The era of the open concept home may be coming to an end. When given free rein to exhibit the latest in interior design, the Bay Area’s foremost decorators actually added walls to the Pacific Heights mansion that is home to this year’s San Francisco Decorator Showcase.
“There’s chaos in open spaces, and the pendulum to want to be more cozy is taking us this direction,” said Stephanie Marsh Fillbrandt, who redesigned the formal dining room of the 1897 Queen Anne-style Victorian. “People are feeling like they just want to be held a little.”
Fillbrandt turned what was an empty white rectangle into a warm and welcoming octagon by adding wood-paneled walls with pastel lime-wash paint. Indeed, the textured wall treatment was a big trend among the designers who each took over a section of the 9,500-square-foot home at 2315 Broadway, which is on the market for $25 million.
Custom metal work was another throughline. There are mirrored bits and metal transoms — plus a swing — in the Indian-inspired living room from designer Sindhu Peruri. A bespoke iron gate connects the dining room to a family room with an English hunting lodge aesthetic. The adjoining kitchen continues the Anglophile theme with a British bakehouse look.
Both the family room and kitchen were designed by Tineke Triggs, whose San Francisco firm is a repeat participant in the showcase. Triggs said the monthlong event, which opens to the public (opens in new tab) Saturday, gives people a chance to see what’s new in the design world before it goes mainstream.
“Designers tend to be a couple of steps ahead of the typical consumer,” she said. “I joke that if it’s already in West Elm and CB2, you’ve missed the trend.”
In addition to offering a crash course in cutting-edge design, the event, which was first held in 1977, raises about $1 million annually for San Francisco University High School’s financial aid program by selling sponsorships and tickets to tour a completely redesigned, lavish San Francisco home.
Rounded corners, heavily veined marble, and floral motifs were on view at the Victorian. For those thinking, “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking, (opens in new tab)” know that the petals on display in the decorator showcase house tend toward the oversized, bedazzled, or all-encompassing. A top-floor bedroom designed by Kristine Renee and Deborah Costa is covered in a blue toile, except for the molding, painted a color similar to the Golden Gate Bridge’s International Orange to complement the bridge and bay views.
That bedroom also has a hideaway writer’s nook. Secret spots were another trend, from tuckaway ironing boards in the marble-covered laundry room to a hidden exit behind one of the new walls in the dining room.
“When you walk into a space and you feel like you’ve already seen everything, and then you open it up, it suddenly becomes a little bit more interesting,” Costa said. “Kind of like people.”
Surprisingly, this is the first time in the showcase’s nearly 50-year history that a Victorian has been the setting. Many designers said they were inspired by the bones of the classic San Francisco home.
“I envisioned a modern Victorian and really embraced the romance of it,” said Sonoma Interiors designer Andrea Halkovich, who brought an avian theme to the bedroom she designed, down to the feather-y alpaca window treatments. “Other designers did the same thing and were really inspired by that.”
There are some other firsts this year, which was the most “complex” in the history of the event, according to Stephanie Yee, the executive director. As part of the first-ever “Curated” series of evening activations, the private high school partnered with chefs Dominique Crenn and Michael Mina for two private dinners that cost $500 and $1,000 per ticket, respectively. There’s also a new partnership with a clothing designer, as Levi’s decked out the primary bedroom closet with its just-released Japanese-inspired Blue Tab collection. The San Francisco brand is dressing the room’s designer, Fernando Castellanos, and his team for the duration of the showcase.
The designers this year had the shortest lead time in recent history. Some got access to their rooms less than two months before the event, as a last-minute decision to demo a back staircase and add another flight, extending the main central staircase from the second floor to the third, meant the creation of new spaces and the rearrangement of others.
Menlo Park-based designer Aly Gay said she fit what would have been a four- to six-month renovation into two. During construction, her painters had to climb in through the windows from scaffolding to access her second-floor game room. A first-time showcase designer, she leaned into the mahjong trend to bring attention to her room at the rear of the home, adding box beam ceilings and new hardwood floors but, at the owners’ request, keeping a trellised wall that lends an outdoor feel to the space.
It was one of the few requests the owners made; another was retaining two Japanese maples in the backyard. Otherwise, they were largely hands off, according to Compass agent Erin Thompson, who is listing the home with Bill Charman.
“In the design world, you get involved, and the end product won’t be as fabulous,” she said.
Thompson said the showcase committee reached out to her in early February after hearing that the home might be heading to the market. She and her clients weren’t sure about getting involved; the property had already been remodeled over the decades it was owned by the sellers, who are connected to the art and architecture worlds.
“I was kind of on the fence at first, because we didn’t really need it,” Thompson said. “But it was immediately exciting to be involved.”
The owners invested just under $500,000 into the showcase renovations. The results, which included donated labor and materials from designers and sponsors, added up to millions. While light fixtures, art, and furnishings will be removed after the event (unless the new owners want to buy them), built-in elements, like marble countertops, hardwood floors, and the new walls, will stay.
“The transformation is extraordinary,” Thompson said. “They did a lot more than beautifying rooms.”
Jeffrey Neve, who created a grown-up kids room with a Ralph Lauren-like preppy feel, said that for amateur designers who want to try some of the showcase trends in their own homes, the key to unlocking the warm and cozy look is simple.
“Just layer and layer and layer,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect figure for showcase improvements paid for by the sellers.
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