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134 SUMMER 2024 Rooms à la mode The latest interior trends could be seen at this year’s San Francisco Decorator Showcase in May. Here, Katie Loux takes us on a detailed tour of 2024’s most elegant room settings San Francisco’s annual Decorator Showcase expresses the talents of some of the best West Coast interior designers: it can feel as though you’re entering different psyche as you step from room to room. This year’s showcase at 2898 Broadway had a particular cohesiveness, with trends that emerged including the use of bold, deep colors, from mossy greens to inky blues and deep purples. These hues suited the grandeur of this year’s setting, a Dutch Colonial Revival mansion designed by Bliss and Faville in 1899. This classically proportioned house has featured in four Hollywood movies, including Portrait in Black (1960) and Blue Jasmine (2013). It also hosted Decorator Showcase in 1989. One of that year’s exhibitors, Suzanne Tucker of Tucker & Marks Design, once again reworked the dining room. Her original 80s formal interior was transformed into a brighter, garden-inspired design: plants proliferated, whether real, papier-mâché or gilded; a grassy, jute rug by J&M Carpets/Rush House fitted the theme perfectly. l Mer k Photo: John 01 02 01 The Observatory by Jon de la Cruz with custom rug by Mark Nelson Designs and Jon de la Cruz 02 A Meditation Room with Embedded Intentions by Lisa Staprans featuring Cappelen Dimyr area rug l D yer Photo: Pau The bay-facing living rooms were the most expansive and were granted to Jon de la Cruz and Chroma SF. De la Cruz used a strong palette of mossy greens in ‘The Observatory’, drawing inspiration from the sweeping vistas of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay. His velvet ‘Ink & Algae’ upholstery fabric by Rubelli recalled Monet’s waterlily series, while also echoing the shapes and colours of the treetops below. A green-panelled rug designed by de la Cruz delineated the micro-spaces within the spacious room, while melding stylistically with the overall colour scheme: de la Cruz imagined this as a family room, where members could be together

I S SUE 75 135 03 Peggy’s Art Atelier by Sabra Ballon, custom Dada rug by bSTUDIO x Safar 04 The Angler’s Hideaway by Alexis Ring, rug by Mark Nelson Designs 05 A Threshold of Welcome! by Tineke Triggs, rug by Tibetano Photo: Christopher Star k Photo: Christopher Star k or separate, as household dynamics dictated. Continuing in green, Alexis Ring and AubreyMaxwell picked verdant wallpapers for their rooms: AubreyMaxwell chose Stagianato by Sloan Miyasato, while Ring opted for a print by local designer De Sousa Hughes. Both examples created the feeling of being in a lush forest. Purple and blues also proliferated: a majestic purple fabric by Evars Collective was used by Alexis Ring for her Ottoman, and a teal blue paint covered her window wall. A Mark Nelson rug united the room’s design, with its freeflowing pattern resembling water running over rocks. In contrast Sindhu Peruri opted for gentle aubergine shades in her sensual bedroom. Custom-made elements were key this year, including rugs. Tineke Triggs’s collaboration 03 l Mer k Photo: John 04 01 05 with Tibetano for her living room was inspired by Congolese Kuba cloth: it had a patchwork of coloured panels, with a playful stripe of shaggy yellow pile. Sabra Ballon had the pluck to puncture her plush, pink Safar rug with oval-shaped holes, in a nod to Surrealism, in her Peggy Guggenheim inspired ‘atelier’. Fringes are still à la mode, from Triggs’s ottomans with striped ‘skirts’ to Chroma’s purple alpaca sofa with tassels skimming the floor, and de la Cruz’s lush fringes in shades of green. This wave of fringes was opulent and artful, shedding any frumpy associations. Furniture in geometric shapes was also a popular choice, with sharp edges softened with shaggy textiles (see Nancy Evars’s stools, and Jay Jeffers’s pouf). The painted ceiling trend is still going strong, with innovative approaches. Jay Jeffers worked with Willem Racké Studio to create a decorative effect that could trick you into believing it was real marquetry inlay. Triggs used antiqued mirrored glass tiles from L’Atelier MB to evoke, he says, ‘an old-fashioned tin-relief ceiling’. ‘Matchy matchy’ is a thing of the past: Lark + Palm’s guest bedroom was a case in point. It combined tweed pillows, a wonderful wallpaper decorated with postage stamps, a herringbone rug and octagonal furniture. The room felt harmoniously layered and engaging. Part of the strength of Showcase is the designers’ support of artists and artisans, from grand statements such as a double-headed kite by Ai Weiwei in de la Cruz’s room, to Amy and Samantha Weaver’s Yoruba beadwork furniture. These additions added depth, and each was carefully integrated. The art seemed as essential to the rooms as the furniture, and was a reminder that great art will withstand fashion’s caprice. www.decoratorshowcase.org

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134 SUMMER 2024

Rooms à la mode The latest interior trends could be seen at this year’s San Francisco Decorator Showcase in May. Here, Katie Loux takes us on a detailed tour of 2024’s most elegant room settings

San Francisco’s annual Decorator Showcase expresses the talents of some of the best West Coast interior designers: it can feel as though you’re entering different psyche as you step from room to room. This year’s showcase at 2898 Broadway had a particular cohesiveness, with trends that emerged including the use of bold, deep colors, from mossy greens to inky blues and deep purples.

These hues suited the grandeur of this year’s setting, a Dutch Colonial Revival mansion designed by Bliss and Faville in 1899. This classically proportioned house has featured in four Hollywood movies, including Portrait in Black (1960) and Blue Jasmine (2013). It also hosted Decorator Showcase in 1989. One of that year’s exhibitors, Suzanne Tucker of Tucker & Marks Design, once again reworked the dining room. Her original 80s formal interior was transformed into a brighter, garden-inspired design: plants proliferated, whether real, papier-mâché or gilded; a grassy, jute rug by J&M Carpets/Rush House fitted the theme perfectly.

l

Mer k

Photo: John

01

02

01 The Observatory by Jon de la Cruz with custom rug by Mark Nelson Designs and Jon de la Cruz 02 A Meditation Room with Embedded Intentions by Lisa Staprans featuring Cappelen Dimyr area rug l D yer

Photo: Pau

The bay-facing living rooms were the most expansive and were granted to Jon de la Cruz and Chroma SF. De la Cruz used a strong palette of mossy greens in ‘The Observatory’, drawing inspiration from the sweeping vistas of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay. His velvet ‘Ink & Algae’ upholstery fabric by Rubelli recalled Monet’s waterlily series, while also echoing the shapes and colours of the treetops below. A green-panelled rug designed by de la Cruz delineated the micro-spaces within the spacious room, while melding stylistically with the overall colour scheme: de la Cruz imagined this as a family room, where members could be together

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