What makes a great bachelor pad? Rocking state-of-the-art audio system, maybe? Gleaming Le Corbusier chrome and leather seating? Or maybe a flashing neon Heineken sign?
Kenzi Parton and Rafael Corrales found a romantic city view but none of the above when they came back from Argentina at Christmastime 2006 and their friend Ron Jankov, president and CEO of NetLogic Microsystems, offered them the use of his South of Market pied-a-terre while they were house hunting.
"The place was kind of abandoned - there were no matching drinking glasses, no pots, bulbs were burned out," Corrales said. "He'd bring guests over to drink Cristal after a party, and they were going to be drinking out of glasses pilfered from various clubs and restaurants rather than matching crystal."
"A beautiful apartment, a beautiful view," Parton said. "But it felt very empty."
Not at all, she added, the kind of place with which Jankov, 48, would make a favorable impression on a date.
"No way!" she said. "That would have been the end of it. ... You wouldn't believe he was the CEO of a company - I'd probably have thought he was making up a story."
These days, Parton and Corrales can drink out of handcrafted Baccarat crystal and sleep on luxurious Frette linens when they visit Jankov at what is finally more to him than a city crash pad. Turns out, he didn't really need beer signage, stereo equipment or sleek furniture - just some things he already owned, along with fresh paint, a few additions and a woman's touch.
The feminine helping hands belong to Lawanna Cathleen Endonino, the designer Parton and Corrales brought to the table to transform Jankov's occasional place to sleep into a home where he comfortably enjoys the city life and welcomes friends.
"I walked in and knew he needed me," Endonino said. "He said, 'Please make me a place my friends won't make fun of.' "
"It was half about presenting myself in a certain way and half about being able to enjoy it myself," Jankov said. "I love art and have an uncle who traveled around the world collecting it, and I've spent a lot of time in Japan and always loved the architecture and design culture there."
Jankov also has a home in Woodside he describes as "a country estate look, made of redwood on a big estate of 6 acres, very rural, very quiet and peaceful, and way too boring for weekends." He purchased an 1,800-square-foot unit on the 57th floor of the yet-to-be-completed One Rincon, so the Avalon Towers apartment represented "a practice run," he said.
Endonino listened carefully and then got to work. First, she stretched the limitations of decorating a rental unit, painting the entry a dark mix of chocolate and charcoal gray that provided a dramatic canvas for the paintings that greet visitors. She used Devine Paint's Almond, which looks blue on the walls, in the main living area, and covered the guest room walls in Donghia's gray-taupe hemp wallpaper. (The walls will have to be restored to rental vanilla when Jankov moves out, of course.)
She also changed the lighting cans and replaced the bulbs with incandescents, an expenditure of less than $1,000 that she says "was well worth it - it's a great way to really change things." She also would have liked to do some custom natural-fiber window coverings, but that seemed a waste on a short-term rental, so they left the various blinds alone.
She picked out some sisal rugs from Crate & Barrel to define the living spaces over the wall-to-wall carpeting, and then shopped for furniture all over the map, with Jankov's own couch and Roche-Bobois dining table as cornerstones.
The big splurges: a Bang & Olufsen plasma TV, a Noguchi IN50 coffee table, custom beds and nightstands from Rahn Woodworking, the aforementioned Frette and Baccarat accessories, Robert Stivers photos and paintings from Baxter & Cook and ArtHaus, and Jankov's own collection.
In his years as vice president and general manager of Cyrix Corp.'s Asia operations, he spent a lot of time in Japan and became an admirer of Asian design, so he had a chest from Korea for one corner. He also had an adventurous, "well-traveled" uncle, Edison Brubaker, who collected art.
"These mean something to me," Jankov said, pointing to paintings hanging over the bar. "He got these when he went on a hunting trip for anacondas in the Amazon."
Endonino found that bar on a shopping trip to Crate & Barrel. She found other furnishings on eBay, at Brownstone, Candace Barnes, Unique Images, Design Within Reach, Restoration Hardware and even Ikea; her source list on this project is too long for publication.
The resulting blend of the luxurious and the inexpensive, the antique and the personal, portrays Jankov as a successful bachelor who cares about comfort and the finer things in life, yet doesn't feel compelled to show off.
"It doesn't go over the top," Parton said. "Bachelor pads can be too sterile or too modern and not show any personality. This is a less superficial way to go."
Endonino defines the mix as Asian Modern; Jankov describes it as uniquely personal.
"I did not describe this at all," he said. "Yet it turned out to be exactly what I wanted."
He's clearly thrilled, and no longer embarrassed to have friends over. The day of The Chronicle's first visit, 10 empty wine bottles on the kitchen counter memorialized Jankov's New Year's Eve gathering; the day of the second visit, he held one of the blind wine tastings that have become popular within his circle.
"Women notice it more than the men, and they just love it," Jankov said happily. "Nobody thinks this is done in a way that's inappropriate. There's no Laura Ashley here."
No beer sign either. Which, guys, is probably a fine omission when the aim is to create a haven that appeals to the opposite sex.
"I think a woman could live here too," Endonino said. "It's very comfortable."
Bachelor vs. bachelorette?
Lawanna Cathleen Endonino was working on a "bachelorette pad" about the same time she completed Ron Jankov's apartment. Whereas Jankov "wanted comfort and a beautiful crash pad to entertain in and enjoy himself," the bachelorette was creating a full-time home where "she could entertain as well as give herself the feeling of nesting or settling down."
The bachelorette wanted to mix maturity, femininity and masculinity, Endonino said, and thus went for a "sexy boudoir" Parisian look that suited her taste but that she hoped men would also like.
So it would seem that two elements most essential in a singles pad are comfort and personality. "Even if it's just your crash pad, it should reflect who you are," said former bachelor Rafael Corrales. "There should be a symmetry between the time you spend outside your home when you're dating, and what your home is like."
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