San Francisco Kitchens and Timeless Treasures, Japanese Style

A new Japanese design book featuring intimate views of the kitchens of 21 San Francisco artists and designers includes a handy Shop Guide of sources for similarly inspired decor.

Timeless Treasures, as shown here, is among the Bay Area shops highlighted by project editor Miki Usui.

Written in Japanese and published by edition Paumes, a small, family-run Japanese publisher, San Francisco Kitchens is the latest in a series of books that have become a sort of creative "bible" for people seeking inspiration.

Raquel Cucurella, whose home in Noe Valley is profiled in the book, acquired vintage sign letters at Timeless Treasures to spell out AMORE, a word with special meaning for her and Zack, the man she came to San Francisco with from her native Barcelona.

The couple discovered Timeless Treasures while searching among what she calls "decoration stores" for things for their flat. Since she and Zack have different preferences, each decorating decision requires conversation and discussion, Raquel says. One area where they find common agreement is in mixing vintage and new designs.

"When we first came into the store, we both immediately loved the vintage letters," Raquel remembers. They decided on the word AMORE "that same day, that same moment, because it is the word that expresses what made us come together to the city," and it describes their "nest", or flat.

She wanted the word spelled in Spanish, but they ultimately went with AMORE in Italian "because Zack had lived in Italy for three years and he fell in love with the small E" that now completes the word on their kitchen wall, as you can see in a photo from the book.

Raquel sounds positively lyrical as she describes their choice of a word for their kitchen. "Amore is the word that entitles our kitchen, where we love to spend so many evening hours preparing dinner, which is our ritual," she says. "It's also where we dance while waiting for the cooking. We practice all the steps we know we are forgetting so easily!"