We are saddened beyond words to report that our dear Gale Melton died January 5th , 2024.
Gale had a unique understanding of how to optimize space in Victorian and early 20th century houses, which are cherished and preserved by Bay Area residents, but whose finishes and floorplans can exasperate the most ardent preservationist. Gale Melton Design served the San Francisco Bay area for 20 years, offering kitchen and bathroom design, color consultation, furnishings, space planning, and general decorating for both period and modern residences.
Before studying design at the University of California at Berkeley, she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History from the American University in Paris, and developed an enduring appreciation for Europe’s architectural and decorative design history. Gale’s lifelong devotion to the arts informs her historically sensitive renovations, bringing an understanding of the design aesthetics of the past to complement the contemporary palette.
A color photo of an all black-and-white marble bathroom. The design left the locations of the old shower, tub and sink in place, replacing the deteriorated fixtures with more modern and streamlined ones, still in keeping with the spirit of the 1919 home in San Francisco’s Sunset District.
A salvaged architectural bracket is juxtaposed with industrial-aesthetic custom metal facings on the open shelving above a new prep sink, mixing old and new elements in an 1870s San Francisco Victorian.
A bone inlay mirror, crystal lamp, and custom windowcoverings help to bring elegance to a Mediterranean style home
A storage cabinet with beautifully detailed eglomise panels by Lynne Rutter, for a Tudor Revival home with orientalist touches in the Forest Hill Historic District in San Francisco.
Proposal for a Gustavian style study in a 1927 Italianate palazzo in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The cool tones inherent to the style were freshened by pops of coral color.
A Noe Valley bedroom was enlivened with a Scalamandre wallpaper in a dreamy impressionistic pattern. The bones of the room— the Victorian trim and mouldings— were left in their original state, while the furnishings added some modern pop.
Painted cabinets designed by Gale Melton for a landmark Victorian in the lower Haight. The original kitchen, long since gutted, was created anew, with full height cabinets using traditional beadboard backing, a rail for a rolling ladder to access the high storage, vintage-feeling fixtures, and soapstone counters.
Every part of this period bathroom was painstakingly planned, from the custom inset tile floor pattern to the marble and wood shower surround. This was a successful collaboration with fellow Guild member Chris Yerke of Restoration Workshop.
An original dining room in the oldest part of the Winchester Mystery House, neglected since the earthquake of 1906, was completely restored to Gale Melton’s design. The walls, floors, and ceiling were carefully mapped, and a collage of original materials from the house’s storage vaults, and site-fashioned mouldings, plus new papers from Bradbury & Bradbury, combined to create a sense of spring in a room without windows.
A bathroom in an historic Victorian makes the most of the twelve-foot ceilings, with a dramatic crown moulding, arched transom window, and a graphic black and white color scheme.
