Kate St James has had an incredible career in the interior design industry, spanning different countries as well as an amazing variety of roles. Today, she is semi-retired and focusses on interior design and decoration projects for selected clients and herself as well as collaborating with colleague Catherine Whitting with their art, fabric and rug collections and paint collaboration with Resene.
Kate describes herself as having always been creative as a child and it seems to run in the family. “Mum was a crazy decorator back in England,” she explains. “Every two years she’d redecorate the house and my sister was also very creative and artistic so I grew up in this incredibly inspirational environment”. When Kate was 10 years old her sister married and moved out of home, leaving Kate with a large double bedroom all to herself.
She describes the feeling of freedom and excitement at the chance to decorate the space on her own. “I made curtains, ‘borrowed’ some Lloyd Loom chairs from another room, grabbed a coffee table and my record player and set up my own hideaway,” she says.
Moving to Australia as a teenager in 1967 was a culture shock and after six years she briefly returned to England in the early 70s. But the move to the antipodes eventually led to Kate meeting her husband Ian who was studying architecture. They purchased an 1867 terrace house in Rozelle, Sydney and spent four years renovating it, with Kate rolling up her sleeves and doing much of the work herself. This process gave her the realisation that not only was she hugely interested in design, but she was also very good at it.
“I was lucky,” Kate muses. “I was keenly interested in what Ian was doing and he taught me so much. And that, coupled with the course I was taking with the New York School of Interior Design really helped me work out what I wanted to do”. Kate also took on an architectural drafting course which she credits with helping her hone her knowledge in structural design and understanding the relevance and application of building codes. “In those days you did a lot of learning on the job,” she laughs.
Kate even lived for a year in Lucca, Italy in 1981 and she describes this time as magical, and a place to which she returned often in the ensuing years. “That experience really kick-started my whole love affair with Italy,” she says. “It was amazing and I will never regret it”.
Throughout her career, Kate has always had an interest in and a wish to pursue sustainable design and an opportunity arose in the early 80s to move to Northern NSW and build one of the country’s first solar houses. As it was one of the first of its kind, there were very few templates to follow so Kate was learning while doing. “I did a lot of the building work myself and was on the tools most days,” she remembers. “We built it together and much of the work we did ourselves. It took around 18 months in total and then we lived there for a while before heading off for our next adventure”.
A move to Brisbane saw Kate working for many of the top designers of the time and she is grateful for the opportunities they gave her to take on more responsibility and gain a wide variety of experience. In 1987, she and Ian took the plunge and established their own business – The Design Works – which enjoyed 10 successful years before the recession of the late 1990s particularly impacted the Queensland market.
Kate describes those years as busy and challenging but ultimately hugely rewarding as they worked on high-end residential, hospitality, health and aged care, and retail projects as well as partnering with a number of high-end construction companies.
Another move saw Kate back in Sydney where she obtained her Certified Kitchen Designer accreditation (then through HIA) and was working for a number of kitchen companies, as well as doing some training for HIA. And, then, a wonderful opportunity arose to contribute to a magazine called Luxury Home Design, produced by Universal Magazines (now known as UMCo,) which Kate did for a short time before applying for the job as Editor when the incumbent resigned.
This fortuitous event sparked a relationship that would span more than 16 years and see the launch of many highly successful publications under Kate’s leadership including the renowned Grand Designs Australia magazine. “My philosophy has always been that everybody has the right to experience good design,” she says. “It’s not just for those with means. I really wanted our readers to understand about the benefits of using a qualified designer and I was fabulously lucky to be able to use the magazine as a vehicle for that message”.
Kate also made her mark with Luxury Home Design (now known as Home Design) because she took the approach of covering not only the who’s who of the design industry but also profiling up-and-coming talented young people. She quickly established a reputation as a talent spotter and the magazine was not only gaining popularity with its readership but also with advertisers.
It was important to Kate that she not lose touch with her designing roots, so she continued to take on projects now and again – either for herself or for someone she knew. She mainly stuck to her core interests of kitchens and bathrooms and this meant she stayed in touch with the industry as well.
Another fortuitous meeting came when Kate was asked to give a talk at Enmore TAFE to students studying interior design. She was asked to talk about her own path into the industry and to give the students some ideas about different sectors of the industry. Catherine Whitting was teaching at Lidcome TAFE at the time (now at Enmore) and, following Kate’s retirement from Universal Magazines, she and Kate went on to establish a very successful venture as St James Whitting. This new partnership took on interior design work but also branched out into fabric and rug design, art, and a wonderful collaboration with Resene to develop new paint colours.
Having had such a broad career, Kate struggled when asked to pinpoint one thing she was most proud of. “I’m proud of so many achievements,” she explained. “I loved my time working in health and aged care/retirement villages as these can be very challenging and really require you to have a lot of specialist knowledge. And building my own house was fantastic – it was such a learning curve but I got so much hands-on experience. And my later work with the rugs, fabrics and paint has been so rewarding”.
Kate also believes in giving back to an industry that has provided her with such an amazing career. Over the years she has held a number of voluntary roles including Chapter Convenor of the Design Institute of Australia, President of the Australian Architecture Association and Board Member of the Australian Institute of Architects. She says these roles might be hard work and sometimes time consuming but it has been worthwhile to be able to contribute to promoting professional design.
Kate says that working in a creative field often doesn’t feel like “work” and the satisfaction that comes from finding a fabulous solution is like nothing else. “Every building has to start with a plan,” she says. “You have to have an idea but you also have to get it right – there is a lot to consider – and it has to be practical as well as beautiful, and designed for longevity”.
When asked what advice she would give to young designers starting in the industry she makes a number of points. “Get the best qualifications from the best place you can,” she emphasises. “Then join an industry association such as the Design Institute of Australia – get behind the industry that supports you. Get involved in networking events, go on design tours, and continue your education. Keep in touch with what’s going on in the world – read books, magazines and online publications”.
Kate is well-known in the industry for her commitment to mentoring and also feels strongly about the role designers play in their client’s lives. “You absolutely must leave your ego at the front door,” she says. “Be prepared to take feedback and criticism and be prepared to ‘do’. Remember that you are in someone’s home, and they must live in that space so it’s not about what you want, it’s about them and their family”.
For more information and to stay in touch with Kate visit facebook.com/stjameswhi/
