A Life by Design

Interior Designer Profile: Samantha Williams Interior Design

Ask Interior Designer and 2022 Dunn-Edwards Color Trend Ambassador Samantha Williams to characterize her style and she’ll tell you: “beautiful, timeless interiors that are as comfortable as they are elegant.” 

Based in Pasadena, California, a suburb nestled at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, she combines her love of historic homes with her traditional and transitional sensibilities to create a fresh, contemporary twist on classic design.

“My team and I work on a lot of older homes in Pasadena - Dutch Colonial, Spanish Revival and Mediterranean, among others - so you have to respect the history of those homes and character of the architecture,” she says.  “But it can be done so that it still feels fresh and updated.”

Typically, Pasadena is known for its New Year’s Day Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game, but design afficionados also know it as home to the prestigious Pasadena Showcase House of Design.  Founded in 1948, it’s a non-profit with 80+ volunteers comprised of Interior Designers, landscapers, vendors, and artisans who produce one of the oldest, largest and most successful house and garden tours in the nation. Samantha Williams is one of its premier Interior Designers.

She and her team designed the kitchen and dining room of the 2019 Showcase House at Descanso Gardens, one of the last showcase houses open to the public before the pandemic moved it online. 

In programming the spaces of the home, Samantha knew exactly what she wanted to do with it on sight, and the details were filled in along the way.  “The initial design process took a few weeks and then the execution took a few months,” she recalls.

The Dining Room

For the dining room, she said it “was the perfect marriage because the furniture looks great in context with the home, but the art gives it a fresh, updated feel that provides a really nice balance.”  The home was constructed in a Hollywood Regency style, so one of the first things she did was pick the window treatment fabric.

“The trellis design fit nicely with the design of the house, and we paired this with a complementary sisal wallcovering and a new wainscot to give it that clean and crisp look that we love,” she says. 

“The house was so grand that they needed a stately dining table and supporting furniture pieces. They worked with Hollis in San Marino, picking out antiques and reproduction pieces that would work beautifully in the home.  “Since I really wanted the artwork to be a focal point, I opted for a monochrome, fairly quiet rug that wouldn’t compete with the artwork to ground the room.” 

The Kitchen

The kitchen had been previously updated in a showcase house in the mid-2000s in a palette of black, white and red.  “It has beautiful garden views with tons of mature oak trees, so I really wanted to marry the palette of the interior and exterior,” says Samantha.

“We achieved this by completely gutting the kitchen and starting over with a fresh oak floor in a herringbone pattern, a much lighter and softer color palette. We also incorporated references to the outdoors, such as the beautiful hydrangea mosaic we used in the prep kitchen. I accessorized with succulents and herbs to really play up the garden feel and pull it all together.”

Samantha’s Professional Journey

You’d think someone so prolific in interior design would have decided at an early age what she wanted to do with her life, but that wasn’t the case.  “My undergraduate degree was in International Relations, but I wanted something more creative,” she says. She pursued a Master’s in Interior Architecture at UCLA and has never looked back. 

Unbeknownst to most people, 90% of the interior design business is in commercial or hospitality, and only 10% is residential.  “For most people, interior design is a luxury service. The budget is higher with custom for high-end rugs, textiles and furniture and each project typically lasts between three to six months for smaller projects or up to two or three years for those involving extensive construction. 

For those interested in pursuing the field of interior design or owning their own interior design business, Samantha shares some of her sage professional advice as well as some of her favorite pastimes.

Pro Tips

For recent graduates:

• Get an internship. Work with a designer to get a sense of the day-to-day. “Learning the timeline of projects, understanding project management and being mentored is an incredibly valuable experience,” she says. 
• Get involved in organizations. A former ASID (American Society of Interiors Designer) Pasadena President, she notes that “networking is important; things don’t just come to you.”
• It’s never too late. “There was a variety of ages and genders in my master’s program,” she notes. 

3 Tips for People Who Want to Renovate Their Space:

• Measure, measure and measure again!
• Know your limitations.  "If you need help, it's better to pay a professional than make a lot of costly mistakes," she cautions.
• Think of your house as a whole and what's going to flow from one space to the next.

Business advice for women entrepreneurs:

• Build a good team around you. “You’re only as good as those who work with you, including your trades people and their subs,” she says.
• Treat everyone with kindness and respect.
• Learn to listen to yourself and your clients; “it makes life better for everyone,” she notes. 

Upcoming color trends:

• “Coming out of 2021, people are looking for calm, fresh and light. The Meraki Palette by Dunn-Edwards incorporates fresh blues, mints, wood tones and natural materials,” she says. 

A favorite day in LA:

• “Anywhere in Pasadena, as there’s no shortage of beautiful neighborhoods. I love the Huntington Gardens, Norton Simon Museum and coffee at Pasadena City Hall. There’s so many beautiful Beaux Arts buildings.  There’s a great design community that is invested in preserving the landmarks of Pasadena.  I love living and working here.”

For more information, visit https://williamsinteriordesign.com/ or Instagram @samanthawilliams_design

Photography: Peter Valli, PCV Photographic Services