The Hahnlosers made a statement with the installation of the salon in 1908. The room did not simply connect the adjoining wing with the main house, but was a commitment to contemporary architecture and interior design. It was designed by architect Robert Rittmeyer, a close friend of the couple, who also helped design the arts and crafts elements such as lamps and wallpaper. He did this in close collaboration with his clients, with Hedy Hahnloser herself being particularly active as a designer. She provided the designs for the wallpaper, for example, most of which is still original today. Before it was installed in the Flora, the entire room was presented to the public as part of the First Zurich Exhibition of Interior Design and celebrated as a 'masterpiece'.

New ideas on how life should be organised were circulating throughout Europe at the time. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, various reform movements offered new ideas, critically examining industrialisation and calling for a return to nature and craftsmanship. These movements also set a new tone in architecture and product design and provided suggestions on how everyday objects and living spaces could be rethought. In England, it was William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, in Germany the magazine Die Jugend – which was to give Jugendstil its name – and with avant-garde groups such as the Secession in Vienna or the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, new ideas flourished throughout Europe that pursued a holistic approach. They designed architecture, furniture, clothing and everyday objects under these new auspices and thus combined them with one another.

Hedy Hahnloser had always made fun of the display of money and wealth. She herself had grown up in a magnificent house, the Bühlhalde. In direct comparison, the Flora hardly deserves the epithet villa, but seems downright modest. Less modest, however, were her demands on good craftsmanship and art. Even at a young age, she was enthusiastic about product design and was creatively active herself, as the interior design of the Flora bears witness to this day.

Hedy's cousin, Richard Bühler, also played an important role. He himself was active in design and actively promoted the arts and crafts. He was one of the co-founders of the Swiss Werkbund, of which he became the first president. Bühler was also involved in garden design and actively helped Hedy when she set about redesigning the Flora garden. The wealthy Bühler was also a great art lover and collector. For many years, he presided over the Kunstverein, whose artistic orientation he influenced together with Georg Reinhart. The paintings that Hedy and Arthur Hahnloser brought together in their Flora were particularly influential: the new and beautiful, the bold and creative thus found their place in Winterthur in a mutual exchange at various locations – and nowhere was it more harmoniously cast into a total work of art than in the Villa Flora.