Sabah Mansoor Shines In Debut At San Francisco’s Decorator Showcase

Photos: Brad Knipstein

India-West Staff Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — In one of San Francisco’s grandest mansions—where sweeping views meet old-world opulence—Sabah Mansoor has crafted something quieter, more personal. For her debut at the 46th annual San Francisco Decorator Showcase, the Bangalore-born designer didn’t just fill a room; she told a story.

“I wanted to come full circle,” she says, standing in the luminous en-suite atelier she transformed for this year’s showcase. The space is airy, with textiles that whisper heritage and colors evoking earth and spice. It’s not flashy. It’s intentional. And it’s very much her.

Sabah’s design studio is based in Menlo Park, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, and she lives nearby in Atherton. Though her only current Texas connection is decorating a house in Houston, her roots and inspirations span continents.

Long before designing homes in Silicon Valley, Mansoor was a curious child in Bangalore, apprenticing in Pottery Town at age nine. While other kids played cricket, she was elbows-deep in damp terracotta, learning from local artisans.

“My parents didn’t push me into design. They let me follow my nose,” she says. That nose led her to Shristi School of Art, Design and Technology, where she studied everything from carpentry to film before specializing in textiles. She spent years living among artisans—learning to dye in Rajasthan, embroider in Karnataka, and weave in Kolkata.

Each of those techniques shows up subtly in her interiors today.

After moving to the U.S., Mansoor earned an MFA in knitwear and fashion design from the Academy of Art University. Her graduate collection debuted at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week in 2010, featuring crystals and beads commissioned from Indian artisans.

But after years in fashion, something didn’t quite fit.

“I missed the intimacy of space,” she says. “In fashion, you design for a season. With interiors, you design for a life.”

Four years ago, she pivoted to interior design, founding Sabah Mansoor Design in Menlo Park. Since then, her work has appeared in Architectural Digest, Luxe, and Casa Vogue—and now, this: her first San Francisco Decorator Showcase.

The room she created is both an atelier and a memory box. The textiles nod to her background. The furniture curves whisper of Indian craft forms. The colors—saffron, stone, and deep indigo—recall monsoons and marketplaces.

“It’s not overt,” she says. “But it’s all there. The touch of the artisan. The rhythm of the loom.”

At a time when design can feel algorithmic and overproduced, Mansoor’s work reminds us that homes aren’t just showplaces—they’re storytellers. This one, perched above Pacific Heights, tells a tale stretching from Bangalore’s Pottery Road to one of San Francisco’s most prestigious design stages.