Hi Everyone,
Are you ready for another amazing home tour? Today we’re headed to San Francisco to tour the dream home of Katy Polsby, the CEO of textile brand CW Stockwell. You know that iconic banana leaf wallpaper at The Beverly Hills Hotel? Well, CW Stockwell is the brand that created it. Pretty amazing, right? This tour is special in so many ways, but one of my favorite parts about it is how Katy mixed and matched patterns all over the house. She styledsome of my simpler pieces and I love how they stand out against the different textiles. Every inch of this house is designed with clear intention and each room is better than the last. Even the mix of blues on the exterior of the house is mesmerizing. Let this home inspire you to bring new art into your home. Today marks the start of our Friends and Family sale event where you can take up to 30% off sitewide. So, should we jump right into it? I’m going to let Katy take it away...
Hi Katy, thanks for welcoming us into your beautiful home. Would you mind taking a moment to tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m Katy Polsby, and I am the owner and CEO of CW Stockwell, which is a 115-year old heritage textile brand founded in Los Angeles by the grandfather of a close family friend of ours.I live in San Francisco in a neighborhood called NOPA, or “North of the Panhandle”, which, luckily for me, is adjacent to the entrance of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It’s right in the middle of San Francisco, so it’s easy to get everywhere from here - and it’s the perfect neighborhood to take walks with my dog Gertie, or to meet friends for a glass of wine or dinner. When I’m not working on reviving the century-old pattern archive of our company, I’m usually cooking for friends, playing tennis, going to see live music, traveling or working in the garden. I just got back from Palm Beach, Florida this week, and later this year I will travel to Spain to visit the family I lived with during high school, all of whom I am still very close with all these years later. It’s a busy life but I try to make it as balanced and fun as possible!
I can imagine that your career is pretty multi-faceted, could you tell us a little bit more about what you do?
In my current role as CEO of CW Stockwell I wear a lot of (colorful, pattern-happy) hats! Despite the fact that we are 115 years old, we are truly in start-up mode after re-launching our brand just last spring. Having worked for small and large companies during my career, I’ve found that I’m happiest and most effective in a smaller organization. It means I get to try new things, move quickly, and gather instantaneous learnings. But it also means I handle a lot of the day-to-day tasks that could be perceived as “less sexy” that simply have to get done. For example, today I spent two hours moving our samples and other company materials from my house to a storage unit - it was starting to get crowded in here! The very wide range of responsibilities I tackle each week can include inventory management, working with our printer on production issues, product development for new introductions to our fabric and wallpaper line, and direct communication with interior designers who are interested in learning more about our collection. I thrive on the fact that each day is *wildly* different from the next, and different from the day before.
How did you come to take over CW Stockwell? How has your journey been creating and running this business?
The story of how I came to take over CW Stockwell is kind of long - 115 years long. Ha! No, actually - it all happened because of where I grew up - in Pasadena, CA. I lived around the corner from CW Stockwell third-generation owner Remy Chatain, Jr. Remy grew quite close to my family and during the last ten to fifteen years of his life he was a frequent dinner guest, often accompanied my mother to plays and the opera, and he and my father loved to go out for oysters when my mother was out of town. Remy became like a [quiet, eccentric, yet often very sarcastic!] uncle to my brother and me during this period. In the final stages of his life he asked my mother, Jill, to be the executor of his estate, and while he was quite specific about the plans for the proceeds of his assets, he did not seem to have a vision for what might become of the company. It seems to me in hindsight that during the last several decades of running the company, he had become resigned to the idea that no one he knew would be able to keep it going, so therefore it would likely fall into the ether.
My mother, always a persistent go-getter, quickly determined that the best course of action would be to keep the company going herself. Ever inspired to figure things out, she asked herself “How hard can it be?” Five years passed, and my mother was very successfully keeping the proverbial lights on by keeping Martinique® consistently in production the entire time, keeping the customers happy and often visiting our printers with homemade bundt cakes in tow to keep them inspired as well.
Finally the moment came when I realized I could not let another day pass without formulating a plan to reinvigorate and relaunch this heritage brand; I had an epiphanic moment in my parents’ garage where all of the company’s and Remy’s ephemera was housed - I was leafing through the tattered wallpaper sample books we had rescued five years prior as the warehouse was being shut down - and knew I quickly needed to develop a salient vision for how to proceed with CW Stockwell. I gave my notice at Serena & Lily two days later and began full time with the relaunch plan in April 2018.
The “journey” has been a gift - day in and day out, I realize what a total and complete dream job I’ve landed. The fact that my career up until this moment had been centered in the world of Home, with a very specific emphasis on home textiles, in hindsight is pure kismet - so I am able to pull from my experience running merchandising and product development teams at companies like West Elm and Serena & Lily each day in order to make the best possible decisions for our burgeoning little brand.
That’s such an amazing story. Now, will you tell us a little bit about your fabulous home?
