Slideshow

Frankie’s Finds

A San Francisco food photographer fills her studio with curios, cakes, and local lore.

Previous Next Start over

Slide 1/10

Last Call: Frankeny converted a 1920s phone booth scored from a local flea market into a full bar. She and designer friend James DeMuth worked with Lightspace in nearby Santa Rosa to install lamps, vintage mirrors, and shelves for the booze.
Slide 2/10

The Director’s Chair: Frankeny’s office is set off by a wall of Victorian doors. The oak tabletop desk is outfitted with shelving recovered from an early 1900s post office. The prewar Dr Pepper sign was turned up by Frankeny’s mother in Shiloh, Texas.
Slide 3/10

A Tall Order: A client lobby was partitioned by 11' doors salvaged from the Hillsborough, California, mansion built by Harriet Pullman, heiress to the Pullman railroad car company fortune. Frankeny outfitted the space with a cushy leather couch and lamps made from tree branches. Panes in the doors frame oversize photographs of snap peas and eggs.
Slide 4/10

Great Divide: Solid oak doors from an old church separate the space between the office and kitchen. The antique chalkboard, another flea market find, records checklists and other musings.
Slide 5/10

Outside In: An old picnic table in the kitchen seats clients and photo assistants during lunches and late-night snacks. At the entrance, an old church bench (“Used to hold bibles and other propaganda,” Frankeny says) stands as a makeshift pantry. The dry goods storage was pieced together from closet doors and Turkish valances.
Slide 6/10

Kitchen Aids: True Double refrigerators keep Frankeny’s photo subjects fresh. IKEA baker’s racks and a stainless steel countertop provide plenty of staging ground for stylists.
Slide 7/10

Retro Modern: A vintage meat rack from a nearby bistro stores pots above the latest appliances. The industrial cabinet conceals a dish rack that drains into the sink, and serves as a pedestal for some of Frankeny’s prized collection of classic food packaging.
Slide 8/10

Party Central: A redwood table doubles as a meeting place and buffet for the studio’s famous get-togethers. On the wall: blown-up album covers Frankeny shot for Texas band Medicine Show Caravan.
Slide 9/10

Library Science: The reading room’s saddle-stitched Naugahyde couch and love seat were cribbed from Frankeny’s grandparents’ Texas ranch. A file cabinet from the early 1900s and assorted retro shelving store food magazines and other reference materials.
Slide 10/10

Dog Day Afternoon: The rooftop deck looks out over sunny South Park, the popular stomping ground of San Francisco’s multimedia gulch. A doghouse shelters Frankeny’s favorite models, dachshunds Sunny and Sydnie.

Home & Garden home tour interior decorating
23 Comments · 0 Saves

Written by Leslie Jonath
Photography by Frankie Frankeny

Whether she's shooting a bowl of baby greens for a produce company or a batch of “Wookie cookies” for The Star Wars Cookbook, photographer Frankie Frankeny captures the unexpected charm of everyday objects. Walk through the unassuming steel door of her San Francisco photo studio, and it becomes clear what gives rise to her sensibility: nearly everything within is a study in creative reuse. An accounting file circa 1875 holds film; a movie reel rack from the ’20s keeps tableware. Eco-designer Shawn Hall ferreted out doors, screens, and other architectural artifacts from salvage yards, estate sales, and old churches to create the movable walls that divide up the loft. Friend and designer James DeMuth embellished the shutterbug’s studio in honor of her native Taylor, Texas, with custom marvels like a hanging candelabra made from a rustic planter. “Everything in this space is a little piece of art history,” Frankeny says. “We find extraordinary pieces from the past and give each one a new life.” Take notes.

Learn to convert a travel trunk into a sideboard, Frankie Frankeny style, here.