Client Stories: As Seen in the Media

Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo

client: Katie Hintz-Zambrano

location: San Francisco

design consultant: Jessica Ballesteros

What She Wanted

Katie Hintz-Zambrano wears many hats. The talented co-founder of Mothermag.com and creative force behind In Good Company balances family life in San Francisco with her husband, Horacio, and their adorably precocious 5-year-old son, Diego. Katie’s beautiful home reflected the family’s happily busy life, but the overstuffed master closet Katie shared with her husband desperately needed a design solution to bring renewed order and ease to the couple’s day-to-day routine.

Fortunately, Katie’s luck struck twice with an opportunity to collaborate with both California Closets and Marie Kondo, best-selling author and acclaimed tidying expert, Marie Kondo. Together, the group set out to make Katie’s dream of a perfectly optimized and organized closet a reality.

Marie Kondo Client Stories Walk in Closet Redesign Before Image

How we did it

Marie first had Katie remove every item of clothing from the closet, and piece-by-piece, took Katie through the KonMari Method of establishing whether or not an item authentically ‘sparked joy.’ The thoughtful process enabled Katie to edit her belongings by helping her establish a meaningful connection with the items she wished to keep.

Next, California Closets San Francisco design consultant Jessica Ballesteros met with Katie to determine her storage needs. After taking detailed measurements, Jessica met with Katie at the showroom’s Design Studio where they used the proprietary CAD program to refine the custom design together, with features including Italian foil-backed glass, lit drawers, jewelry storage and even a designated hook for Horacio’s often-misplaced house keys.

…My closet was bursting at the seams…It just starts the day off on the wrong foot and causes a lot of stress.

Katie Hintz-Zambrano

I designed the closet to create boundaries so that Katie and her husband feel like they each have their own space.

Final Result

Bright, well-appointed, and refreshingly tidy, Katie’s new closet evokes calm and definitely “sparks joy!” One of the most special features of Jessica’s design is an area where Katie can keep and display treasured items, such as a photo of Diego, that bring her happiness each day. From floor to ceiling, Katie and her husband finally have an optimized closet designed to accommodate what they need and what they love.

Photo Credits: Airyka Rockefeller