Ingleside's Bespoke Wallpaper Maker Revealed

For the longest time, specialized workers have created a custom, hand-painted product every day in a handsome, nondescript storefront on the 1900 block of Ocean Avenue. Only now that the shop’s facade has been made transparent can
passersby discern what’s going on: resplendent bespoke wallpaper manufacturing.

David Bonk started Surfaces by David Bonk on Ocean Avenue in 2000. The business began in a basement in 1988. Bonk learned the wallpaper trade by working for interior design firms.

With showrooms across the United States and one sales representative in Asia, the custom wallpaper that begins its journey on a commercial street in San Francisco ends up decorating spaces far and wide, including luxury hotels, and high-end residences. Yet the charming and unassuming Ocean Avenue storefront in Ingleside does not betray the unique work going on inside.

Recently, Surfaces provided 400 yards of metal-leaf wallpaper for “Power and Beauty in China’s Last Dynasty,” an installation at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Day-to-day operations at Surfaces are overseen by general manager Chris Buchan, who has worked for the company since 1998.

Surfaces frequently works with design firms that create interior decorating plans for hotels.

“When you go into any hotel, every piece of furniture had to go through very specific testing,” Buchan said. The wallpapers made at Surfaces are Class-A fire-rated.

Though Surfaces has not had very much business in the local neighborhood, Buchan said that the city’s housing market has positively impacted the business.

“The San Francisco market is really up and coming. People are really interested in buying wallpaper these days,” Buchan said.

The top seller for Surfaces is tatami wallpaper, made from a plant-fiber material. The lines that the material creates are straight, but with individual variations made apparent by closer inspection.

Similar to tatami is grasscloth, which is silk-screened by hand to achieve a range of patterns and effects, such as gingham.

“With machine-made products, you get the same thing, whereas anything hand-crafted is truly one of a kind,” Buchan said.

The main work surface in the shop is situated against a wall. Paint is applied to the paper, which is set to dry in batches on long tables equipped with industrial air dryers.

To quickly test smaller samples, a standard hair dryer hangs near the work surface. An indispensable tool, it once earned recognition as Employee of the Month.
At most, there are five employees who make wallpaper at Surfaces. Being a small shop means that Surfaces can stay nimble.

“We can do custom wall coverings very easily,” Buchan said.

The operation appears to be ahead of the game in a city that is urging light manufacturing to return and prosper as it once had.