Life In A Loft -- These Wallpaper Manufacturers Live Over The Shop In A Capitol Hill Loft That Feels Like A Penthouse

TEN YEARS AGO, STEVE Jensen and John Williams merged initials and started a line of wall coverings under the name SJW Studios. The firm's distinctive, textured papers were an instant hit, garnering three Roscoe Awards (the home-furnishings industry's equivalent of the Oscar) over the next five years.

Today, the company's products can be found in 22 showrooms across North America and in the homes of such celebrities as Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, Julie Andrews and Ivana Trump.

With Jensen handling the creative end and Williams the business, the team work out of a humble, turn-of-the-century commercial building on one of Capitol Hill's less-savory side streets. A full-time staff of five produces up to 100 rolls of wallpaper a day, painting and silk-screening each sheet by hand in the ground-floor studio.

Like generations of small-business owners, Jensen and Williams make their home above the shop. Only their place is no grocer's garret, but a spacious, light-filled loft appointed with sleek leather furniture, gleaming marble floors and loads of contemporary art. A sinuous spiral staircase (copied from a Joan Crawford movie set) leads to a large rooftop terrace, suggesting the sophisticated ambiance of a Manhattan penthouse.

Looking around, it's hard to believe that just six years ago the space was an abandoned auto-parts warehouse, with shattered skylights, rain-soaked floors and bars on all the windows.

"It was pretty disgusting," admits Jensen.

Before they could turn the space into a home, the pair had to strip away years of damage and decay. They repaired the grand metal-framed skylights, took out all makeshift partitions and removed the fake wood paneling to reveal the rugged brick walls underneath.

Unfortunately, not all of the brick walls could be saved. Building codes required Jensen and Williams to cover the south wall with insulation and drywall. Jensen applied a sloppy layer of Z-brick to the surface, then distressed it with a wire brush until it looked as bruised and battered as the original. Treated with a coat of white paint, the wall looks identical to the brick wall opposite it.

To lend some privacy to the 30-by-90-foot space, he and Williams erected walls around the kitchen, bedroom and bathrooms. Interior designer Anne Fisher worked with the pair to organize the functions within each of these rooms. The walls of the cubicles were skewed slightly on one side, so that the loft draws you in, growing wider as you progress from the entry to the living and dining area at the opposite end.

Furnishings were kept to a minimum to showcase the paintings, sculptures and photographs filling the loft. Many of the pieces are by Jensen; his work also appears in galleries and collections throughout the U.S. The son of a commercial fisherman, Jensen grew up on a boat in Ballard. He incorporates images of water and waves in much of his work; a few of the loft's pieces were painted directly onto boat sails.

Because they regularly work 12-hour days, Jensen and Williams tried to keep the decor simple and easy to maintain. Black oak cabinets topped with granite run along the south side of the loft, concealing the TV, stereo, bar - even the dishwasher and trash compactor. "We wanted everything as clean and slick as possible," says Jensen. "I mean, I would have covered the sink if we could have."

The cabinets also hide the home's utility lines, eliminating the expense of burying such equipment in the walls or ceiling.

In the master bedroom, the cabinets are replaced by a row of closets - one of which conceals the fire exit. Jensen treated the closet doors like a canvas, turning them into a single, 15-foot-long painting that's as handsome as it is functional.

Such artworks provide the sole touches of color in the home, since all the furnishings and finishes are limited to shades of black, white and gray. "We work with color all day," explains Williams. "It's so easy to live with this. Nothing gets trendy or old-looking."

To give the palette added punch, the owners introduced as many different textures as possible. The living-room fabrics might all be black, but they're black leather, suede, damask and chenille. In the den, ebony-colored chaises rest on a rug fabricated from strips of black leather.

Playful accents - what the owners call their "Liberace touches" - help keep the place from seeming too severe. They hung a fussy Baccarat crystal chandelier over the steel-and-glass dining table and treated a 19th-century day bed to a coat of gaudy silver leaf. A similar finish was applied to the overwrought Italian mirror hanging in the powder room.

During the nearly two years it took to remodel the loft, Jensen and Williams scooped up bargains and packed them away until needed. The marble floor tiles were destined for a hotel in Los Angeles, but when the hotel rejected them, Jensen and Williams picked them up for $3 apiece - less than half the usual price. The whirlpool tub in the master bath was a blemished display model, while the pair of ribbed-glass light fixtures hanging in the kitchen cost $50 at a garage sale.

While living over the shop might seem claustrophobic to some, Jensen and Williams consider it ideal. With the wallpaper studio on the bottom floor, Jensen's art studio in the middle and the loft on top, there's a clear division between each activity. If an idea strikes Jensen in the middle of the night, he can get to the studio in seconds. As commutes go, you can't get much quicker than that.

Seattle writer Fred Albert reports regularly on home design for Pacific and other regional magazines. Steve Ringman is a Seattle Times photographer.