How did Stephen Moore Home start?
I’ve always been fascinated by how people live in a house and make it their own. Home is a complex word, and the journey to finding refuge is such a personal one.
After years of buying, selling, and fixing-up houses, I took a sabbatical with my family and spent a few years living in the UK, where the small shops of London and Paris reminded me of rummaging through Southern country stores as a kid. When I returned to San Francisco, I knew I wanted to open a mercantile, and creating Stephen Moore Home was a way to join real estate, design, and shopkeeping all under one roof.
Where is Stephen Moore Home located?
I live in Noe Valley, a short walk from the neighborhood’s commercial hub, 24th Street. I love that it still feels like a local shopping destination and always admired a particular corner Victorian. When the original toy shop that was there closed, I jumped at the chance to take over the space and designed it to feel like an old country store. I covered the walls with beadboard, the ceiling with pressed tin, and furnished it with lights and fixtures I brought back from London. There’s something so comforting about the reference to traditional shopkeeping and it’s a great counterpoint to the more contemporary hand-crafted homegoods I carry.
How do you manage real estate, design, and the shop, all at the same time?
The evolution of my work from buying and selling, to renovating and designing, to furnishing… that journey was intuitive, so it helps that they literally fall under one roof. The shop is a great place to talk to people about the things that make their house a home. Those conversations sometimes lead to consulting on a room or designing an entire house. If they’re interested in buying or selling real estate, I’ll set up a meeting with my partner, Sue, and we’ll pursue that together with Compass. These are all parts of the same story—the story of finding and making a home—and I’m really fortunate to have a great team helping me get it all done.
What do you do when you’re not working?
When I’m not at the shop, my husband and I, along with our two kids and a pair of black Labs, head north to Sonoma County, where we keep bees, farm apples, and are constantly fixing up an old house.