Marin Arts & Culture MAC_Oct_Nov_2017_final | Page 20

Substance
and style
Judith M. Wilson
“It’s an educational process
for them that’s fun and
empowering,”
T
apping into someone else’s
thinking is bound to be a
challenge. And yet interior
designer Candace Killman appears to do
it with ease, as she helps homeowners
define their personal style and turn a
house into a home. Killman, who has
had certification from the California
Council for Interior Design since 1995,
works with architects on new homes
from the ground up and also on
remodels. While an architect decides
where to place a house on a site and
designs its spaces, she focuses on
details, selecting the materials for the
interior, such as lighting fixtures, tile,
wall coverings and wood finishes. “My
job is to select all the materials a house
is made of,” she explains, adding that
every job is unique.
“I start by using images to formulate the
concept,” she says, and she meets with
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Marin Arts & Culture
clients two or three times to determine
their general style. “Our preferences
are all so hard-wired, “ she observes. “I
do what my clients ask me to do. It’s a
reflection of their taste.” Next, she starts
thinking about the rooms individually
and how they will all work together,
and then she pulls materials and spreads
them out on a layout table to assess
them. Architectural renderings follow
and have placeholders for items like
sinks, allowing the architect to drop in
the products to be used, thus giving a
sense of the material and color. When
that’s done, everyone has a period of
time to think about spatial organization
and make revisions. 3-D renderings are
the next step, after everyone is satisfied,
and they give clients an opportunity
to see things they couldn’t visualize
before. “It’s very illustrative for them,”
says Killman. Once they’ve finalized all
the decisions, she issues specifications
to the contractor, who manages
construction with the architect. During
that time, she has weekly meetings with
clients and is in frequent contact with
them. Most projects take a long time,
with most lasting more than a year, and
Killman has been working on one for
more than two.
Remodels are much the same process,
but on a smaller scale. “Sometimes
remodels are what I would call
resurfacing … not changing the
structure,” says Killman. Kitchens and
bathrooms tend to be the first things
people do, but a larger remodel can
involve moving walls or adding a second
story, which creates challenges, because
of the need to work around existing
things. “It’s my job to give them what
they want, but in the parameters of
good design,” she says.