Kiljander became interested in Functionalism when visiting the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930. She subsequently adopted the style in her housing designs as well as in the model kitchens she developed for the Martha Association. One of her most important works is the Ensi-Koti home for unmarried mothers and their children. Kiljander had herself become a single mother after a brief marriage with the sculptor Gunnar Finne from 1918 to 1926. In collaboration with the textile artist Marianne Strengell, she founded Koti-Hemmet, an interior design business where she designed furniture in a style closely resembling that adopted later by Alvar Aalto. Influenced by developments in Swedish design, her work exerted a significant impact on Finnish interior design in the 1930s. In 1949, her Koti-Hemmet firm declared bankruptcy, leading to Kiljander's retirement from architectural work.