Each spring, the San Francisco Decorator Showcase transforms one of the city’s most celebrated residences into a showcase of creativity, craftsmanship, and design innovation, all in support of San Francisco University High School’s financial aid program. Now in its 47th year, the Showcase continues a longstanding tradition of bringing together the Bay Area’s leading interior and landscape designers to reimagine a historic home while supporting educational opportunity for future generations.

The 2026 Showcase House is located at 2315 Broadway, a distinguished Queen Anne-style Victorian perched atop one of Pacific Heights’ most iconic blocks. Originally designed in 1897 by architect Moses J. Lyon for the Anspacher family, the nearly 10,000-square-foot residence remains a remarkable example of San Francisco’s architectural heritage, thoughtfully preserved while continuing to evolve through each generation of stewardship.

Hartmann&Forbes was honored to collaborate on two distinctive spaces, contributing handcrafted windowcoverings that enhance each designer’s unique vision while celebrating the natural beauty of the historic home.

Design Space: Well Played: The Game Room
Designer: Alyson Gay | Aly Gay Design
Photographer: Lauren Edith Andersen
Windowcovering: Faux-Roman Valance in EW159-06 Liscio - Naturale from the Soft Natural Fabric Collection with Custom Trim

Filled with color, pattern, and personality, Well Played: The Game Room celebrates connection, conversation, and the simple joy of gathering together. Alyson Gay transformed the space into a spirited retreat where family and friends can unwind, play, and create lasting memories.

A custom game table serves as the room’s focal point, while playful furnishings, layered textures, and whimsical details establish a welcoming atmosphere. Framing the windows, Hartmann&Forbes Faux-Roman Valances in EW159-06 Liscio – Naturale, accented with custom trim, introduce texture and charm while echoing the room’s spirited palette and sense of fun.

Bright, inviting, and thoughtfully composed, the room reflects Aly Gay’s belief that great design should encourage people to connect with one another and with the spaces they inhabit.

Design Space: La Salle de Sérénité
Designer: Lizette Marie Bruckstein | Lizette Marie Interior Design
Photographer: José Manuel Alorda
Windowcovering: Old Style Roman Shade in LE2236 Tartan - Loch from the Woven-to-Size Grassweave Collection.

Inspired by the home’s historic Queen Anne architecture, La Salle de Sérénité balances contemporary restraint with a deep respect for the residence’s character. Lizette Marie Bruckstein envisioned the primary bathroom as a restorative retreat, layering rich materials and architectural detailing to create an atmosphere of calm and quiet luxury.

Custom paneled millwork wraps the space in warmth and continuity, concealing storage while establishing a strong architectural framework. Dramatic stone surfaces, vintage brass plumbing fixtures, mirrored porcelain tile, and thoughtfully integrated lighting work together to elevate everyday rituals into moments of reflection and renewal. Complementing these layers, Hartmann&Forbes Old Style Roman Shades in LE2236 Tartan – Loch filter natural light with understated elegance, reinforcing the room’s sense of calm and quiet luxury.

The result is a room defined by intention and craftsmanship, a serene sanctuary where historic inspiration and contemporary refinement coexist effortlessly.

A Celebration of Design and Craftsmanship

From the quiet elegance of La Salle de Sérénité to the joyful energy of Well Played: The Game Room, this year’s Showcase highlights the diverse perspectives that make the San Francisco design community so exceptional. While each space tells its own story, both reflect a shared commitment to artistry, craftsmanship, and creating environments that enrich everyday life.

Hartmann&Forbes is grateful to be part of the San Francisco Decorator Showcase, collaborating with designers whose creativity and vision continue to inspire. Contributing to a project that advances both design excellence and educational opportunity makes this annual tradition especially meaningful.

We think about the way a room looks. The way light moves across a wall. The texture of what we touch. But there is another layer of the home, one we rarely consider, yet feel instinctively. The air itself.

It shapes how a space lives. How we think, rest, and restore. In many ways, it is the most essential element of all.

The Invisible Layer of Design

A well-designed home engages the senses. It invites calm, encourages presence, and supports the rhythms of daily life. Yet air, though unseen, plays a quiet but powerful role in that experience.

In modern homes, especially those built for efficiency, air can become still. Carbon dioxide levels rise simply from everyday living. Cooking, sleeping, gathering. Over time, this can leave a space feeling heavy or stagnant, even if everything looks beautifully in place.

It is not something we always notice immediately. Instead, we feel it in subtle ways. A lack of clarity. Restlessness. A room that does not quite feel as fresh as it should.

Studies have shown that carbon dioxide levels indoors can be two to five times higher than outdoor levels in enclosed spaces without proper ventilation.

Why Air Quality Matters

Air is deeply tied to how we function and how we feel.

When fresh air circulates, spaces feel lighter. More open. More alive. When it does not, the opposite can occur. Concentration can soften. Sleep can feel less restorative. The body senses what the eye cannot see.

