Sometimes not knowing the city you are exploring can be a blessing. Such was the case on my recent visit to San Francisco. Wanderlust matched with a gravitational pull towards all things breathtaking and beautiful drew me along a typically steep and visually charming street. In the distance, a bright red door {top half open to invite in the breeze and my admiring gaze} drew me forward. Then, through the opening I spotted the most unusual, elegant and over-scaled light fixtures. Assuming this must be an interior design shop, I impishly swung open the other half of the lovely paneled red door and invited myself inside. It was the surprised looks on the faces of this beautiful space’s beautiful occupants {along with their polite and warmly quizzical greeting} that led me to discover that I had in fact stepped inside the wonderful world of the Interior Design offices of Fisher Weisman. Not a retail shop, but undoubtedly a feast for the senses.

Given that they do not have a retail home to which I may direct you for a visit, I will instead share with you just a taste of this dynamic design duo’s incredible work.

Photograph: Grey Crawford via Simplifying Fabulous

Photograph: Grey Crawford via Simplifying Fabulous

Photograph: Grey Crawford via Simplifying Fabulous

Photograph: Grey Crawford via Simplifying Fabulous

Photograph: Grey Crawford via Simplifying Fabulous

Photograph: Grey Crawford via Simplifying Fabulous

As you can see, their portfolio is at once diverse, refined and highly sophisticated. Though each space is clearly as unique as its inhabitants, you may notice a signature element in many of them: custom pieces artfully crafted – or shall I say encrusted – with shells. {Note the ceiling mounted faucet above the tub in the elegant ensuite bath; the chandelier in the antique-mirrored dining room; and the large, open barrel chandelier in the modern living room above.}

It was just such a pair of enormous and elaborate light fixtures that drew me into their design studio on that fateful day. This is in fact one of their signature looks for some of the custom-designed lighting and furnishing they create for their clients. To me it looks as though each piece in this collection has been dipped into the ocean just long enough for magical sea creatures to adorn each table, chair and chandelier with a blanket of off-white shells. If barnacles could be transformed into beautiful jewelery, this is no doubt how they would appear.