Meet Our Designers!

Design Guru: Robin Callan

Photo by Suzi Q. Varin / Q Weddings

In a former career life, Robin Callan was a graphic designer and Creative Director in New York City for eight years. After moving to Austin, Texas, she combined her design degree and extensive home improvement experience to launch Room Fu and help other homeowners navigate the often challenging issues of remodeling, renovation, interior design and home decor.

Four years after starting her business, Robin and Room Fu won a BEST OF AUSTIN award from Austin Chronicle readers. Winning again the following year, we consider Room Fu a reigning champion, since the Chron retired the category of Best Home Service after that second win. Robin’s work is featured in HGTV’s Designers’ Portfolio and has appeared on HGTV.com, Houzz, The Austin Chronicle, Austin-American Statesman, and Rare Magazine. Check out our Press page for all the juicy details!

As Room Fu’s Design Guru, Robin writes extensively about interior design and decorating. In addition to writing Room Fu’s blog, she’s also a featured blogger for Williams-Sonoma’s Designer Marketplace and contributes a weekly Fab Find to Austin Monthly‘s blog, Austin Amplified.

Since 2003, Robin and Room Fu have helped transform hundreds of rooms across Texas. The most gratifying part of it for Robin is seeing how those room makeovers end up transforming people’s lives, not just their surroundings.

Decorologist: Claire Patrick

Interior spaces have interested Claire Patrick since the ripe age of five, when she picked up her first copy of Architectural Digest – before she could even pronounce it.  But she’s dabbled in all sorts of design-related fields—from designing store window displays, to studying architecture at Texas A&M, to six years of experience as a graphic designer.  Once upon a time, she even won a meat pie for a watercolor she submitted to the East Texas State Fair—how’s that for talent?

After working for a children’s boutique interior design firm, Claire’s now an integral part of Room Fu’s design team.  She specializes in paint selection, developing clever solutions to design dilemmas, and helping clients get more creative bang from their budgets.

Claire’s home is intricately and thoughtfully decorated, down to the last tchotchke– as the homes of people with a love for design and crippling OCD are wont to be. She also freely gives sage advice to naggy friends, who have found the adage “avoid using certain shades of brown paint in the bathroom” to be particularly helpful.

Intern: Candis Thompson

Art Institute student Candis Thompson joined Room Fu at the beginning of 2012 and is currently working toward a bachelor’s degree in interior design. But Candis is no ordinary student of design. In addition to a full course load at AI, she puts in 32 hours every weekend at a residential rehab facility, working with children who have autism, Down syndrome, brain damage, behavioral problems and other psychological and neurological issues. And she loves it. Why? “I love being around the kids,” Candis explains, “and watching them make progress with their treatment and just getting the satisfaction of knowing that I helped make a difference in their lives.”

Candis’ dream is to combine her design education with her work experience and devote her career to designing spaces for families who have kiddos on the autism spectrum. While she is interning with Room Fu, clients will be able to tap into Candis’ expertise on such projects and benefit from her free design services, paying only for the hours spent by Robin or Claire to supervise the project. For more information, check out this Q&A with Candis.