DESIGN TEAM
Leslie Kalish
LMK Principle & Design lead
Leslie attended UC Santa Barbara with a focus in business.
Upon graduation, Leslie entered the industry with a splash—becoming the youngest buyer for Lord & Taylor, before transitioning into a senior wholesale-focused role. Leslie built momentum swiftly, moving from Lord & Taylor to Obermeyer Skiwear in Aspen, CO as their Design Director.
Through fashion Leslie honed her precise attention to detail, and further developed her natural ability to manipulate textures, patterns, colors, and lighting to achieve balance between aesthetic and utility. In 2001, Leslie founded LMK Interiors. She picked up clients and prestige quickly throughout the Bay Area—assembling a crew of experts who love their work and collaborating with each other.
Leslie and her husband have two wonderful sons. Together they enjoy indulging their senses of wanderlust, and sailing their boat around the San Francisco Bay with Bailey-the-dog.
Gayle Leksan
Senior designer
Gayle is a UC Santa Barbara grad who studied Studio Art.
After years immersed in sales and marketing, Gayle missed the hands-on, creative nature of her university studies. So she switched careers to focus on interior design, tapping into her uncanny sense of color, space, and mise en scène. Gayle later expanded her role and capabilities, joining LMK in 2006 as a full-time senior designer.
Aside from advancing her career and passions, Gayle’s switch gave her more free time to travel with family, explore the East Bay Hills with friends, lead fitness classes—and wrangle her two well-intentioned, but energetic pups.
The combination of Gayle’s active lifestyle and studio art background gives her the ability to empathize and connect with clients to design spaces that don’t just look good, but look good as life unfolds before you: kids, dogs, home-gyms, cats, hikes, red wine—however you do life.
Haley Olmstead
Designer
Haley is a Bay Area Native, but briefly fled to the warmth and sun to study interior design at San Diego State University.
Upon her return to the better part of California, Haley started at a boutique design firm in San Francisco. Wanting to grow as a designer, Haley moved to a Design & Build firm in Oakland that partnered with LMK regularly. In 2017, Haley officially joined LMK as a designer.
Haley’s a classically trained interior designer with an atypical attention to detail, material, and the development process. It’s her diverse background that allows her to seamlessly work with clients and contractors to design and create world-class homes on-time and on-budget.
When free from the design world, Haley stays busy with her husband and two young children going to the beach, urban adventuring, and visiting relatives in Oregon.
Supporting every good designer
Annette Zavala
Creative Operations Manager
Annette is a Bay Area Native and UC Berkeley graduate with a degree in Political Science.
In her early career, Annettee spent time working-in and traveling-to various art and cultural hubs around the world. The culmination of these experiences and her eye for finding deeper meaning in design, motivated Annette to study interior design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Annette then joined the Scheiber Design Group in the city, a recognized group for their distinct work in residential properties. In 2019, she became a member of LMK as the Creative Operations Manager, managing relationships and timelines with vendors, clients, and designers. As a creative at heart, Annette has a deep understanding and tremendous respect for both process and outcome.
In her downtime she’s Zumba-ing up a storm in her living room, or carrying her miniature wire-haired dachshund, Snoop, around the neighborhood (she’s considering getting him his own baby stroller).
Heather Peri
Office Manager and Expeditor
Born in East Texas and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Heather is a true Southern Girl in her heart-of-hearts. She attended college in Birmingham, Alabama where she studied Sociology. Heather then sharpened her skills working in finance as both a municipal bond trader and broker.
As LMK grew in size and status, Heather joined the team in 2012 to keep the momentum going. Heather handles all vendor-related bookkeeping, manages the office—and she’s likely your first point of contact when working with LMK. Heather’s innate sense of Southern Hospitality and attention to detail is what makes LMK so effective and enjoyable to work with.
But wait, Heather is not all left-brained, she’s also an accomplished musician. She’s the principal soloist at her Church, and has performed with Walnut Creek’s Festival Opera and Chorus Eclectic in Dublin. When Heather’s not working or singing, she is spending time with her husband and two grown children—“the baby” being a 6’6” professional rugby player.
Stephanie McDermott
Design librarian
Working hand-in-hand with designers, Stephanie plays an essential role in understanding designers’ and clients’ visions and finding the material that brings those visions to life. Her keen eye and sense of creative initiative have been integral to evolving and keeping LMK’s design library evergreen.
When she’s not busy rescuing designers, she’s wrestling with her two rescue-pups. Stephanie also loves spending time with her family.
