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USA Houzz: What Comes of a Drill, Handsaw and One Resourceful Guy

A tight budget didn't stop Taylor Hoff from decking out his new home with lots of 'new' furniture

Nanette Wong 3 June 2015

Houzz Contributor // Visual storyteller. I love connecting with other like-minded home enthusiasts and scouring Houzz for real home inspiration by real people. In my spare time, I try to think of clever food puns and write about food, design, and San Francisco.

Houzz Contributor // Visual storyteller. I love connecting with other like-minded... More

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“Moving into this apartment was worth going broke for,” says retail visual merchandiser Taylor Hoff. Unfortunately, that meant Hoff didn’t have a lot of money to spend on furnishing his San Francisco rental. “I didn’t want crappy furniture but couldn’t afford nice furniture, so I decided to make it myself,” he says.

Tapping into his creativity and craftsmanship skills passed down from his father, Hoff turned his Mission District apartment into an industrial, retail-inspired space.

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Taylor Hoff and his three housemates
Location: Mission District of San Francisco
Size: 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom

Nanette Wong

Hoff attributes his handiness to his father, who taught him everything about woodworking and building. They even had their own workshop at home, where his father taught him how to use tools and gave him a foundation in craftsmanship.

He doesn’t like the look of dressers but needed a place for clothes, so he decided to build open, retail-store-inspired shelving.

Nanette Wong

Hoff follows a pragmatic design principle: build and design based on functionality. “I want to create solutions to a problem,” he says. Even his tools are stripped down to the basics; Hoff made everything for his room using a drill and handsaw.

He finds inspiration from blogs, Houzz and the minimalist aesthetic of Japanese design. Displayed on one shelf is his collection of vintage cameras.

He sourced most of the wood and brackets from Discount Builders Supply in San Francisco. He also used reclaimed wood from Building Resources, where scrap wood from commercial buildings is sold.

Nanette Wong

While the design of the room is always in flux, Hoff wanted a bed with a low platform. It took three hours to cut each piece to the right length.

Nanette Wong

A lot of the objects in the room are made out of scraps, like this light. Hoff wanted a pendant lamp and happened to have some extra rope. The result is this sleek fixture.

Nanette Wong

His bedroom faces the street and is on the top floor, so it receives a lot of natural light. “It’s a good thing, though – it helps me wake up early in the morning, even on those days when it’s hard to do so,” Hoff says.

Nanette Wong

To gain a little extra privacy, Hoff pieced together some secondhand window frames, covering a pair of doors he didn’t need and giving the room a unique accent feature.

Nanette Wong

Out of everything Hoff has made, the benches are dearest to his heart. “They’re a little rough around the edges,” he says, “but that’s precisely what I love most about them.”

Nanette Wong

These wheels used to be part of a table that Hoff didn’t like and took apart. Now they fit perfectly with the industrial look of the apartment … and will remain here until he decides what to do with them next.

Nanette Wong

The kitchen is shared with three housemates. Hoff created a splashback using chalkboard paint, where they can leave messages for one another.

The hanging pot rack was a shared project, using supplies from Discount Builders Supply.

Nanette Wong

In the back of the apartment is this hidden gem: a gorgeous, light-filled sunroom. The floor used to be, in Hoff’s words, “crappy linoleum”, but a roommate put down plywood to cover it. The surface was then painted a dark slate colour, so it pops against the white finishes. Hoff made the table and a matching bench (tucked underneath).

Nanette Wong

The sunroom is a communal space, where the four housemates can eat or entertain.

Nanette Wong

Hoff plans to add a concrete or marble top to the table.

Nanette Wong

Succulents and other houseplants keep the built-in shelves from looking bare.

Hoff lives just a few blocks away from a popular coffee shop, Four Barrel, which he describes as a second living room.

Nanette Wong

Hoff, shown here, plans to continue making custom pieces for his apartment. “Part of the motivation to make it comes out of it being my own,” he says.

See more photos of this home

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Lorayne Diao Caburubias

inventive, love the bed reading lamp, so simple and so chic

1 Like 8 October 2014 at 8:20pm

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Sheila Rumsey

I like it. It's not my style at all, but there is a certain charm to it that I REALLY like. I, too, would not want my shoes up that high, but otherwise, I think the whole apartment is brilliant. You keep your things neat and have some cool decorative touches, like the cameras and typewriter. For a bunch of young bachelors, I say very well done indeed! I know exactly what I would do with those wheels........

1 Like 3 November 2014 at 12:14pm

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