What We Do
Do you love great design but hate excess consumption and waste? Same y’all, same. Kristin Keyes Interiors is a luxury interior design studio with a low-waste approach. We work with clients on whole homes, groups of rooms, and single-room transformations in Nashville, TN and surrounding areas.
How It Works
Our iterative and open-ended design process helps us build a final design that combines your personal style, our design sensibility, and the element of surprise that comes along with shopping secondhand.
Our Process
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Whether we’re working out a furniture layout with the pieces you already have, shopping your home for art, or styling your bookshelves with your favorite sentimental items, we’ll always use your home as the first source for your design.
Start with what you have.
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Every home has items that are no longer serving the people who live there. We’ll help you identify what needs to go and facilitate the donation or sale of those items. You’ll feel lighter right away.
Remove what's not working.
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Next, we’ll get to work sourcing the preloved pieces for your final design. We may work with vintage and antique dealers, and we’ll definitely do some Facebook Marketplace hustling. We’ll guide you through the process and smooth out the challenges that come along with shopping secondhand.
Layer in preloved pieces.
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Enjoy your beautiful, functional space.
Finally, we’ll pull together those gorgeous details. We’ll style the shelves, steam the curtains, make up the bed just-so, and much, much more. We’ll get some beautiful photos of your space, and maybe even of your family, and then we’ll hand the space back over to you.
Wondering what your project will cost?
Pricing transparency is always in style. Click to see estimated budgets for each room type in your project.
So, why preloved?
First, the carbon footprint for preloved pieces is nearly zero. There’s no new manufacturing cost, no shipping, and no pieces of foam to break over your knee and stuff into the trash.
Second, when you buy preloved pieces from a vintage or antique dealer - or even from a seller on Facebook Marketplace - your money goes to neighbors in your community instead of huge furniture brands who have no connection to you.
But the bottom line for me as a designer?
Spaces are more artful and interesting when they're assembled from preloved pieces. They're timeless because they're untethered to any one aesthetic or trend. They're true to you because they're inspired by your favorite things. And they're just a lot of fun.
Ready to get started?
Book a discovery call today.
FAQS
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We aim to smooth out the challenges that come along with shopping secondhand and provide an easy, seamless experience for clients. Found the perfect preloved sofa, but the seller is weird? We’ll talk to ANYBODY. Nervous the sofa might be too big or damaged in some way? We know what to look for. Considering reupholstery or repairs? We can help you figure out of a piece is worth modifying or if it’s likely to be a money pit. Does your stomach turn at the thought of figuring out a professional mover? We love our mover friends. You can lean on our expertise to get it all done right.
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Because we avoid the long shipping times that can come with purchasing new items, we’re able to work quickly. We generally plan for 6-8 weeks per room.
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We will always try to find the pieces for your project secondhand before we look to buy something new. We’re usually able to source at least 80% of the items in client projects secondhand. Common items we end up buying new include drapery hardware, drapery panels, and rug pads.
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Of course! We facilitate all the purchases for your project to save you time and effort, but you can always come along with us to see a specific item in person. Many clients prefer to try out preloved sofas and chairs before they buy them, and we’re here for it!
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Ha! People have different reactions to shopping secondhand, and upholstered furniture can be a no for some. If you’re open to it, we can hire a professional cleaning company on your behalf. Otherwise, we can help you find a retail sofa that fits your needs. Our bottom line: We’re aiming for progress, not perfection, and if we need to put some new pieces into your project to meet your needs, we’re ok with that.
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Item descriptionThe short answer is probably. A traditional interior designer sources new furniture, art, and decor for your space and often applies a mark-up of 20% or more to each new item. If you’ve ever shopped for new furniture, you know that it’s expensive, and you can imagine how quickly a furniture budget can get out of hand. At KKI, we source nearly all of your items secondhand at very reduced prices. We also do not apply mark-up for these items. So while our design fees may be comparable or higher than a traditional design firm, your total project cost will likely be lower, often dramatically so.
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We recommend asking for an estimate of the total cost of your project from any designer you’re considering working with. Different designers have different financial models - they may charge hourly or have a flat fee, they may mark-up the cost of furniture or contract labor, they may bill you as a percent of your total project budget, etc., etc., etc. It can be very confusing! But if you can get an estimate of total project cost from the designers you’re considering working with, you can compare apples to apples and make the best decision for your household.
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Yes. Most projects involve some work with outside contractors. The cost of the contract work varies based on the complexity of your project. A simpler project might involve a handyman, a seamstress, and a rug cleaning company and have a contract budget of under $1,000.00. A more complex project with a paint company, a carpenter, and a wallpaper installer might have a contract budget of $10,000.00 or more.
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There are no returns for most secondhand items. If you decide you do not want an item you approved for your project after seeing it in the space, we can sell the item for you on Facebook Marketplace, but we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to sell it for the same price you paid or higher.