Beth combines her talents, education, and learned expertise with our team’s incredibly diverse strengths to produce the most exciting and successful project for each individual and unique client who seeks our services. After 14 years of design and 30 years of high-end retail we still jump out of bed each morning excited for the day ahead. Clients have mentioned this love of our work is one of the most important and enjoyable aspects of working with our firm. This enables weekend meetings in our studio to be a pleasure for us all.
We have learned to ask and list a series of questions that can be referenced back at any time during your project. This gives us the direction, your wishes, requirements, and all the other needs your project will call for. The best layouts always get derived from these sources.
That’s where the art of what we do comes into play. When you begin with our design teams and studio, you are presented with a “Welcome Box”. Within this box we have personally selected the 5–6 local shelter magazines from which we want you to pull images. These are all magazines with earned editorial; meaning all articles and photos will be top notch design. We’ll ask for all stakeholders to pull images from these, circle specific details, write any specific notes, and we will review them one by one at our next in-person meeting. We look for agreement (or not), colors, textures, mood, style of furnishings, and many other elements chosen. The in person review is important for us to feel the weight of importance placed upon these images. No words properly describe a person’s aesthetic, so we find this visual and fun exercise to be eye-opening for us all.
The exercise above cuts through and labels such as these and allows us to focus on the details. We don’t believe in compromise. We don’t believe anything should be in your final design or home that you don’t absolutely love.
That can be one of our favorite places to begin in a room! Yes, we have hundreds of original art resources, and we love supporting artists and providing clients original works instead of mass-produced pieces. Our artists are from local areas, across the country, and internationally as well. Approximately 15% of our work life is spent on travel, which involves cementing established relationships and securing exclusive artists and art for our clients and the boutique. This also includes sourcing new artists and always finding fresh and exciting resources along our travels within the design community.
Absolutely! Within our teammates, our own children range from ages 3 through 26 so we have experienced all stages from babies through young adulthood. We ensure your family’s spaces not only “stand up” to the rigors of young childhood, but also give them many future years of enjoyment to grow into.
We believe in discussing the budget in the very beginning of the project. We can work with the figure you have in mind or help determine the estimated amount per space for you to achieve your goal and vision. We have 14 years of historical data available to us to more accurately assess your complete project figures. We then can show you designs completed on presentation days that fall +/- 10% of your expected budget. This allows you to relax and focus on the outcome and the design team to have the parameters as well. Our clients love this about BKI and have said no other firm has offered such a comprehensive service—and all this before the official agreement gets signed!
We communicate at a minimum 1x per week through email but depending on the project phase there are always texts and phone calls or in-person communication.