Home tour: an interior designer’s restored 1912 summer sanctuary on Belvedere Island with immersive Bay views

The founder and president of The Wiseman Group shares that when he purchased the home, “it was barely standing and held together by structural paint and termites holding hands.”

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“The house had real issues: no insulation, terrible drainage, lots of decay–so it needed extensive work,” he recalls, referring to the last gut renovation completed in 2009, which restored the residence to its original grandeur.

“We kept the original footprint and layout and focused on sustainable materials that would age quietly,” he adds. “The idea was that, over time, everything would feel as though it had always been there.”

The Italianate Mediterranean Arts and Crafts-style residence served, first and foremost, as the inspiration for Wiseman’s restored summer home, which spans 2,000 sq ft.

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“It’s also about the idea of lounging–of taking your time,” he says. “I’ve always been drawn to places like the Bosphorus, where there’s a culture of sitting, reclining, and conversing.

“That’s why there are so many daybeds and window seats,” he continues. “It’s almost as if the house is telling you to slow down.”

It is this sense of quietude that begins the moment one arrives at the estate. Rather than driving directly up to the residence, visitors must walk along a nature-lined path, pass through a gate, ascend a flight of stairs, and turn a corner before the view gradually reveals itself.

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The house unfolds slowly, its exterior composed of materials selected specifically for the way they patinate over time.

“Bronze windows, limestone walls, and a zinc roof–they were all selected to act as a backdrop to the view, because it has such a strong presence within the house,” Wiseman explains.

Within the split-level residence, the interior designer exercises restraint, employing a palette of soft whites and warm neutrals paired with natural materials and abundant light–allowing the surrounding landscape to take centre stage.

“I work with a lot of colour professionally, so at home I wanted neutrality and quiet,” he shares.

Comfort, too, remains essential to the home, with intimate nooks designed for reclining, reading, conversation, and spending time with friends and family.

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The calm, restorative, and welcoming atmosphere permeates throughout the holiday home, which Wiseman shares with his partner of 35 years, Richard Snyder.

The main level comprises the living room, dining room, and kitchen–formerly a storage closet–which now accommodates a refrigerator, stovetop, oven, dishwasher, and washer-dryer. Meanwhile, the upper level houses the primary bedroom, complete with a dressing area and bath, alongside an office.

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“The spa is made from recycled granite from the Yangtze and sits very quietly within the landscape,” Wiseman shares of one of his favourite elements of the project.

“Early in the morning, watching the sun rise from there, everything feels very still,” he muses. “It captures what the house represents for me–timelessness, restoration, and daily ritual.”

Wiseman is also an avid collector, amassing objects ranging from crystals to pottery. His favourite acquisition–a 300-piece drabware collection by Bill Blass purchased at auction–informed the palette of the lower level.

“At that time, Zoom backgrounds were very important, and we developed a custom colour, applied in lacquer across the office walls and ceiling, before matching it with alpaca textile from Sandra Jordan on the fabric walls of the guest bedroom,” Wiseman elaborates.

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Alongside a guest bedroom and bathroom, laundry area, secondary kitchen, home office was repurposed from a guest suite into a meeting space during the pandemic.

Here, a custom desk of his own design anchors the office, functioning both as a sit-stand workstation and conference table, allowing him to host meetings with up to six colleagues from the bustling San Francisco office and collaborate on projects remotely.

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While the most recent restoration took two and a half years to complete, Wiseman has lived on the property for 25 years–and it is the garden that has occupied most of his attention, evolving gradually over the decades.

The winding paths leading to the water weave through a herb garden, cypress, aeonium, jasmine, aloe, creeping fig, and boxwood. The star of spring, however, is the Japanese wisteria that blooms across the loggia, evoking the romance of the Italian seaside.

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“The overgrown oaks had blocked much of the view, and I methodically shaped them to frame the magical vistas across the San Francisco Bay,” he concludes. “Most of the effort was devoted to converting the planting palette to succulents, which require very little water to maintain.”

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