by Kastle Waserman
designer Kelee Katillac brings a fresh take to wallcoverings
AS AN ARTIST, Kelee Katillac knows the power of color and custom design. Growing up in Kansas City, she knew in college that interior design was her calling. She practiced design in New York in what she called a “traditional way” before finding her style using her diverse artistic skills of painting, ceramics and sewing to inform her work.
Though she has worked all over the U.S., she recently relocated to Santa Fe. Before her move, Katillac set out to answer the question: Can historic design be renovated to honor the past while remaining relevant today? The designer, artist and historian thinks so. She aims to reinterpret spaces and continue the narrative of their occupants, which led to a partnership with Adelphi Paper Hangings to reimagine historic patterns with bold colors for fresh looks.
The collaboration began after Katillac embarked on a monumental project to restore a crumbling manor house in the farmlands of Missouri. Built in 1878 by Henry and Sarah Blosser and designed by Swiss architect John Daniel Walters, it was saved from the wrecking ball by the late Dr. Arthur Elman and his wife, Carolyn Elman, for historic preservation. They enlisted Katillac to begin the monumental task of renovation.
“I envisioned the house as a book. It starts with the early phases of American history and French history when you walk in the front door. Then we go into the 20th century as we go up the floors. So, room by room, it tells the story,” Katillac says.
Dr. Ellman was the French consul to the Midwest. Katillac recalls he was fond of French style, so she worked to evolve the home’s story to include the current owners, a hallmark of her work on historic spaces over the past 20 years. “My heart’s work has been to bring everyone into the story and create new narratives and address the fact that many of those places were created by craftspeople who were not recognized as part of the story.”
Katillac used 12 historic pattern wallpapers from Adelphi throughout the Blosser estate, amping up the pigments and injecting new energy and personality. “Adelphi had worked with designers before. But mostly they would pick things from the archive with muted colors,” she says. When Katillac took a different approach and started sending them samples of unconventional colorways, she says they were skeptical at first, but then their tone changed. “There was a glow coming from the emails—an excitement, a receptivity. I think it energized the house of Adelphi in a new way.”
Katillac says she uses color meditation to find the right hues. “I’m always trying to align with a higher power. I start by filling with white light. Then I ask what color I need. Then pause. And I literally get the color. I hear it and see it.”
Today, surrounded by desert hues, she says she’s a student of the land. “My clients mentor me,” Katillac says. “Because I work with a diverse group, I’m always learning and trying to better understand and represent the organic style that grew out of the pueblo.”
