Speaker A
Hi, I'm Tan France. Welcome to my home, come on in. [upbeat music] The house was built in 1906.
Tour Tan France’s beautifully restored 1906 home featuring vintage decor, custom design, and personal touches.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Preserving original architectural integrity can be combined with modern design elements.
- Personal vision and style can transform a ‘hideous’ house into a beautiful home.
- Functionality in design is essential, especially in frequently used spaces like the kitchen.
- Incorporating meaningful artwork and personal items adds warmth and character.
- Creating spaces for family and friends enhances the home’s emotional value.
What the video covers
- Tan France purchased a 1906 house remotely via FaceTime and restored it while preserving original features.
- The home features a gray and brass color scheme with mid-century modern influences.
- Original light fixtures were rewired and vintage elements like shelves and fireplace were preserved or enhanced.
- The kitchen is designed for functionality with custom concrete countertops and a Viking oven, reflecting Tan’s love of cooking and baking.
- Artwork from local artists and Tan’s husband is prominently displayed throughout the home.
- The dining room has a domed ceiling and custom lighting, designed to host large gatherings of close friends and family.
- A dramatic, heavy chandelier was custom-made in India to add character to the upstairs space.
- Tan shares personal anecdotes about daily life, including morning coffee rituals and notes from his husband.
- The home balances industrial and classic elements, avoiding overly feminine design despite Tan’s personal style.
- Special attention was given to practical storage solutions and creating warm, inviting spaces.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and House Purchase
- 00:57Ground Floor Decor and Design Choices
- 01:38Original Fixtures and Fireplace Restoration
- 02:13Mirror Selection and Living Room Details
- 03:10Kitchen Features and Cooking Space
- 03:58Artwork and Personal Touches
- 04:37Morning Rituals and Husband’s Notes
- 05:31Dining Room Design and Family Gatherings
- 06:22Upstairs Chandelier and Lighting
- 07:55Additional Home Features and Storage
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
I actually ended up purchasing it over FaceTime. I was away, I called my husband, so he came to the home, showed me around on FaceTime, and I said, "We're buying that house." He said, "There's no way, it's hideous."
Speaker A
However, I would like to believe that being incredibly gay, I have vision, and that vision is usually to make things pretty, and here we have it.
Speaker A
Okay, this is a very common misconception, that because I have very easy access to an interior designer, Bobby, that I would have asked Bobby for advice. However, I wanted to show Bobby that I could do it and that I'd learned, and so no,
Speaker A
I didn't ask Bobby Berk. He's seen it, and he seems very impressed. The first thing I purchased for my home was my sofa.
Speaker A
There's a lot of gray that runs throughout the house, a lot of gray and brass, and so having this piece that felt almost mid-century modern with the brass hints dictated the rest of the decor of the ground floor.
Speaker A
Okay, this is the focal point of this room. I wanted to make a feature of this wall. I didn't just want to have arches and not fill them well.
Speaker A
It all centered around this. This we had in our old home, and I like it very much, and so that was going to be the vibe of these shelves, and so almost everything that you'll see on here is from a vintage store
Speaker A
or thrift store, and then there's these awards here which I hide away behind a clock.
Speaker A
And nobody ever gets to see those. I am very proud of what the show has achieved, but I'm also very embarrassed by the accolades.
Speaker A
So these light fixtures were original to the house, and we had them rewired. I love these. I think they're a beautiful sconce.
Speaker A
We were looking at more modern ones. It just didn't fit in with the vibe of the house.
Speaker A
The fireplace was incredibly hideous. It was a terracotta color, it was all tiled, I did not like it at all, but it was original to the house, and I didn't want to rip it out. I wanted to keep as much integrity to the original house as possible,
Speaker A
and so we just painted it so it blends in with the rest of the home.
Speaker A
When you see me on the show "Queer Eye," season one and season two, when I'm often looking off and I feel quite distracted, it's because I was thinking, "Ooh, what mirror is going to go above my fireplace?"
Speaker A
It was so considered that I wanted to make sure we found a mirror that mimicked the shape of the arch on the wall of my home, and we finally found it.
Speaker A
And I think it works beautifully. [upbeat music] So from the living room, we walk into the kitchen. I love that again there's no door, so it feels still relatively open, but we have those comfortable spaces, smaller spaces.
Speaker A
We've made the cabinets gray to make it feel a lot more modern. We added brass touches to make it somewhat classic. This is a custom concrete countertop. I am very comfortable with my masculinity and my femininity. I'm more feminine than masculine,
Speaker A
but when I designed the house, I didn't want it to feel like a woman's home, like a girl's home.
