FabMo is a nonprofit based in Sunnyvale that collects samples from places like San Francisco’s Design Center and then makes them available to artists, craftspeople and teachers at its store. Garvin Thomas reports.
Inside a Sunnyvale warehouse, one can find a textile enthusiast’s dream, provided that person also enjoys a bit of treasure hunting. The space, run by the nonprofit FabMo, is a place where artists, craftspeople, and teachers can find designer fabrics, tiles, carpets, and wallpaper at deeply discounted prices.
“You never know what you are going to find,” said Kathy Bonte, chair of FabMo’s board of directors.
“You have to come here with a little bit of an open mind, but that's the fun of it because you may come in looking for a zipper pull,” Bonte said. “And maybe we don't have a lot of zipper pulls right now, but you find a tile that is going to make a great tabletop for you.”
The idea for FabMo was born a couple of decades ago. A Palo Alto school teacher, Hannah Cranch, and her husband Jonathan were visiting San Francisco’s Design Center. They noticed stacks of sample products, no longer needed by the designers, headed out to the trash. They thought that was a shame and devised a plan to rescue these materials.
That plan has grown into FabMo, now rescuing thousands of pounds of textiles from the Design Center every year. Along with private donations, these scraps fill FabMo’s backroom, where materials are organized and eventually put on sale at a significant discount.
“Some of those fabrics, if you were to look at them in the Design Center showroom, are hundreds of dollars a yard,” Bonte said.
While FabMo provides artists, craftspeople and teachers with affordable material to work with, its ultimate goal is to keep these items out of the trash.
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“Not only are you getting a great bargain and sometimes even getting things for free, but we're keeping 70 tons of material out of the landfill every year,” Bonte said.
Twice a year, FabMo holds an artisan’s market to show off and sell products created from reclaimed materials.
“It's also really fun to see other people react when you see a customer come in and find something and they go, ‘Oh my gosh, this is gorgeous. I'm going to take it home and turn it into a XYZ,'" Bonte said.
For more information about shopping or volunteering with FabMo visit www.fabmo.org.
