Design of the Times
Photography: Courtesy of San Francisco Design
A stroll through the Park City showroom of San Francisco Design, densely packed with furniture, artwork and accessory pieces, stimulates the senses. The air is filled with aromas of exotic woods, fresh paint, fine fabrics and ... wait: is that Italian roast?
Owner Kelly Wallman explains: “I put in an espresso bar at the store so I could indulge my customers and myself whenever I wanted, and it was a hit. I love to cook and entertain, so it was sort of an extension of that. A lot of our customers and friends drop by to browse, have an espresso or latte and just chat.” That’s Wallman’s style, a pleasant combination of businesswoman and gracious host.
This winning combination has brought her much success. Wallman’s company, San Francisco Design, an upscale furniture and interior design firm with stores in Park City and Salt Lake City, is celebrating 20 years in our town this year. The stores have earned enviable reputations as providers of fine American, European and Italian contemporary furniture for discerning buyers. That’s the way Wallman envisioned her first store when she opened it almost 30 years ago, and her vision has never wavered.
Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, Wallman thought she wanted to be an artist. “I was always interested in art, design and fashion,” she says. She met her husband, Andy, while attending Lea College, a small liberal arts school in Minnesota. The couple moved to Philadelphia, where Andy completed college at nearby Rutgers. Wallman took a sales job with a large department store. “I just fell in love with the retail business,” she says.
The couple moved to San Francisco when Andy was transferred with his job. Wallman talked her way into a sales job at an upscale furniture store there. She quickly moved up to store manager and within a year was the furniture buyer. “If you work seven days a week, you can get ahead pretty quickly. Besides, I loved it,” she explains. Wallman learned her craft at a time when San Francisco was the western nexus for the furniture and interior design business. The “San Francisco look” was popular from the late 1970s through the mid-’90s.
On a ski vacation in Utah in 1980, Wallman and her husband visited relatives in Salt Lake City. They liked the feel of the town but noticed that something was missing. “There were just no furniture stores here that we thought really had the whole package. We saw a niche here,” she says. The Wallmans promptly moved to Salt Lake City and opened their first store a few months later. Not surprisingly, they settled on the name San Francisco Design for their new venture.
Wallman filled the store space with upscale contemporary American, European and Italian furniture. “Our vision was to deal in exciting things for the home—furniture that was classic and current, not trendy but fashionable,” she says. “You still see that in our stores today.”
They expanded the business in the mid-1980s to include full interior design services from the architectural design phase to decorating the finished home. The Park City store opened in 1990. “We love Park City, and we’re not going anywhere,” Wallman says. “We built a house on the first fairway of Park Meadows Golf Course, and we’re still there.”
The veteran retailer admits that last year was difficult. “We’ve definitely made some adjustments in the face of the current economic climate,” says Wallman. “We’ve reduced our inventory and brought in a few more modestly priced pieces as a service to our customers. We continue to look for well-made pieces that offer good value. I won’t compromise on quality.”
San Francisco Design, 1890 Bonanza Drive, Park City, 435.645.7072, sanfrandesign.com
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