Claire Welsh

I am currently working for Kristin Collins Interior Design (KCID) based out of Los Angeles; however I am working remotely from San Francisco. I am very sad to be leaving KCID because the people there are fantastic, but I am starting to feel isolated in my remote office and would love to work with people face to face again.

I am a graduate of the University of Melbourne (Australia), with a Masters of Architecture. When I moved to the United States four years ago, I undertook some additional remote study in Design Anthropology until I found my feet. My first job in San Francisco was as an interior design assistant to Jennifer Nichols. I found that I really enjoyed the often faster turn around time and increased flexibility of interior design vs. architecture. However, it also really great to have the solid design base, communication skills and technical knowledge from my architectural studies.

I continue to regularly freelance with Jennifer Nichols Design and other interior designers; primarily assisting with 3D visualization and rendering. This has been a fantastic opportunity to be exposed to a range of different projects and design approaches. Freelancing, I have worked on some really interesting projects like the Shazaam office redesign, residential development in Mill Valley and San Francisco, landscape design in Marfa, Texas and the Hotel Carlton renovation in San Francisco.

When I moved to Los Angeles in 2014, I started working with Kristin Collins Interior Design as an interior design assistant. Over the course of my time there, I moved more into a design and project management role. KCID is a small office however we tackle really large residential projects. I was able to learn how to execute the vision of the principal designer, from sketches and fabrics all the way to supervising contractors and placing furniture on site. For a single project, this included purchasing and delivering hundreds of items to a logistics warehouse for crating and then packing everything into shipping containers and delivering them to Saudi Arabia. It really instilled in me the importance of quality control and logistics in delivering high end interior design. At KCID, I also was able to participate and learn about the production of custom furniture and drapery.

When I moved to San Francisco in 2015, I continued to work with Kristin Collins remotely. A contact of mine in San Francisco employed us to do their houses in Calistoga and Pacific Heights and I was able to take on more of a design role. This was a great opportunity for me to start take a larger role in the entire process from initial design to scheduling and installation.