KELEE KATILLAC

Kelee Katillac is an interior and architectural designer as well as preservation consultant. Her work has been featured in the pages of USA Today, House Beautiful, Designer Builder, Traditional Home, Introspective, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and hundreds of others worldwide. The books House Beautiful Pink and Gestalten’s. The Chamber of Curiosity featured her signature style. 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 – designgivesback.com, an initiative to provide rooms of hope, health, and happiness for those who are critically ill or in need.

JORGE ARANGO

Jorge S. Arango has written about design, architecture and art for over 40 years. His writing has appeared in, among others, Metropolitan Home, Elle Decor, House & Garden, House Beautiful, Robb Report, Aspire, New England Home & Design, Maine Home+Design and 1stDibs.com’s online magazine Introspective. He is the art reviewer for the Portland Press Herald, in Portland, ME, where he lives. Arango has also coauthored over a dozen books with such design luminaries as Juan Montoya, Orlando Diaz-Azcuy, Geoffrey Brad field, Stephanie Stokes and Katie Ridder. He is passionate about the arts, spirituality and social justice, and serves on the advisory circle for the Indigo Arts Association, as well as on the board of Guest House Retreat & Conference Center, a spiritual retreat center in Chester, CT. He also helped edit A.H. Almaas’s book, Keys to the Enneagram (Shambala).

INTERIOR DESIGNER KELEE KATILLAC is widely known for her incomparable mix of color, couture, pop culture, and history. In Historic Style, Katillac reimagines what preservation can be with a renegade attitude and Mick Jagger style. Working with historical patterns from Adelphi Paper Hangings, Katillac boldly recolors period wallpapers as an homage to the great houses and America’s hidden creators, while shifting paradigms with her concept rooms.

“The human spirit cannot thrive within a time capsule. The future of preservation depends on honoring and including all who co-created our built environment. I intend to swing open the front door of America’s house to everyone,” Katillac says.

Writer Jorge Arango chronicles Katillac’s design process and a Case Study of The Henry Blosser House, a National Register of Historic Places estate on the brink of demolition offers hope and inspiration. Practical advice includes case notes on historic rehabilitation and inspiration for walls, windows, fabric, fixtures, furnishings, and fine art. With more than 200 vibrant photos by some of the world’s leading photographers, Historic Style offers a contemporary perspective that acknowledges the past and paves a way for diversity in the future of preservation.

Included are the works of American artists Ken Gonzales-Day and Elaine Reichek among others that provide inspiration for a more conceptual approach to interior design with an evolving historical narrative. Historic Style points back to “origin houses” designed by other preservationists that inform Katillac’s new approach. With contributions from great American house museums and their curators – including Mount Vernon, Montpelier, and Historic New England – we find a more colorful and inclusive view of our built environment.