Inside the Decorator Showcase

MUST LIKE FOG | CLAUDINE ZAP

As I walked through this year’s Decorator Showcase at 2015 Broadway, I was particularly drawn to the dining room. I asked the dining room’s designer, Stephanie Marsh Fillbrandt, owner and principal designer of Marsh & Clark Design on California Street, about her inspiration for the space and ideas for those of us with a small budget and a dream.

I loved the creative way you approached the design of the dining room of the Decorator Showcase. What inspired the project?

I was in Paris this past January and happened to be at a dinner with [Decorator Showcase Design Advisory Board chair] Geoffrey De Sousa, who was talking about the Decorator Showcase with several designers. He commented that they hadn’t really found a design for the dining room that had resonated for the house and he asked me if I might be interested in doing the project. The space itself was wide and open and didn’t have a really clearly defined room. So when I first looked at it I thought the biggest challenge will be to create a space. There’s a defunct fireplace in the corner that created sort of a chamfer in one area. My initial thought was if I copy that in all four corners of the room, it might create an intimate shape and space for dining. That’s where I jumped off.

At that point, I thought to myself, what is something in the dining room that could really make it special? I recalled a dining room I designed in Kentfield 15 years ago where we imported beautiful gates from Italy. And it served as a whole wall of the dining room. That dining room remains one of my favorite spaces to this day. So I thought, OK let’s see if we can incorporate some gates into this dining room.

The shape of this dining room is much different, longer with a tall entrance. So I thought, let’s see if we can do some 10-foot gates. I sketched out the idea of the gates and sent to several metal workers to see if they might be able to help us. It was actually a tall order and many people said no. But then I happened to meet Lust Design Fabricate in Novato and they were willing to take a chance.

How long did it take you to come up with the plan and then execute? And what was the biggest challenge?

Coming up with the plan was pretty quick. I only had about two-and-a-half months, I came to the project a little later than others. Once I envisioned the shape of the room and the fact that I wanted paneling and gates, the ideas flowed very quickly. 

I also recently designed a beautiful conversation table for a private client and I reached out to the client to ask if we might borrow the table and she generously said yes. The biggest challenge we had was actually during construction. This house required more construction than most. For example, we came in one day after we had just plastered the ceiling to find that someone had completely ripped our ceiling open to expose plumbing because they had plumbing challenges in the ceiling above. Those kind of unexpected things really set us back and made it a little tense during construction. That was definitely the biggest challenge: not being able to control our own timeline and being dependent on the spaces next to us.

Do you have tips on how to refresh or update a home on a (much) smaller budget? 

I think that when you are trying to update a home, the best thing you can do is look at your rooms and sort of imagine them with new eyes. Don’t be afraid to change the color, don’t be afraid to change the shape, a little construction can go a long way. And even the DIY type of construction. Add a little wainscoting yourself, do a little wallpaper yourself.

Go for the ideas you’ve been dreaming about. Don’t hold back. That’s the gift you can give yourself. 

Many San Francisco homes are Edwardians and Victorians. Is there a trick for interiors for these homes, or do you approach these differently than a modern home?

We’re really lucky to have Victorians and Edwardians to start with. They often have beautiful moldings, they have high ceilings, they have gracious entries and exits — those are really special. And whenever possible, I always try to keep those in place. The only challenge with a Victorian is that we live in a modern environment, so oftentimes the kitchens and the bathrooms have to be updated. 

I think if you can approach these things respectfully and in concert with the home rather than taking it to a completely modern place, the house is gonna have another 100 years in it and the longevity of the house will be much greater. I’m not a particularly big fan of having a Victorian facade and then a completely white box interior. I don’t think the two things really talk well together.

Will we see you at the Decorator Showcase next year? What’s fun about it for you?

I really enjoy doing the Decorator Showcase and you might see me there as a volunteer. But I don’t think I’m going to participate as a designer for a few years.

Veteran real estate journalist Claudine Zap writes Must Like Fog on Substack, which offers weekly local news and happenings from a real estate-obsessed writer. Follow or subscribe at mustlikefog.substack.com.