Speaker A
I think it would have been equally lovely but more feminine, I think, to add like a marble countertop. It would have been very nice, but I like that this feels a little bit more industrial and robust.
Speaker A
I loved this Viking oven. I bake constantly. I cook almost every day, I bake almost every day, and so the kitchen's very, very important to me, and I like that I have enough space to be able to make a meal for 12 people.
Speaker A
The only thing I want to do when I'm home is either sit on my sofa and watch TV or be in here cooking something wonderful or baking something wonderful for my husband and my friends. It makes me so happy,
Speaker A
however, we did run out of storage space already. That is a common problem we have in our home.
Speaker A
This just got added a few months ago, so this was a completely open space. This is now all storage under here, so it's practical, but I didn't think I was going to use it for a functional space, but I truly do.
Speaker A
It makes me really happy. I have a piece of artwork here. The artist, I actually don't know what her name is other than her Instagram handle, and her business is called Strange Dirt.
Speaker A
And she's a twin, and you're going to see a lot of her artwork around the house and her twin's artwork.
Speaker A
This feels almost art deco, and there are touches of the house that feel very much 50s, so, sorry, between 20s and 50s, and so this fits in, in my opinion, beautifully.
Speaker A
You'll also find a lot of my husband's artwork around the house. My husband is a wonderful artist and a very successful artist.
Speaker A
Every now and then he'll let me keep the pieces that I'm obsessed with, and so we'll have it in the house. However, what we'll find is that it'll be up for a month, and then he gets sick of it and he wants
Speaker A
to move on to something else. He's a typical artist. It drives me insane. So my husband, he starts work really, really early in the morning. He leaves at like five o'clock.
Speaker A
So I come here first thing in the morning to make coffee. It's the only way I can start my day, and he leaves notes for me every day, 11 and a half years on, and this was his note this morning.
Speaker A
He has terrible writing. You might not be able to read what that says. He's just truly the nicest person on the planet. Love him so much.
Speaker A
[upbeat music] I love my dining room. So off the kitchen, I wanted a separate dining room. That has been my dream since I was a little boy, quite honestly. We grew up quite poor. My parents were immigrants, usually working two, three jobs.
Speaker A
We didn't have a dining room. We didn't have a large space. I had this fantasy that one day I wanted to live in America, 'cause I used to watch a lot of American TV. I want to live in America. I want to have a dining table
Speaker A
where I could eat with my friends and my family. When we purchased the home, this was an office. It did not have this. I wanted to make sure that I had an archway that mirrored all the other archways
Speaker A
in the home. We had a domed ceiling to add a point of interest. I wanted to create a table that was large enough for 10 people to sit around because there are 10 of us who are very close and come to my home
Speaker A
every time I'm home, so this is a perfect sized table for them. These lights, it took us ages to find. I believe they came from India. They create a really low light. We wanted that kind of ambiance. We didn't want a bright dining room at all.
Speaker A
It's the most warm space in the evenings. I spend the happiest days of my life in this room without a doubt.
Speaker A
I am obsessed with the Queen. I just find her fascinating. So I found this weirdly in a vintage store. I treat this the way religious people treat a Bible, like I make sure that it's always taken care of.
Speaker A
If it falls on the floor, you'll hear me gasp. One of my favorite things in the home that just makes me giggle is this.
Speaker A
So if you look closely, you will see it's a picture of me and my idiots.
Speaker A
This was produced for us by Netflix. They sent it in a lovely frame. We didn't frame it, and I believe all of us have it in our homes.
Speaker A
I've seen it in Antoni's, I've seen it in Jonathan's, and I believe that Bobby and Karamo have it in theirs. If they haven't, what are you doing, dumb-dumbs? Put it up, it's so nice.
Speaker A
[upbeat music] Okay, now I'll show you upstairs. Before we get all the way up, the chandelier.
Speaker A
This chandelier took quite some time also to decide what we wanted to do. We didn't want to do something small. We wanted it to be really dramatic. This was custom-made in India for us. They're all individual glass pieces
Speaker A
which were incredibly heavy. It weighs a ton. We are worried that one night in the middle of the night there's going to be an almighty bang and it's going to be this, but for two years it hasn't failed, so let's hope it's going to last another 30.
Speaker A
[upbeat music] We don't have a lot of guests staying because I'm here so infrequently.
Speaker A
So every six months or so, we'll have somebody come stay. Again, all of our rooms have this domed effect, this arches effect, so we couldn't split the room.