This is not about perfection or control. It is about awareness. About recognizing that the atmosphere within a home contributes to its overall sense of well-being.

A Natural Perspective

In nature, air is never still. It moves gently through trees, across water, and along open landscapes. This quiet movement is part of what makes outdoor environments feel so restorative.

Biophilic design draws from this understanding. It considers how we can create interiors that echo the conditions in which we naturally thrive. Light that shifts throughout the day. Materials that feel organic to the touch. Spaces that allow for breath and flow.

Air, in this context, is not separate from design. It is part of it.

Designing for Better Air

Creating a healthier indoor environment does not require complexity. Often, it begins with small, intentional choices.

Opening windows at the start or end of the day can invite a gentle exchange of air. Allowing cross ventilation, even briefly, helps refresh a space in a way that feels immediate and grounding.

Considering how air moves through a room can also shape how it is arranged. Open pathways, layered textures, and thoughtful placement all contribute to a sense of ease and circulation.

Materials matter as well. Natural fibers and woven materials support a home that feels lighter, rather than sealed. They allow a space to respond to its environment, rather than resist it. 

Even the simple presence of greenery can shift how a room feels. Not as a singular solution, but as part of a broader connection to the living world outside.

A Space That Breathes

A true sanctuary is not only something we see. It is something we feel.

It is the comfort of a room that supports rest. The clarity that comes from fresh air moving softly through a space. The sense that everything is working in harmony, even the elements we cannot see.

When we begin to consider air as part of the design, the home becomes something more. Not just a place of beauty, but a place of renewal. 

A place to breathe.

In freshwater environments around the world, water hyacinth drifts across the surface in dense clusters. With its soft violet bloom and glossy green leaves, it was once prized as an ornamental plant, carried far beyond its native Amazon.

But outside of that ecosystem, balance is lost.

Without its natural predators, water hyacinth grows unchecked, doubling in size in as little as two weeks. What begins as a scattering of plants can quickly become thick, interwoven mats that blanket entire waterways, blocking sunlight, depleting oxygen, and, in some cases, halting the flow of water altogether.

To restore these environments, the plant must be removed.

Harvesting and Transformation

Water hyacinth is gathered directly from the water, often by hand. Once collected, the plant is stripped back to its essential form, revealing its long, buoyant stalks.

Laid out beneath the sun, the stalks slowly release their moisture over several days. They shrink, lighten, and take on a warm, natural tone transformed by time and air into a durable fiber.

Once dried, the material is sorted and prepared. Some strands remain whole, preserving their rounded structure; others are split or flattened, offering a softer, more pliable quality. Each carries subtle variations in tone and texture, marks of its origin.

In the Hands of Artisans

There is no true uniformity in water hyacinth.

Each strand holds its own rhythm, its own irregularity. Rather than impose consistency, artisans work with these nuances, placing, weaving, and arranging the fibers in a way that allows the material to speak.

The result is a surface with quiet movement. Textural. Layered. Alive with variation.

A reflection of water, sun, and hand.

From Fiber to Form

Today, water hyacinth finds expression across several Hartmann&Forbes designs.

In WL430-12 Vale – Winding Path Natural Wallcovering, each strand is hand-placed to create a composition of subtle irregularity and flow, recalling the gentle meander of a valley trail.

In our Woven-to-Size Grassweave windowcoverings, such as LE4642 Groove or LE6109 Creel, water hyacinth lends warmth and organic texture, softly interacting with light.

In this way, the material continues its journey, a return to balance within waterways and the spaces we create.

DISCOVER MORE DESIGNS

Cotton is one of the most widely grown crops in the world. Yet conventional cotton production can be highly chemical-intensive, impacting air, water, soil, and climate, while posing exposure risks for farm workers and surrounding communities.

Organic cotton offers a more responsible path forward. Grown without toxic or persistent pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or genetically engineered seeds (GMOs), it supports healthier soil, biodiversity, and agricultural systems designed to work in harmony with nature. Organic farming practices can also dramatically reduce water consumption — by as much as 91% — in part because organic cotton is often rain-fed, and organically managed soils retain water more effectively. These choices at the field level ripple outward, influencing the integrity of every finished textile.

Guided by natural materials and responsible craftsmanship, Hartmann&Forbes continues to advance sustainability through thoughtful product innovations. As part of this commitment, we are introducing an Organic Translucent Liner, woven from 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton and free from harmful chemicals. GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) is the leading certification for textiles made from organic fibers, setting rigorous environmental and social criteria across the entire supply chain, from fiber processing to finished product, while restricting the use of hazardous substances along the way.

Designed for softness and breathability, this translucent liner provides balanced light control and added privacy when hand-stitched to the back of a Roman shade. It gently diffuses daylight while preserving a clean, neutral appearance from the exterior. Available in Soft White (OTR01) and Linen (OTR02), it offers a thoughtful, sustainable option without compromising performance or aesthetics.

ORGANIC TRANSLUCENT LINER