Direct Designs Home to Khrome Studios™

Direct Designs Home to Khrome Studios™ (MVDC).

Our journey began in the late 1980s when we opened our first trade-only showroom in the Concourse on Brannan Street, introducing Dellarobbia to the trade. We grew rapidly in the 1990s moving to an 18,000 square foot in the San Francisco Mart while expanding our product lines and helping to build 30 modern furniture companies. You will find most of those companies offered in our product lines today. When that the SF Mart converted to office space (now X.com; aka The Company Formerly Known as Twitter) we moved to The SF Design Center Showplace Square, happily collaborating with the trade in our lovely Applegate-Tran designed showroom. In 2012-13 we had the privilege of working with the America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA), creating and furnishing outdoor Marina bars and rooms for many venues America’s on the San Francisco’s waterfront including the Green Room, concert hall picnic areas, the Louis Vuitton Suite and other VIP lounges. The next logical step was to open a third showroom in The Takahashi building (Showroom Consignment) to sell all the rental furniture and samples from the SFDC and ACEA.

As life unfolded with its joys and challenges, we continued to evolve. While founder Karen McMullen fell in love with the concept of consignment stores on a buying trip to London in 2004, the recession that followed shortly after prompted a move to Contract and Hospitality and resale. The consignment business would have to wait. Children, family, cancer, and the realization of a lifelong journalist opportunity postponed the company even more, but the concept continued to stir in her heart. As time ensued, The Galleria slowly became mostly corporate furniture offices. After COVID hit, we lost our supportive building management to a corporate leasehold company and saw 13 showrooms on our floor move or close their doors. After multiple other significant challenges, we decided to head back to the suburbs to be closer to our designers. Opening originally as a pop-up in The Warehouse Consignment Store aligned with its owner Karen Goldberg (A passionate MCM purist and local serial entrepreneur), we started a local Design Center concept and are very excited about new growth opportunities. The MVDC offers designers exclusive lines of furniture, fabrics, rugs, lighting, and accessories from some of the industry's most renowned factories, artisans, and makers. The Warehouse offers designers high-quality vintage, and beautiful unique collectibles for your home.

We are passionate about what we do and strive to provide our customers with the highest quality of service.