A designer in Los Angeles, London and Athens, the owner of Elina Katsioula-Beall Kitchen + Bath Design was also a theater and TV set designer.
By Dianne M. Pogoda
Elina Katsioula-Beall MFA, CKD, a longtime NKBA member and owner of her namesake kitchen and bath design firm in Los Angeles, died on May 21 at her home in Lagonisi, Greece, after a battle with cancer. She was 67.
Born in Athens, she started sketching ancient ruins as a child and later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art and Painting from the Athens Polytechnic Institute, where she also minored in Classical Greek Architecture. To merge her love of art and architecture, she enrolled at the Yale School of Drama to study stage design. There, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Set, Costume and Lighting Design and headed for Hollywood. Katsioula-Beall became an art director for stage and TV, including designing the stage for the Academy Awards. She also designed sets for more than 25 plays, and co-designed numerous rock concerts, including for Janet Jackson, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney and Madonna’s “Blond Ambition” tour. She earned three Emmy nominations for her TV work.
Submit your K&B Projects for a Chance at $100,000 in Cash Prizes — Learn More >
She simultaneously launched a career in kitchen design, partnering with her late husband, DeWitt Beall, as co-owner of DeWitt Designer Kitchens in Studio City, CA. The company joined NKBA in 2000. After he died in 2006, she changed the name of the business to Elina Katsioula-Beall Kitchen + Bath Design and relocated to Pasadena, and ultimately to Hollywood Hills. Most recently, she was designing kitchens in Los Angeles, London and Athens.
Elina earned her Certified Kitchen Designer designation in 2006. Through the years, she won numerous theatrical, design and showroom awards, including 17 from NKBA in multiple categories in the Professional Design Competition, as well as being named to the “Top 50 U.S. Innovators” list by Kitchen & Bath Design News. She appeared on HGTV, and her work was featured in numerous local, regional, national and international design publications.
In an interview with Agenda Magazine in 2011, she described her design philosophy: “Recently, I introduced Gestalt design. It’s a little bit like a melody, where it transcends the combination of materials. It’s not just cabinetry, countertops, and appliances. It’s an entire, wholesome, organic thing. The sum total becomes its own entity. It aims to become the expression of the client’s mental space, because the space of the kitchen that I will create will shape, in turn, the client.”
Her projects were infused with a joy for living and designed for spirited entertaining — colorful, elegant and welcoming. She sought to create sanctuaries for her clients and reflect their unique tastes and personalities in her designs.
“Our homes are our solace and comfort, shelter from a discordant world,” she said, “a reflection of who we are, where we have been and we’re going. Each design should amplify both our physical and mental space and who we are as individuals.”
