Every year, late April marks the start of San Francisco's design season. Since 1977, the San Francisco Decorator Showcase has united the Bay Area's most visionary designers, artists, and craftspeople – transforming remarkable homes while raising millions to support educational opportunity.
The event began when the late Nan Rosenblatt, a University High School parent and accomplished interior designer, and Philip Fernandez, the first president of the school's Parents Association, envisioned an event that would bring the design community together in support of education. Today, it raises over $1 million annually, with $21 million raised in total since that first Showcase.
For its 47th edition, the Showcase took over a nearly 10,000-square-foot Queen Anne-style Victorian in Pacific Heights, built in 1897 and originally designed by architect Moses J. Lyon. A new group of designers is selected each January to transform their assigned room, turning the house into a living gallery where creativity and craft share the floor with a cause that matters. This year, Dulcet Tile's Boutique Collection was part of two of its most compelling rooms.
"DOUBLE STANDARD" – Jeffrey Neve Interior Design
Known as a design chameleon, Jeffrey Neve doesn't follow a formula – he crafts homes that feel personal and tailored to reflect the people who live there. For the Showcase, that meant doing something different.
"The formula was to do what I usually don't get to do. Not a lot of my work is reflective of something that’s really traditional," Jeffrey explains. "This is what I would prefer in my own home."
Jeffrey Neve Interior Design took on the kids' room and the Jack & Jill bathroom. "We knew it was going to be a kids' room, but we wanted to make it more elevated," he says. "As if the kids have gone to college and the designer comes in and gets to do what they want. The room has a lot of personality, because it has so many layers to it – and that’s one way you can make your home different than everyone else’s."
It's a room about transition. And in spaces defined by change, material becomes the anchor. Dulcet Tile's Venezia Warm marble mosaic from the Boutique Collection was selected for the bathroom floor. For Jeffrey, the choice came down to one non-negotiable: "I knew I wanted something that would work with my wallpaper and a white tub, and as soon as I saw this tile, I knew it was exactly what I wanted. It works perfectly with the wallpaper – it's geometric, and the wallpaper is a little more organic."
The tile became a conversation piece. “Some people asked if I put it together piece by piece – the grout lines are really tight, you can't see where it starts and stops,” he recalls. “A lot of the comments I got were: it's so warm in here, it's so welcoming.” In a room built around the idea of growing up, the floor became its emotional center – stone as the through-line between what was and what comes next.
"LA SALLE DE SÉRÉNITÉ" – Lizette Marie Interior Design
Where Double Standard explores transition, La Salle de Sérénité arrives at stillness. Further along the second floor, designer Lizette Marie Bruckstein reimagined the home's primary bathroom. The intention was deeply personal: "I got to design the space that I would want to spend time in – a space to feel relaxed, inspired, and get away from the craziness of day-to-day life."
With the storied Queen Anne-style Victorian as backdrop, the design balances contemporary restraint with reverence for the home's historic character. Upon entry, the space doesn't immediately reveal itself as a bathroom – but as a beautifully paneled room. Rich dark wood and striking stone layer the space, and the paneling reads as a continuous architectural surface that reveals hidden storage and a discreetly concealed water closet, allowing the room to unfold with quiet intention.
Daily rituals are elevated through a refined glass and brass shower enclosure, vintage brass plumbing, and a freestanding tub positioned beneath a skylight – an understated moment of calm. For Lizette, natural stone was never an afterthought. "I am a huge fan of natural stone and I love to incorporate it wherever possible," she says. Dulcet Tile's Octavia mosaic from the Boutique Collection grounds the room underfoot, its depth and quiet movement perfectly in step with the serenity she set out to create.
The entire space came together in roughly eight weeks – a pace Lizette describes as surreal. But the result speaks for itself. "I would really like people to feel that this is an escape." In a room where every material was chosen with purpose, the floor is where that intention is felt most.
A PARTNERSHIP BUILT ON DETAIL
The collaboration between Dulcet Tile and Da Vinci Marble brought both rooms to life. Robin Merwin, VP of Strategic Sales and Marketing at Da Vinci Marble and Design Advisory Board member of the SF Decorator Showcase, saw the partnership unfold firsthand. "This year, Dulcet Tile partnered with us in two spaces. It started with the Double Standard room and expanded to the primary bathroom."
The process, Robin notes, was seamless from start to finish. "Samples came quickly, Dulcet Tile team supported from beginning to end – it's a very fast-paced environment, and the details were laid out to perfection." For Robin, the results spoke to something she sees designers hesitate over. "A lot of times people shy away from using mosaics, thinking it'll be busy – but when it's laid in well, it becomes a design intent. The results this year were spectacular. We could not do it without you all."
A VICTORIAN CANVAS
For the first time in the Showcase's history, this year's house was a Victorian residence – an architectural style inseparable from the image of San Francisco itself. Originally built for the Anspacher family and later preserved by architect Herbert P. McLaughlin across 60 years of family stewardship, the historic residence featured sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, and the Palace of Fine Arts. It's a home with memory built into its bones – a fitting canvas for designers working with themes of narrative, identity, and transformation. And for Dulcet Tile, a meaningful space to be part of: where good design and a greater purpose have always gone hand in hand.
Ready to let the stone tell your story? Explore the full collection now at dulcettile.com or call us at (714) 822-1237 to speak with a design specialist.