Speaker A
I chose chocolate velvet curtains to make it look rich and l
Speaker A
We don't take serious portraits, that's just not our vibe at all and so yeah, that little piece there is the only evidence you have that I am still married and he hasn't divorced me even though I'm a nightmare.
Speaker A
So this rocking chair I love very much. Hopefully I will be a father one day and I wanted something that would be cute and comfortable and fit in with the house that I could rock my baby to sleep in and so this is it, I think it's a lovely chair.
Speaker A
[upbeat music] I don't know, I didn't even think that I was gonna show you this but I am gonna show you this.
Speaker A
It is my candle closet, so my candle closet, I'm obsessed with, I wish you had smell-o-vision because it smells, just so so good.
Speaker A
We always have candles burning in the house. This is actually the least full it's been in a very very long time.
Speaker A
And then if I'm in a bad mood, which is very rare, my husband knows where I am, I'm usually just here, sniffling in the closet.
Speaker A
I'm really particular about bathroom space. The way to achieve a successful marriage is this, I know this is a brute-y thing to say, but if you can afford it, don't go number two in the same place as your partner because then
Speaker A
you keep the mystique alive. This is a shared bathroom for us to shower but this is his bathroom, you know what I mean.
Speaker A
We don't really bath, like we're not bath people and I always thought, well it seems sexy to have two showers in a shower, we've been married for 11 and a half years, who cares that there's two shower heads,
Speaker A
nothing romantic is happening in here, it's just nice to look at. - I like to keep as much continuity across the home.
Speaker A
So yes, we have a lot of brass. I love the subway tile, I know that it was trendy a couple of years ago and people are probably over it, I see it as a classic, I love it so much.
Speaker A
And then the tile on the floor, I wanted there to be some more colors so it's really easy to tie in other colors and hopefully be livable for many many decades.
Speaker A
Without it going out of style. Nothing in the house you will see, other than the actual structure is original.
Speaker A
We changed everything in the home. The house was a house, it was not a home, it was a gnarly, gnarly house and now it's a home.
Speaker A
[upbeat music] okay so off the master bathroom is our bedroom. I wanted a large enough bed but not too large.
Speaker A
So let me tell you this, this is the furthest I will allow him and he will allow me to be from each other so we chose to get a normal sized bed.
Speaker A
People, when they see it on my Instagram, they make fun saying, all that house and you chose to get a small bed?
Speaker A
I wanna be close to my husband, I like him a lot, I love that it's gray, ties in with downstairs which is immediately below this.
Speaker A
Downstairs you'll notice we painted the sconces white, these were original black, we just had them refinished and I love the accent on the walls.
Speaker A
This space here used to be a closet, like a linen closet, I wanted to be able to create a little nook and I think this works beautifully, I love this, I spend a lot of time on this, when I'm not
Speaker A
downstairs on my sofa, I will usually be in here. [upbeat music] This used to be a shower room in here and then the majority of it was a closet.
Speaker A
Instead of having a closet, I turned this into a water closet, I love the bathroom, I think it's gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, I always fantasized about having a clawfoot bathtub but here's the thing, I don't take baths, neither does my husband, I will force myself to take one
Speaker A
maybe every six months, just so I feel like I'm not a complete idiot for creating this bathroom and so this is literally an Instagram bathroom.
Speaker A
I don't use this for real life, I actually hate having a bath, I think it's a complete waste of time, I have this bench here for the once or twice a year when I'm having a bath where my husband can sit in here
Speaker A
and we can have a lovely chit chat and then we have this butler stand right here which has a bunch of robes that are clearly decorational only, they just serve no purpose because nobody's using this damn bathroom.
Speaker A
There's only two of us that live in this home, I think this space is bloody beautiful.
Speaker A
It's the place where I come to take Instagram content, that's it. So because I removed the original closet, and I clearly have a lot of clothes because I do that for a living I will show you what my closet
Speaker A
looks like so come along. [upbeat music] Okay so the final space that's actually finished is the closet, so the closet is the only space of the house that I didn't design myself completely.
Speaker A
I worked with this design company to create a closet that felt very much me, I didn't want it to be too feminine, I didn't want it to be too masculine, I wanted it to feel like a really good balance.
Speaker A
And so this is what we achieved. This floor runs the who length of the house.
Speaker A
This section here is my husband's. He doesn't have a lot of clothes. So this is his section.
Speaker A
The rest of it is mine. On "Queer Eye" I talk through how a closet should be organized to make life a lot easier for you and I always talk about color coordinating you closet.
