Window Treatments To Rival a View

The cosmetics applied to a room’s eye on the world deserve careful consideration. Well-chosen window treatments can complete a design, adding texture, richness and depth to complement the overall aesthetic while also providing the appropriate shade against the sun’s rays.

That wasn’t what drew Scott Bankard to the business, but it seems to be what kept him in it. Always having a penchant for artistic endeavors, Bankard had painted, sculpted, drawn and sewn. In the early 80's, his creative endeavors led him a job in the San Francisco sample room of the well-reputed Kneedler-Fauchere. The need arose for a variety of window treatments for showroom displays, and Bankard volunteered to make them. One could say the rest is history.

Bankard’s work drew the attention of many designers coming through the showroom. Soon, they wanted to hire him, and Fabrications for Interiors was born. Originating in a 100-square-foot cottage behind Bankard’s residence in Ingleside in 1983 with one seamstress and one part-time installer, the business has come a long way. Today, it occupies a 5,000-square-foot workroom on 20^th street and produces some of the finest mid- to high-end curtains, shades, bedding and other custom treatments in the Bay Area.

Bankard and his partner Dennis Fiore are experts in their field.

Fabrications for Interiors consistently offers the utmost in service and wonderful, high-caliber products with every attention paid to detail.

Lindy Donnelly with an embroidered fabric from 

 Travers (represented at De Sousa Hughes in the 

San Francisco Design Center) 

  and trim from Samuel & Sons (represented at

 Kneedler-Fauchere).

One of Fabrications for Interiors’ skilled seamstresses

 crafts the “Brighton” shades for a client’s master bedroom.

Interior designers’ fabrics await application

This high-quality wooden hardware will hang the various

 window treatments.

The Beauty of Aged Wood

 Lindy Donnelly with Deven Gadula of First, Last and Always

in front of Reclaimed American Oak

An aged wood floor tells a story. Standing witness to the countless steps, strides, paces and skips of lives lived and years past, it knows so much. Each mark, each scuff, each sign of wear enriches the aesthetic, speaking to its sustained service and stamina and calling to mind the material’s ubiquity in interiors the world over.

Deven Gadula, owner of San Francisco-based First, Last and Always has been aiming to highlight the very nature of wood in the floors he’s been creating since 1990. His business provides a rare level of service, eschewing mass-produced floors in favor of creative, masterfully crafted solutions to each client’s project. “We strive to install and finish floors original in concept, character and craftsmanship,” his website reads.

Gadula takes pride in respectfully keeping the tradition of crafting timber into flooring. Estimates date the practice back some 4,000 years to cultures from the Near East to the Mediterranean to Ancient Egypt and later Europe. This history imparts an authenticity to the presently emerging style of European wood floors with a seasoned appearance. The rich textures and distinct patterns are as at home in a grand English estate as in a sophisticated San Francisco high-rise pied a terre.  Complemented by one of these handsome floors, furnishings have the possibility of a traditional or modern approach. Here is a small sampling of some of the exquisite creations of wood flooring from First, Last and Always.

 

Basketweave: American Reclaimed Oak with Hand Wax Finish

 Herringbone: American and European Oak

River Recovered Heart Pine Square Tile

Walnut log

The Enduring Elegance of Stone

Lindy Donnelly at Integrated Resources in Brisbane, CA

For millennia, the natural world labored, kneading Earth’s rocks into the exquisite designs that stock stores like the Bay Area’s Integrated Resources Group today. The lavish array of granite, marble, quartz, onyx, soapstone and travertine sits in waiting for its opportunity to ennoble the interiors of present-day homes. These pieces tell an incomparable story, quite literally as old as time; yet they supremely stand the test of it. Adorning the Great Pyramids of Egypt, embodying Michelangelo’s David and cladding the Empire State Building, natural stone has been a fundamental building and design tool since the start of civilization.

Azul Macauba Quartzite from Brazil

Moca Cream Onyx from Italy

Sodalite Esmerelda Quartzite from Brazil

Supernova Satin Finish Granite from Brazil

I used Daino Reale Marble from Integrated Resources
in the renovation of this Master Bathroom in San Francisco