San Francisco interior designer Kendall Wilkinson is perched at a desk in her sunny Sacramento Street studio in Pacific Heights, surveying an array of clips and glossy photo albums that show interiors she has designed over her notable 23-year career. There are chic modern apartments in the city’s newly cool Financial District, handsome traditional family houses in Hillsborough, tech offices down the Peninsula and colorful, classical residences in Beverly Hills. Flipping through the albums, she momentarily lingers on photos of a historic cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea, its relaxed interiors all seaside charm. Then it’s on to a rugged ski lodge in Jackson Hole, a sleek Chelsea pied-à-terre for a fashion executive, a family cabin in the woods near Lake Tahoe and the timber-and-steel reinvention of a shingle-style residence overlooking San Francisco Bay. Her versatility is epic.
Tech superstars (think executives at Apple, Dropbox and Google) figure heavily on Wilkinson’s client roster, but she’s also in high demand among art-collecting professionals, single entrepreneurs and young philanthropically active urban couples replete with kids, dogs and a driving desire for homes that reflect their individual styles. Never tethered to dated rules of design, Wilkinson’s practice is thriving. Yet her creative spirit, she says, could have taken her in a very different direction.
“I truly thought I would be a rock star,” the San Francisco native admits with a smile. “I’ve had a lifelong obsession with music, since I fronted a gospel-rock band when I was sixteen. I studied music in college in Southern California and sang with a few popular bands as well.” Today, however, she says, she will “only perform for friends.”
Here, Wilkinson speaks with 1stdibs about the road she’s traveled since launching her firm in San Francisco in 1992.
Following college, you worked in Los Angeles in television production. How did you find your way to interior design?
I was disillusioned with the entertainment business while living in L.A. and left to travel all over Europe. There, I became entranced by classical architecture, antiques, radical contemporary French furniture. You name it. I loved the gracious way of life and the excitement of contemporary art and design. I wanted that creativity and stimulation in my life, my work.
Upon my return, I told my mother [noted Bay Area designer Alice Wiley] that I wanted to pursue a career in interiors. She insisted that I must be formally trained, so I enrolled at the Academy of Art University design school in San Francisco. I worked for my mother and other designers, and I eventually started my own firm in 1992.
The influence of powerful California designers like Frances Elkins, Michael Taylor and Anthony Hail lingered well into the 21st century. These imperious characters orchestrated every inch of their clients’ houses, down to the flowers and cigarette holders. How have you seen San Francisco interiors change since their reigns?
Yes, it’s hard to believe now, but San Francisco decorators even directed their clients on what to wear and with whom to socialize. That era is over. For today’s clients, who are confident in their style, a fastidious Frances Elkins–style diagram of “Where to Place the Flowers on the Coffee Table” would be unthinkable.
The tech world around here is highly independent, vibrant, innovative, creative and trendsetting. My tech- and financial-world clients have fresh and sometimes iconoclastic ideas about interiors. San Francisco design, even 20 years ago, was very Old World and Eurocentric. Today, Asia is a very strong influence, and ideas can come from film, TV, music videos, Instagram, Facebook. I rely totally on the Internet for sourcing and information.
Interiors I’ve recently designed for start-up founders and industry leaders are much less decorated, more minimal. Tech execs are outspoken, engaging and wonderfully expressive. Their lives are their own inventions. They are often starting a house or apartment as a clean slate. Individual pieces, such as conceptual art by young artists, or rare vintage pieces, become more important, and each item needs to pull its weight in stripped-down rooms.
Early in your career, you also sold 18th- and 19th-century Continental antiques out of your design studio. But even then you were attracted to vibrant color, new art and modern simplicity.
One of my first clients was Andy Grove, the founder of Intel. His place and those I created for other tech entrepreneurs were sleek and modern, which was very unusual here in San Francisco at the time.
While filling a room with antiques is less common these days, layering the old and very new creates contrasts and lively conversations. Mixing antiques and vintage treasures with modern style brings a sense of authenticity and history to a contemporary interior. It can be provocative. I love it.
You wear pieces by such top fashion designers as Phoebe Philo for Céline and Alber Elbaz for Lanvin. Do you ever translate what’s in your wardrobe into your interiors?
I am absolutely influenced by fashion. The drape of a beautiful Céline coat might inspire curtains or a pillow, or the fine detailing of a Céline handbag might inspire a one-off furniture piece with hand-stitched welting, and my take on a Lanvin necklace could be a grosgrain ribbon trim on a curtain or even jewel-like hardware that I custom design. One of the most influential elements of fashion as it relates to interiors is color and the interrelationships of color in a designer’s collection. I often visualize a color family for a project after seeing a new collection and the color harmonies and contrasts dreamed up by someone like Alber Elbaz or Dries van Noten.
Interestingly, one often hears comments relating to fashion that mimic how one might describe interiors or buildings — the architecture of a dress or jacket, the line of a shoe.
For the penthouse of a top moneyman in San Francisco’s Financial District, you were inspired by his love of Palladian architecture. Once bare bones, the apartment now has elegant architectural details of an Old World European estate, updated to feel like the ultimate in urban luxury living.
I introduced luxurious Venetian plaster and subtle Beaux Arts-inspired paneling in a pale gray palette. It’s irreverent. There’s a vintage Lucite and brass Charles Hollis Jones dining table surrounded by a modern version of the classic Greek Klismos chair and overhead a Baccarat crystal chandelier. A sleek tufted sofa in deep forest green is accented by a chrome and Lucite coffee table by Alessandro Albrizzi.
How have your clients changed over the years?
It’s an exciting time. I love the dialogue and explorations with new clients. Many come to me with a rich professional background or personal passion that I like to use in designing their living spaces. One new client, for instance, loves music, and we incorporated his collection of vintage guitars into the design of the living room. Other clients have a passion for collecting art by emerging artists. It’s exciting to work with them to create a dialogue between the furnishings and the artwork. The goal is to take something wonderfully personal and to enhance it by giving it prominence in the perfect setting.
At the same time, clients with young children want less formality. I have two young, soccer-loving boys and a yellow Lab named Biscuit. My clients, like me, want rooms that don’t stand on ceremony. That does not mean being overly casual. I think children can rise to the occasion and be attentive to special pieces. I create homes where children feel welcome and at ease and creative.
Artful custom-crafted silk-and-wool carpets are lovely for my art collectors, but lately for families I’ve been using more forgiving materials such as handwoven wool and hair on hide. The textures are interesting and have a lovely, sensuous feel. I’m currently working with Fabricut to design a line of indoor-outdoor fabric that is durable yet completely gorgeous and luxe. Stay tuned for a Spring 2016 launch.
My goal is for a residence to be a place of refuge and relaxation and a conduit for informal entertaining, for a post-soccer get-together with families or a cocktail party with friends and colleagues.