Two friends reinvent themselves as experts in interior design products

By Kaye Ross, Town Crier Staff Writer

Kling examines the wide array of flooring samples at Interiors & Textiles .

It has all the hallmarks of a classic Silicon Valley start-up tale: Two friends from college days choose to do something they love, work hard to learn all about it, jump in with both feet and have a great time building a business together. The difference is Fred Wee and Steve Kling had to leave the technology industry to do it.

Kling’s wife, Chris Mchale Kling, met Wee at UCLA business school in the late ’80s, and the Klings became friends with Wee and his wife, Cynthia B. Lee. After graduation, all four went into technology. Wee was in product management and marketing for various tech companies; Kling ran the customer satisfaction program for Hewlett-Packard in the western United States. The couples remained friends.

More than a decade into his career, Wee told Mchale Kling one day that he was starting to feel a little disenchanted with his job. Her husband was in the same frame of mind, she said.

“We enjoyed our tenure in high-tech,” Wee said, “but it’s a young, hard-charging business with lots of travel.” At 47, he wanted to spend more time with his wife and 3-year-old son, Jacob. Kling, 52, wanted a new challenge. The two began looking for a small business with a good foundation that they could invest in and make grow.

They found it in Interiors & Textiles Corp., 3960 Fabian Way, Palo Alto. In the Three Corners area where Los Altos, Mountain View and Palo Alto meet, the business had a large customer base and had been well run by the previous owner for 25 years. Wee and Kling took over April 15 - with Wee as chief operating officer, Kling as president and Lee the chief marketing officer.

The learning curve was steep. With 6,100 square feet of showroom space, Interiors & Textiles offers high-end selections of flooring, carpet, drapery and window coverings as well as fabrics for upholstery and drapery design and books of samples for custom-made options.

Wee and Kling approached the task like a software problem: They checked out library books, researched on the Internet, took classes, visited mills where hardwood flooring is made and learned on the job. “We do everything,” said Wee, from driving the forklift to small repairs.

Perhaps the high point of the showroom is the Hunter Douglas Window Fashions Gallery. The customization options in Hunter Douglas shades and blinds give clients the ability to use light as a design tool.

Formed in Germany in 1946 to develop technology for continuous casting and fabrication with aluminum, Hunter Douglas produced lightweight aluminum slats for Venetian blinds. The blinds became instantly popular virtually around the world. The global company has continued to innovate and now produces shades, blinds, shutters, and louvers in fabric, metal and wood.

The company’s Duette honeycomb shades come in sheer to opaque fabrics to give customers choices in light control. The honeycomb design makes them energy efficient. Duolite shades have two separate panels that give a wide range of light options.

Ralph Lauren’s home includes Precious Metals horizontal blinds in aluminum; ash and basswood are also available.

Silhouette shadings are the top seller at Textiles & Interiors. Fabric vanes are suspended between two fabric facings and come in 162 material and color combinations and many different textures, ranging from chiffon to crinkle. When raised, the shades disappear into the valance.

Under the previous owner, about 75 percent of the store was devoted to carpet. But the interior design industry has seen double-digit growth in recent years in hard-surface flooring, and Kling and Wee believe it is time to expand that part of the business.

Americans are adopting a technology that first became popular in Europe called floating flooring, Wee said. Europeans who rent can bring everything to their domicile - including the floors - so flooring was developed that could be disassembled. Sections of tongue-and-groove wood are laid down, and the weight of the flooring holds down the floor.

Interiors & Textiles sells this kind of flooring in many natural woods, and stocks glueless laminate floors by Pergo and Wilsonart.

Cork and bamboo are two sustainable flooring sources that Interiors & Textiles carries. Bamboo can be cut and replenished with little or no environmental damage, and only the bark is harvested from the cork tree. Comprised of millions of enclosed air cells, cork is comfortable for the barefoot walker, quiet and fire retardant. Bamboo provides a virtually indestructible floor for high-traffic areas like kitchens.

Interiors & Textiles’ array of carpet samples is so vast that you wouldn’t want to go into the textile forest without a guide. “I think they’re numbered in the millions,” Kling said. “Or at least it feels that way.”

And because homeowners, on average, replace carpeting only every 10 or 12 years, the customer wants to be sure he is getting exactly what he wants. “One of the most fun things we do is work with people on the selection process,” Kling said.

At least 80 percent of the store’s carpet is made in California. Kling and Wee are particularly enthusiastic about made-to-order carpet by Carousel Carpet Mills Inc. Begun by a former Karastan executive, the company endeared itself to Ukiah as a means of retraining former lumber workers. Ukiah provided incentives, and the mills began making wool carpets in every variety of fiber twist, height and color imaginable. There is even a New Age shag carpet, in wool, not the stain-prone nylon. Gone is the need for a shag rake because the carpet is comprised of many different heights of fibers, allowing for easier care and cleaning.

Carousel carpet can be ordered for $330 to $1,000 a square yard, provided the customer is willing to wait the three months it takes to mill it.

Interior & Textiles also sells Ralph Lauren, Karastan and Lees carpeting. Lees offers a stain-free carpet often used for offices. Duracolor carpet is positively charged so that stains, also positively charged, cannot set, Wee said.

Wee and Kling are enjoying their new jobs. “It is nice to be dealing with people face to face in an atmosphere that could be intimidating,” Kling said. “It has been a lot of fun. It’s a business that’s easy to feel passionate about.”

Wee acknowledged that “making the leap was difficult,” adding: “I never thought it would happen, but now I can’t imagine doing what I was doing before.”

As Kling and Wee continue their on-the-job training, they expect to expand and tweak the business to best meet their clients’ needs.

“We’re looking to be a resource for the community - and to put Jacob through college,” Wee said, laughing.