A Real Passion
Tracy Wilson’s Trillary Designs…
Ask Tracy Wilson about art and she gets really animated. Like, what was the inspiration behind the large-scale black and white painting of a yeti-like creature in her home in Sunset Terrace? Does it matter? It has you talking.
“These one-of-a-kind pieces that people have bring so much personality,” Wilson says. The Redding-based interior designer says art is one of the simplest ways to create impact in a space. “Just get the art that speaks to you. If it’s something that you keep coming back to, it doesn’t matter where it came from, that’s your piece of art and it’s going to fit in your home.”
And finding the right fit is really at the ethos of the way Wilson works.
“Rarely do I come out of a project without a friendship attached to it,” Wilson says. “It’s important to build the relationship with clients because you come out with a better design when you understand them. It goes both ways.”
This symbiotic relationship has proven effective with Wilson helming recent renovations at the Buenaventura location for The Westside Lounge (formerly Westside Wines) and Blink Optometry’s base off Eureka Way.
“Tracy really transformed my Blink Optometry office beyond what I imagined,” says Kristi Davis, OD. “She has a keen eye for color, texture, and lighting, and knows how to create a harmonious and inviting atmosphere.”
A marriage of science and technology, Blink’s office is bright with a dynamically lit 3Form front desk, rooms featuring eclectic wallpapers from Knoll and Wolf Gordon, and a conference room awash in a watercolor-inspired mural by local artist Jesse Jentzen.
Wilson, who has run her design business Trillary Designs for more than a decade, says she thrives in space renovations. Even as a young child, she was drawing scaled space plans for her bedroom before changing things up. Then, of course, the TLC television show “TradingSpaces” premiered, and a real passion took root.
Wilson studied interior design at the Art Institute in San Francisco before finishing her degree at Cañada College in Redwood City while raising three young children.
“I did almost my entire degree during night classes and had my second son in the middle of finals week,” she says. “I then met someone who ran a nonprofit that did extreme home makeovers, but for underprivileged schools in the Bay Area. In the span of two days, we would completely change everything from the classrooms to the playgrounds, even the landscaping. It was like extreme fast fire, but by the end I was running my own teams and gained a lot of project management experience.”
Following this real-world adaptation of “Trading Spaces” came a move back to Redding and a tenure at architecture firm Nichols, Melburg & Rosetto, where Wilson took on larger-scale designs for commercial projects and medical facilities including the Weaverville Rancheria Clinic. After three years at NMR, she left to grow her design business, which included renovating her and her husband’s home in Redding.
“It was a project,” Wilson says about doing their own renovation. “But my parents built their own home and neither one of them are contractors. We just grew up with the attitude of ‘I don’t know how to do it, but I could’ and I’m just going to learn and do the best that I can – basically with the mentality of never being scared to try to do something. We just try. We just keep trying.”
This momentum of “doing” has kept Wilson busy, not just with personal projects, but with design jobs throughout the Redding area. She’s recently worked on projects redesigning kitchens, full-home renovations, upgrading office spaces, and commercial buildings. A dream project would be the old Stardust Motel, she says. “I have a huge love of vintage things,” Wilson says. “There’s a lot of great elements buried in history, and I love seeing how design has evolved, where it came from, where it’s heading.”
For Wilson, finding the design that fits her clients is much like her approach to art in general. “A good designer is going to design to you and what fits you. We may push you, but ultimately, it’s your space. Love what you love unapologetically.”•
Trillary Designs
1300 West St. #202, Redding
(650) 714-0982 www.trillarydesigns.com
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Article Written by:
Jill Tydor is a Baton Rouge, La. native who has chosen the North State as her home. She is a writer and marketer with an MFA from California College of the Arts. Jill enjoys traveling, sunny days, and spicy food.