I bought this ‘beast’ of a house in 2014 with one of my best friends from college and her husband. We co-own the building and they live in a separate unit upstairs with their two children, 7 and 5 years old. I refer to the house lovingly as a ‘beast’ because it was built in 1904 so it survived the Great Earthquake of 1905, and all the smaller ones since then [knocking on wood as I write that!]. It is a kooky, classic San Francisco Victorian home, and each of our apartments are roughly 1600 square feet.
Before moving in, I remodeled parts of the home to open up the layout, find ways to get more light into the space, and overall to make it more functional. For example - what is now my office was an outdoor laundry porch with a floor that slanted at a 30-degree angle! I also did major renovation on the kitchen -- a big project that involved reconfiguring the room entirely. At the same time, the bones of the house were fantastic. Aside from some fresh coats of paint and refinishing of the hardwood floors, the rest of the house needed almost no attention.
Recently, I added wallpaper and textiles from our 2019 Collection. Highlights include Remy wallpaper in Indigo in the Office, Million Flowers wallpaper in Mint in the Guest Room, natural linen Solaire fabric on the settee in the Reading Nook, and (of course) the iconic Martinique wallpaper in the Powder Room.
Along with my upstairs neighbors, we also redid the backyard -- a regular hangout for our friends in San Francisco. And in 2018 we painted the exterior, a six-week undertaking but the result is a glorious restoration that seems to make the house shine again.
Do you think your personal fashion style aligns with your interior decor style? If so, how?
The idea of ‘no rules apply’ is probably the mantra that aligns with both my interior decor style as well as my personal fashion style. I am not someone who follows all the latest trends - in my home and in my personal fashion choices. In fact, the choices I make are entirely in line with what makes me happy. I spent most of my twenties living in New York City, and I observed So. Much. Black. Clothing. that I actively resisted, introducing more color and more pattern each year into my wardrobe until it was actually difficult for me to come up with an all black outfit should an occasion require such a thing!
Looking back, I can see how that same idea has translated to my home - which is filled with color, light, and pattern. I take nothing very seriously when making decor choices for my home. If I am staring at a piece of art at the Flea Market and it makes me happy, I don’t think twice about it or wonder “is this *good*?” If it makes you smile, or makes you feel good, then it’s good. So these are the things I consider - and not much else- when I decorate or when I am getting dressed.
When were you first introduced to the GM brand? What was your first piece?
I’ve been following Gray’s atomic rise for many years now, and have always loved the spirit behind his work (for many of the same reasons I listed above - it is purely happy, light-hearted, and colorful). My first piece was Ocean Beach Waves - as my dog Gertie and I visit Ocean Beach almost every weekend - we call it Church! It is a very special place where we are both our most relaxed, centered versions of ourselves, and often where I do my best thinking. I recently added wallpaper to the room where it resides, and I love how the calmness and the space within the piece itself create the perfect balance against the richness of our “Million Flowers” pattern. (Side note - I am a huge fan of bedecking wallpapered walls with art, and I definitely plan to add more pieces to these walls!)
As your collection has grown, what was the thought process behind each selection?
Alamo Square Park, San Francisco Our home is just a few blocks to the west of this fabled park (where the famed “Painted Ladies” Victorian Houses are), and I’ve lived in this neighborhood more than twelve years now - so the neighborhood has become a big part of who I am and where I spend my time - both for work and for fun. I love the overhead view of the park at Alamo Square - which, coincidentally, is one of the other places I take Gertie for a breather during the day - one whole side of it is a blissful dog park where she reigns supreme as one of the fastest dogs in the ‘hood! What I love about the piece itself is how well it depicts the juxtaposition of park and city - one of the things I have always loved the most about living in San Francisco is how much green space we have, and how effortlessly it blends with the residential and metropolitan neighborhoods of the city.
Ocean Beach Waves (listed above)
Golden Gate Bridge I got this piece soon after I moved to San Francisco from New York, because at the time I worked in Sausalito, California, which is directly across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. It was a happy reminder that I had just traded the 4 / 5 subway line at rush hour for a leisurely drive across this bridge as my commute, and I truly never tire of the feeling I get when I move across that expanse. The jaw-dropping bay, mountain and ocean views simply never get old.
What about the Gray Malin lifestyle brand do you connect with the most?
Gray Malin’s brand is about as happy, cheerful, open and light-hearted as a brand can get. I think - to put it simply - those are words I use to describe my own aspirations as a person, and those are also values I try to ensure our company holds dearly in everything we do each day as we move forward in growing our own brand. There are plenty of ways that life can be serious, daunting, challenging or anxiety-producing - so I relish Gray’s vision for finding the good, colorful and happy parts of the globe and making them accessible to everyone, so that we can all have a sliver of those magical places in our spaces every day. I hope that one day we at CW Stockwell will be lucky enough to have even just a few of those feelings attributed to us!
Isn’t her home just incredible? Katy, thank you so much for welcoming us into your home. Seeing other people’s interior design always inspires me and I hope it inspires all of you too. You can check out all the amazing textiles that CW Stockwell has to offer on their website.
Explore wanderlust-inspiring artwork on graymalin.com.Take advantage of our Friends and Family promotion happening now and enjoy up to 30% off sitewide!
Cheers!
Xx
Gray
Photography: Matt Sartain