About FabMo

Have you ever thought about what happens to all those large and small samples that help you figure out the color of your couch or curtains, the wallpaper in your guest bedroom, or the tiles in your kitchen?

Before FabMo, they ended up in the landfill.

Here is what happens now:

• Weekly pick up
  Every week we collect samples from nearly 60 showrooms at the San Francisco Design Center. These are new, unused samples of exquisite textiles, leathers, wallpaper, tiles, carpets and more.

• Sorting
  Each week a team of volunteers sorts the materials, and organizes the fabric samples by size. It’s a treat for the senses, with a dazzling array of color, pattern and texture.

• Twice-monthly public events
  These materials are made available to creative people from around the Bay Area at our public shopping days. Most events happen at our Sunnyvale location, but we also occasionally visit other locations such as Santa Cruz.

• Creative reuse
  The FabMo community of artists and crafters turns them into one-of-a-kind creations to sell, to give, to support charities, or simply to enjoy.

•  Landfill diversion
  Through these efforts over 70 tons of high quality materials avoid the landfill and become artwork, furnishings, decorations, apparel, jewelry, accessories, toys and many other sometimes weird but always wonderful creations.

The People Behind FabMo

The Heart of FabMo - Our Volunteers: A small army of volunteers works hard to give the materials FabMo collects a second chance at shining. If you want to know more about our volunteers and how you can help, please take a look at our Volunteer information.

FabMo’s Governance and Board of Directors

The FabMo Story

FabMo’s beginnings are humble but the story is very Silicon Valley: it involves a simple but genius idea and a garage.

During a now legendary visit to San Francisco more than 20 years ago, our founders Hannah and Jonathan Cranch witnessed designer samples being thrown into large trash containers. Their reaction was: “We can do better than that!”

They talked to the showroom managers, who agreed to collect these samples for pick-up.

The rest, as they say, is history: every Monday to this day, a driver and a volunteer drive to San Francisco, collect the samples, and bring them back to our warehouse. The first driver was Hannah, and the first warehouse was the Cranch’s living room and garage. FabMo has long outgrown that garage and now occupies a warehouse in Sunnyvale where materials are stored, sorted, and made available during our in-person shopping days.

Watch the video to hear our founders tell their story.