Austrian Treasures Abound at Claudia Juestel’s Adeeni Design Galerie

Just before the holidays an exciting new design gallery opened on Post Street several blocks from Union Square in downtown San Francisco. The Adeeni Design Galerie is the new home base for interiors guru Claudia Juestel. For the past 17 years, Juestel has operated a successful design firm that specializes in everything from historic restoration to contemporary interiors with original artwork and bespoke furnishings. Now with the Adeeni Design Galerie, she’s bringing her impeccable eye and unique finds to the everyday consumer. If it feels like you are walking into Juestel’s home when you open the door to the salon that’s because you are. She lives upstairs from the gallery and the back of the space houses her design team and an intimate office. Hospitality is in her blood—Juestel was born into a family of hoteliers in Salzburg—and she immediately offers you a drink. Water or perhaps a Viennese coffee from Meinl, imported specifically for the Galerie?

Photo Credit: Jana Asenbrennerova for Drew Altizer Photography

Talk with Juestel for a couple of minutes and it’s impossible not to notice her otherworldly charm. Despite the fact that she’s lived in SF for 31 years, she hasn’t lost the allure and style of her native Austria. As she points out vintage mid-century German bisque porcelain vases and luxe cocktail coupes with black stripes by Josef Hoffmann, she infuses the shop with a childlike enthusiasm. “When I’m designing a space for someone, I look at it as set design,” she explained to Haute Living while perched in a jade green velvet and pony hair chair from Coup d’Etat. “But you are building a stage set for someone’s life. I look at the client and their personality like a movie and answer the question what is the story of their life?” However, when putting together her store, she turned to the story of her own life. “I looked at my background and what wasn’t represented well in San Francisco on the showroom and retail side,” she says. “I went back to my own culture and the history of Austria. I wanted to focus on Austria and the surrounding countries that I love like the Czech Republic, France, Italy, and Germany.” Juestel is particularly fond of the time period before the first World War, when Austria flourished as an empire.

With black floors and cabinetry, white walls with chartreuse green accents, the space is elegant and stylish.  There are four different types of items: vintage pieces Juestel has found on shopping trips to Europe, modern pieces made from the Adeeni Design Group’s private label (sofas, cashmere throws, pillows, etc.), china from Austrian porcelain maker, Augarten, and original works by designers and artists like Michelle Nussbaumer and Carrie Ann Plank. The shelves are stocked with beautiful vintage serving ware, sleek sculptures, and glass objects making it the ideal spot to find a gift for a sophisticated friend. Most of the pieces are one of a kind. In need of a heavy gold French medal? Miniature glass candy bowl? Danish pepper grinder? Lauscha glass? These are the types of treasures you’ll come across at Juestel’s expertly curated shop.

All interior photos courtesy of: Christopher Stark