Talk Shop: Kelee Katillac // Historic Style
ABOUT KELEE
Kelee Katillac is an interior and architectural designer as well as a preservation consultant. Her work has been featured in the pages of USA Today, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Introspective, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and hundreds of others worldwide. She has been a guest on CNN, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Discovery Channel, Pure Oxygen, The Family Channel, and many others. In addition, Kelee is the author of two nationally acclaimed books and is the founder of Design Gives Back, an initiative to provide rooms of hope, health, and happiness for those who are critically ill or in need. As a preservationist, Kelee published her latest book, Historic Style, which honors the past with design today. Enjoy this enlightening interview with Kelee!
Congratulations on your book Historic Style! Tell us how it came to be:
I have been working as an interior and architectural designer, and a preservation consultant for many years. Dare I say lifetimes? The long-term goal has been to reinterpret historic places to save more from the wrecking ball. Historic places are being torn down at an alarming rate. However, this book goes beyond mere historic preservation.
Historic Style is essentially my Design Diary laid open for all to read. You see the metaverse of influences that have led to the spectacular photos and projects. Jorge Arango writes the text -- and follows the process, ie. from hard-core historic rehabilitation advice to my montages – Design Boards that bring all of the wild influences together from music, art, fashion, film, literature, social aspects, and history. We draw from the past, present, and future for influences that are real for us today and socially relevant. With the aspects of diversity and representation, that are now important to the reexamination of our history, anyone can use what is valuable from history for their own style -- and discard the rest.) Like life in general we use the lessons that matter the most.
How is decorating a historic home different from newer builds:
A new build is a completely blank canvas. It is a story you can write from scratch without any responsibility or accountability. You can make the house in your own image. Freedom is yours and the sky's the limit. You can sink or swim in your own vision. Go for it.
Conversely, when a historic structure exists it must be honored, understood, and interpreted. If you will inflict a lot of structural changes on an important old house then go build or buy new. Any structural change in a historic house must be undertaken with deep gravitas and vetting. In museum houses like Mount Vernon, Montpelier, and others the curators seek to depict the exact history and key to a date of significance. In private owner projects, we can expand the history of the house by creating a new narrative story that includes our own tastes, style, and preferences while still respecting the historic structure of the building. That is exactly the subject matter of Historic Style.
Describe your style in three words or less:
Color, culture, history.
What have been the three biggest influences on your aesthetic in your life:
A trip to Mount Vernon at age 11 led to working with historic houses. A trip to Santa Fe at age 8 led to Color Meditation and my use & study of crystals, rocks & gemstones. A Project I founded for Habitat for Humanity: Made me aware of the need for Diversity and representation in Design.
How did you start your company, and/or what is your favorite thing about what you do:
I seem like a successful and together person. And, today I am. However, there was a moment in college when I became very down and severely depressed. Instead of a campus apartment, we decided to live in a mobile home. Like most students, I didn’t have much money. I started making furniture with curb finds and found objects. With each remake, I felt better. The creative redesign of what I now call (some 40 years later) “the best little trailer house in Kansas” actually saved my life. That is why I founded my own company after graduating and working in KC and NYC as a designer.
Do you have a mentor in your career, and if so, how have they helped to shape your trajectory:
look to my grandparents as they were all self-made. They had printing companies and real estate development. I have spiritual and metaphysical teachers. I talk about Chris Michaels's influence in the Design Lab section of Historic Style.
What does your home say about you:
Color! And that I love pop culture.
Where do you find inspiration:
I find inspiration in a historic house - if that is my client's tableau - the history it contains. But, primarily, by looking deeply into my clients; into their beliefs, values, goals, dreams, and, their need for wellness or healing. A house is a vision board of life. I use all of the tools in my box from color to symbolism to create a narrative that represents my clients. So when we incorporate the client story with the history of the historic property, you find that there is a magical thru-line that emerges between the original builders of an old house and those who are attracted to it and buy it.
Who are your style icons:
Gloria Vanderbilt. Her collages of gingham and fabric were an early study– her naivete and eclecticism. Then, Mario Buatta. The theatricality of his 1980s English country is the basis of grandmillenialism. Fashion designers like Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. Of course Madame Castaing – the French penchant for oddity and surrealism. Michelangelo would do it in his sculptures. Jackie Kennedy, Empress Josephine, Juliette Recamier, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and Millicent Rogers were all savvy chicks with the guts to be different. You know what they say “Well behaved women rarely make history.”
What are your key ingredients for entertaining:
Lots of laughter and a creative ice-breaker.
Do you collect anything:
Rocks, stones, crystals, Hermes scarves, vintage couture clothing, chairs, regionalist paintings, architecture & art/fashion books, and country Chippendale 18th-century furniture .
Favorite Instagram accounts to follow for inspiration:
Adelphi Paper Hangings of course! My new line of recolored historical wallpapers.
What design “rule” do you always follow, and which is made to be broken:
The client comes first. It is THEIR STORY, not mine. Any color rule is meant to be broken
What are you working on right now:
Recoloring Historical wallpaper patterns and fabric designs.
Wardrobe staples:
Scarves.,Jodhpurs, and all horse culture attire…. FAB sunglasses!
Favorite fabric/wallpaper:
My new fabric design is called “All of US” – the gemstone-inspired pattern on the cover of Historic Style. For wallpaper, it is historical patterns. My newly recolored pattern for Adelphi Paper Hangings is called POSH GOTHIC – a gothic revival pattern I used in a Rock Star VIP Room with Harry Styles, Jay-Z, Prince Art Deco, and mid-century modern furnishings. It is in Historic Style, called Experiment #2.
Best interior advice you ever received:
Keep the trim uniform in color.
Best career advice you ever received:
Always make sure you "give back" by connecting your profession to something charitable. That is why I founded Design Gives Back (coupled with my own story of healing by design) and have been creating makeovers for those who are critically ill or in need for the past few decades. I can tell you that when you see the profound outcome of a transformed room in the lives of the recipients—and how it can actually extend life and certainly improve the quality of it, as a designer you know you are in the right profession
Types of home purchases you invest in, and save on:
Historical restoration – got to do it right. You can save on built-in cabinets. Using many less than before.
Your greatest extravagance:
My horse, Roger. He is very Bougie. That dude lives better than all of us. He even gets massages! I talk about him in Historic Style he was a rescue turned into a dressage horse. Lives with his trainer full-time.
Favorite places to shop for home:
My brain. 1st Dibs – because the world is at your fingertips.
Most prized possession and why:
A little turquoise beaded brooch from my childhood and my grandfather’s denim jacket. He founded a horse-riding country club. And they would go by train to Cheyenne Wyoming to ride in their big parade. That jacket is from one of those events.
Your interiors motto:
Do as little as possible.
Your life motto:
Let love rule. Lenny Kravitz had it right.
Advice for someone looking to define their own interior style:
You gotta get real. Think deeply about what you need, what YOU love beyond trends. Find a great designer to lead the way. Designers are missionaries, healers, counselors, and liberators. I believe in the industry and in those who feel called to design. I love sharing what I know so those just entering the field can have more successful meaningful careers. Designers help people to make their own reality.
Take Ten: My Favorite…
Food: Handmade pasta in Rome
Drink: Elderflower Martini
Film: La Belle & La Bête Cocteau
Hotel: Barcelona Ritz
City: Corfe on the southern Coast of England
Bedding: No feathers!
Tea or Coffee (and how do you take it): An almond milk in my Earl Grey tea with an English biscuit
Playlist: Historic Style has my own playlist with every room I designed!
Weekend Activity: Brunch, sleep, and great coffee and music.
Design Book: Historic Style, of course!