Local sourcing, sustainability and being eco-friendly are very important to designers in the Bay area, according to Rhonda Hirata, San Francisco Design Center (SFDC) Marketing Director.
“The San Francisco Bay Area design community is a tight knit one, inventive, creative, eclectic, traditional, transitional, contemporary—we love antiques, and unique finds at flea markets,” said Hirata.
This month, the SFDC published its annual magazine, 3D Definitive Design + Décor, which celebrates its unique location. The magazine is mailed to 7,500 interior design professionals and 12,500 of San Francisco Magazine's highest income home owners with the January issue.
“We are uniquely situated where town and country happily co-exist,” said Hirata. “We are in nature’s palm, with Muir Woods, Big Sur, and the Santa Cruz Mountains surrounding us, but immersed as well in a vibrant cosmopolitan culture.”
In April, the SFDC is launching an entirely new program, Third Thursdays. Every third Thursday the SFDC will be open until 8:00 p.m. allowing designers to bring clients in after-hours and the public to browse as well.
“While the SFDC has been open to the public for 10 plus years, there is still a mystique about whether or not the public is welcome,” said Hirata. “We aim to make that very clear with Third Thursdays.”
7 x 7 magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle are media sponsors who will assist in bringing entertainment and drinks to make each Third Thursday eventful.
“We held a ‘town hall meeting’ with all our showrooms and designers to discuss three critical and challenging business practices in our industry: two-tiered pricing, hours, and public access,” said Hirata. “Third Thursdays was born out of these discussions.”
Right around the corner, from Feb. 6 – 8, the SFDC will host its largest three-day design event of the year. The winter market includes 64 seminars and open houses, two keynote presentations, California Home + Design’s annual awards gala and much more. Click here for a full program of events.
The plans are also rolling for “Fall into Fabrics,” the annual month-long September event featuring 10 fabric showrooms. Designers including Vicente Wolf, Brian Coleman, Larry Laslo and David Toback among many others have taken part in Fall into Fabrics.
“It has grown over the past four years into a highly successful and much-anticipated month of each year,” said Hirata. “We dedicate the month of September to the celebration of all things fabric—in 2012, we held 21 events over 12 days, attracting over 2,000 designers.”
SFDC is home to 150 showrooms, and is celebrating 30th anniversary this year. For more information on the SFDC’s showrooms and programming, visit the website.
