Eileen Saums McCandlish has taken her interior design firm Saums Interiors a long way from its beginnings 50 years ago as her parents’ paint store
By: Lauren Otis
Eileen Saums McCandlish has always been comfortable around paint and color. It only seemed natural growing up in the paint and wallpaper store her parents operated, and which she has since transformed into a full-service interior design firm, Saums Interiors, Inc. in Hopewell.
Ms. McCandlish’s color and paint pedigree goes a lot further however. It’s impressive nature becomes evident when she reveals that she is related to famed French painter Pierre Bonnard.
Bonnard was her father’s second cousin her third cousin on his mother’s side, Ms. McCandlish says. Her father even related to her, she says, how the famous painter visited his American relations in Pennington many years ago, describing him to her as a man who didn’t speak any English and wore little wire-rimmed glasses.
The familial connection to a painter and colorist of Bonnard’s stature might be considered one more indication that it was Ms. McCandlish’s fate to take the family business and carry it in new creative directions, although for many years she was anything but keen on the idea. "Mom felt it was destiny for me to work in the business. I didn’t feel it was destiny," she says.
Yet, 50 years after her parents founded the business, Ms. McCandlish presides over it with an artistic flair that is her own. Her title is president and "chief visionary officer," and Ms. McCandlish has transformed the "little mom and pop paint shop" her parents operated into an interior design boutique and home contractor that seeks to work with clients to unlock their personal vision for their home, and then execute that vision.
From Saums Interiors’ unassuming headquarters on Princeton Avenue, Ms. McCandlish, her sister Sharon Saums, her niece Jennifer, and several other employees meet clients’ interior design needs both locally and across the country. Ms. McCandlish travels frequently, acting as general contractor for design jobs as far away as California. Often her far-flung clients first utilized her services years ago when they lived in the area, and continue to work with her after moving away.
The interior of Saum’s Interiors is itself chock-a-block with furniture, decorations, artwork and swatches and samples, the tools of Ms. McCandlish’s trade. "We use every inch of space," she says as she shows the working kitchen and other rooms where clients can actually see how different design elements interact.
"Listening is a huge part of what we do," she says. Saums Interiors has no interest in imposing some predetermined aesthetic upon its clients, she says, noting "we are conscious of the poor reputation of interior designers."
Instead, "the challenge is to work with grandma’s old sofa and grandma’s old rug, and make it work in 2007," she says. A successful job, and a happy client, result "when the client feels they have been heard, that their home becomes a representation of their taste, their style, their design philosophy," Ms. McCandlish says.
It all boils down to the fact that "your home is your castle, it is corny but it is true to me," she says.
Ms. McCandlish’s family lived in Blawenburg when she was growing up (she currently lives in Pennington). Her grandfather, Clarence Saums owned the Donald Shade Shop in New Brunswick, selling window blinds and shades. In 1957, her parents Bob and Wanda Saums purchased a modest paint and wallpaper store on Greenwood Avenue in downtown Hopewell, ten years later moving it to the location on Princeton Avenue where Saums Interiors continues to reside, according to Ms. McCandlish.
Ms. McCandlish was intent on striking out on her own, she recalls. She went to Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, then studied interior design at Endicott College in Massachusetts. She subsequently held a series of jobs at Park Lane Furniture on Route 1 and at Herman Spiegel Furniture in Jenkintown, Pa. that had some tie to her design interest but which did not lead to further opportunities.
In 1976, Ms. McCandlish joined her parents business on what she believed at the time would be a temporary basis. All of a sudden she saw a direction and an opportunity there. "I said to my father, ‘We’ve got to change or we will die. A mom and pop paint store can’t last forever,’" she recalls. She began the process of transforming the shop by adding new design services and products. "I don’t know, it just seemed to kind of click," she says.
Saums Interiors was at the right place and time to benefit from the trend in the early 1990s towards recreating kitchens and bathrooms as living spaces and not just functional spaces, Ms. McCandlish says.
In 2000, she added new designers to the firm’s stable. Saums Interiors currently has the capability to work with clients on just about any project, from start to finish, according to Ms. McCandlish. It can present them with computer simulations of work, work with them on site, or help them weigh design choices at the demonstration areas in its headquarters.
Ms. McCandlish acknowledges that the experience of redesigning your home can be "a frightening experience," which is helped by a designer’s ability to hold the hand of the client, "which we do really well."
Although the Saums Interiors headquarters rooms are crowded with both objects and color, Ms. McCandlish says the firm can and will do spare and modern interior designs, depending on the client’s wishes.
"We will take care of the entire process," she says, noting that her firm is a licensed contractor in New Jersey, and will handle all construction as well as design work.
"I’m particular about things, subcontractors know it," says Ms. McCandlish. As a result, Saums Interiors is able to arRange, and keep to, construction schedules and budgets. Of clients fearful about the whole construction process, she says, "I tell them, ‘the good news is when we say he will show up he’ll show up’ and they say, ‘you’re kidding.’" But her subcontractors do meet their deadlines, and as a result Saums Interiors has an excellent reputation for its work, according to Ms. McCandlish.
Asked how she feels about this, less glamorous, side of the interior design business, Ms. McCandlish responds, "Do we enjoy it? We’ve learned to enjoy it." She has learned to orchestrate the projects smoothly from behind the scenes, ensuring that clients will have a positive experience. "We are kind of like magicians," she says.
The effort shows too. "We have a lot of very old established clients," some going back 20 years, Ms. McCandlish says. Saums Interiors’ project load is always fluid but, in general "we can do several hundred projects in a year," she says.
Saums Interiors plans a big celebration party in September to mark its 50th anniversary. "I never really dreamed that this is what was going to happen," says Ms. McCandlish. But she takes her own pride in the business’s continuity, and how over the years "it makes my parents very proud that what they started has blossomed into what we see today."
Her father passed away three years ago but her mother still comes in "on Fridays, just to socialize," Ms. McCandlish says. Saums Interiors is well placed, with new computer-savvy designers, to take the business into the future, although she admits she doesn’t know what that future will be. "I don’t know what the next step is. Would we sell the business? Perhaps."
Not that she is thinking of doing anything else soon. "I don’t have retirement in my cards for at least another 10 years," Ms. McCandlish says. And some aspects of the work are a special pleasure no matter how many times she has experienced them before. "Clients are always thrilled when the space gets done. I just love this part," she says.
More information on Saums Interiors, and the products and services the interior design firm offers, can be found at www.saums.com or by calling 609-466-0479.