Speaker A
Come, come, come, come, let me show you. So I've loosely done it, so I categorize my clothes into all button up shirts, all suits, all lightweight jackets, all heavy jackets, you'll see that I mostly do it, it just, every now and then, I travel a lot,
Speaker A
I ain't got time to figure out my closet right now. We have shelves at the top of this that are completely empty, I haven't found the perfect thing that will live there yet.
Speaker A
That will bring me complete joy and so they are currently empty, don't judge me.
Speaker A
This right here is the piece that I wore for the Emmys. This took a disgusting amount of hours for people to hand embroider this whole thing, so I have not re-worn it yet because it seems like a lot of look, like I can't really go down
Speaker A
to the grocery store in this, however maybe I will one day, maybe I'll feel really extra about my life.
Speaker A
You know "Clueless", there was this moment where Alicia Silverstone, Cher, is getting robbed, and the robber says, okay get on the floor and she's like, oh my gosh no, this is am Alaia.
Speaker A
And he's like, a what-a? It's an Alaia, a really important designer. And so I found this vintage Alaia.
Speaker A
So this is a woman's piece, it is tiny, I have not worn it yet, I got it about six months ago and I'm waiting for the right kind of occasion to wear on a red carpet 'cause it's definitely extra.
Speaker A
Usually when I'm trying to put it on, my husband has to come over and push my ribs in so I can close it.
Speaker A
Okay so it's very like 80s. Oh god I've put on some timber, wow. We're gonna break what we call the fourth wall, which is you guys and I'm gonna bring in a lovely young man who's producing this to help bring my ribs in.
Speaker A
This is Ross, he's lovely hair. Oh the other way, okay. Oh yeah, yeah there he is.
Speaker A
[gasping] thank you Ross, I am breathing in so hard but do you see that shape it creates, my god that's good.
Speaker A
I'm very very happy about it. [gasping] I love the dark wood, I love the wallpaper, we have a lot of wallpaper in the house.
Speaker A
Wallpaper is actually very traditionally English, we don't have a lot of paint in our homes because it's actually a lot colder in England than it is here and so to warm up the house, you usually have wallpaper and it just feels a lot cozier.
Speaker A
What I love about the closet is that there is so much space in here, like behind all these hanging clothes, there are more shelves, but the thing I was most excited about was a room for shoes.
Speaker A
I have a problem, this is only about half of my footwear, I've got some more there, some boots there, you may see that I'm obsessed with white footwear, I have been since I was 15, I talk about it
Speaker A
on "Queer Eye" constantly, I always give somebody a white pair of sneakers, it just goes with everything.
Speaker A
Over the last year or two I've become a little bit more obsessed with heels and so I have a lot of heels that are a least a couple of inches high on my show "Queer Eye", everybody's over six feet tall
Speaker A
and then there's Karamo who's like six five, can I make this very clear and I wanna set the record straight once and for all, I am five nine, I am an average sized human, human man.
Speaker A
That's all. And then I love the mirrored wall because it makes the space look so much larger and there isn't room in a closet for a mirror for me to see myself and so this offers me a space to check myself out
Speaker A
when I'm fully dressed. Because of the fact that I truly have run out of space in this closet, we are now turning our basement into a walk in closet, a fully functioning closet.
Speaker A
And so I wanna show you that. It's not done yet, brace yourselves, it's terrifying.
Speaker A
[upbeat music] First thing's first, you're gonna back up slightly this is an archway that was the original archway of the basement, they added this doorway which I don't want because it doesn't tie in with the rest of the house
Speaker A
and we're gonna get rid of that and make this an archway the same as the rest of the house.
Speaker A
This is the basement right now, this is generally what the house looked like before we moved in, this in my opinion is going to be the most beautiful closet you have ever seen in your entire life, I designed it myself.
Speaker A
This is gonna be mostly papered, it's gonna be very quirky, desk drawer situation in the center, this is going to be, I don't want to give too much away but it's gonna be a full shoe wall.
Speaker A
And then all of this is gonna have hanging space on the side that's gonna have hanging space in there.
Speaker A
We're gonna knock out the center wall and there's going to be a bed that is encased in an incredible hanging closet.
Speaker A
So I can luxuriate and just enjoy the splendors of my closet. My husband I assume is not going to be down here with me, he refuses to sleep downstairs, I don't care, I guess this is where we divorce
Speaker A
and I separate and move downstairs into my closet and I choose clothes over my husband.
Speaker A
[upbeat music] Thank you so much for taking a tour around my house but I've got to kick you out, I've got to get ready for my next flight so see you all, bye.
Speaker A
[upbeat music]
Topics:Tan Francehome tour1906 housevintage decormid-century moderninterior designkitchen designcustom chandelierArchitectural DigestQueer Eye
