sure the renovation went smoothly. Cabinets have recessed pulls, because stumbling into hardware hurts. A custom, super-soft headboard was attached directly to the wall to save space and prevent head bumping. The fireplace is strategically situated across the room from the kitchen to balance the weight on each side. Weighted doors and hooking mechanisms were used to avoid slamming. Another fun challenge: Realizing a level would be useless, meaning “every single thing” was measured from the ground up.
Taking Small Space Living to the Extreme
Baker, like any good city dweller, has an affinity for making “every nook and cranny” work hard, whether it’s with strategic space planning or smart storage solutions. The dining table is placed specifically to separate the kitchen and living spaces—it’s also movable to allow for flexibility when entertaining a larger group. Cabinets below the table serve as storage for less frequently used items and the drawers above flip down to reveal outlets for easy laptop charging during the work day. In the primary bedroom, the platform bed is full of custom storage. Drawers pull out at the foot of the bed while cabinets (again, designed with hidden outlets) open up and act as a nightstand.
Most impressively, the second bedroom serves as a gym, guest room, and home office. A custom fold-out desk, Murphy bed, and wall of gym equipment behind an accordion closet door make it the most multi-functional room in the house. “We pride ourselves in innovation,” she says. “And I feel like when you live in Silicon Valley, people actually get excited about that kind of stuff. And I do as well. So we can create something that’s special, that’s different.”
Pick Your Primary Colors Carefully
How do you make a Bauhaus-inspired primary palette feel colorful and inviting, but not too playful? Lean into warmth. Red ultimately won as the color for the kitchen cabinets, as blue felt too matchy-matchy with the view of the water and yellow was just not quite right. Her client made the final decision, with Baker’s support. “Because of the wood tonally, it felt like it was going to be a much warmer space because of that [color]. And more refined, honestly.”
Bold blue and splashes of yellow were left to smaller secondary spaces, like the bathrooms. Even the plates in the home gym are within the palette, sourced by the client himself. “He really leaned into color,” says Baker.
Splurge on Special Touches
You wouldn’t throw a crappy old frame on your most prized piece of art. Baker applied the same principle to framing the view, which is the whole point of living by the sea, afterall. They removed the harsh, angular black frame, enlarged the windows and doors, and made the curved, wooden frame seamlessly blend while also highlighting the focal point.
The houseboat’s coolest frame isn’t in the living area, but the bathroom, with a porthole-inspired shower opening. The custom-built stainless steel splurge was fabricated to add a nautical flair to the home, but also to hide the impossible-to-avoid wonky spacing that happens when tiling a totally round space. Once installation was complete, it was all smooth sailing.
