Bonita Living – October 2006
Excerpted from original article published in Bonita Living magazine, October 2006 issue
Picture Perfect: A Design Consultant Adheres to Family Tradition
by Mary Lou Smart
Kathryn Guyitt’s appreciation of design took root in childhood. The owner of DesignTech of SW FL, she grew up in and around Hollywood. Her father, Fred Koenekamp, was a director of photography for movies such as Island in the Stream, Papillion and Patton. He directed many TV shows including The Man from UNCLE. His Oscar for Towering Inferno was one of many industry awards; last year he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Cinematography from the American Society of Cinematographers.
Fred Koenekamp was introduced to the silver screen by his father, Hans, another award-winning director of photography who filmed Gloria Swanson and the Keystone Kops, gave Charlie Chaphn his first screen test, and was good friends with Ernest Hemingway. Hans Koenekamp, who filmed The Old Man and the Sea and was known as a specialist in trick photography, also received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Cinematography.
After numerous motion picture production courses in Hollywood, Kathryn took a cue from her father and enlisted in the Air Force. There she received camera training that came with assignments filming jet fighters and transport aircraft such as F-16s, A-lOs, C-130s and C-140s. After her tour of duty concluded, she relocated to Washington, D.C. where her husband, Dennis Guyitt, a career military photographer, continued in the field at the Pentagon. Dennis subsequently retired from the Air Force as Colonel and spent 14 years with Kodak as a digital applications specialist. “I have always been surrounded by technical and artistic types, which is perfect for interior design,” Kathryn says.
For Guyitt, an early job as an administrator at a law firm altered her focus. Not long after being put in charge of a major renovation of the firm’s multiple locations—including the offices of former senators Russell Long and Paul Laxalt—she realized that she had found her niche. Her first independent design job was assisting on the project management and design for Senator Laxalt’s Virginia home. “The challenge of planning spaces and working with the trades was something I enjoyed,” she says. “I’ve been in design for 20 years now.’ Guyitt, a Florida Certified Residential Contractor, is an ASID Industry Partner and bills her services as a design consultant and interior remodeler. She is a board member of Collier Building Industry Association’s Remodeling Council. As a design consultant, she works for individual clients and in partnership with several of the area’s high-end construction firms, delivering everything from design expertise and knowledge of the best sub-contractors to building code and permit advice. “In many of our projects, when a designer should stop whatever he or she is doing and call a contractor is often a very fine line.” she says. “People often need more than an interior designer. I combine my knowledge of both fields in every single job.” The rule of thumb, according to Guyitt, is that when a project stops being cosmetic, it’s time to call a contractor and permits need to be pulled. Cosmetic enhancements include anything from installing draperies and painting walls to hanging cabinets. Work involving building codes, such as re-routing electrical, changing plumbing or moving support walls, requires the skills of a licensed contractor, as well as the insurance required of contractors and their subs.
“The other side of the coin is that people do not always know it, but there are so many more things that a design professional can provide a client with than information about colors, fabrics and furnishings,” she says. “The sophisticated customer is looking for good resources for just about everything, including imported stone, custom metal work, antique or auction items, art consultation, space planning and lighting configuration.”
Southwest Florida supports some of the fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation. With workforce housing in short supply and professional trades stretched to the limit, however, Guyitt reports that one of the most important assets any homeowner can possess is a vast amount of patience.
“When you find a wallpaper hanger or painter that is highly skilled and dependable, you can believe that that person has a huge backlog of work,” she says. “The best sewing rooms are backed up for months. Part of the job of an interior designer or a contractor is finding the best people, but even we have to wait.”
One of the first things that prospective clients ask about is cost, according to Guyitt. Over the years, she has seen a consistent pattern. “It almost always works out that if you spend 10 to 15 percent of the value of your home on goods to furnish it, you will get just what you need to function in it,” she advises. “No frills. In the upscale market, between electronics, custom cabinetry, decorative painting and any of the extras that go with that level of lifestyle, you can spend a good deal of money before furniture and furnishings. I’d say that 20 percent is a more realistic number to really complete a home.”
Certainly, the art of design is similar to movie production. Homeowners envision settings that might include colunms, dramatic ceiling treatments, artifacts on tables and treasures from travels artfully arranged. They want rooms where lighting sets the mood and spaces are carefully composed. These serene escapes must be approachable, comfortable and designed to create a sense of calm away from an uncertain world. For movie-star scenes, where the stage is a backdrop to life, Guyitt benefits from having received a front row seat to a first-hand education.
“In many ways, interior design is much like photography:’ she explains. “You have the emphasis on light, contrast, color and composition and each project is a unique production. My father and grandfather were both detail oriented and I guess that trait rubbed off on me.”