Home is where you want to feel your very best. You want everything to be comfortable, to feel good, to look good and it shouldn’t take constant striving to get there. If you’re not happy with the way that is working out for you there you might want to talk with someone who gets it, who understands the aesthetic you’re trying to achieve.
Design services don’t always mean that you have someone come in and redo the entire house. Take, for example, Kinder Home, a new design services shop coming to central Beaverton, 4655 SW Watson to be exact, on June 4. Kinder Home is an offshoot business of Danielle Kinder Designs LLC where entire spaces are reimagined but Kinder Home is something smaller and more intimate. Here you can talk to someone who understands home design without putting everything on the line. Whether you’re buying a pillow or a chair, bring in photos of your room, and the space you are working with, and someone will help you achieve the look you are going for.
Danielle Kinder, the owner of Kinder Design, says she originally wanted to open up a showroom where people could see, in real life, what was offered by specific vendors that they have chosen to work with. “Obviously we couldn’t have the whole line on the shop floor,” she says, “but we could have a piece or two so that customers could judge for themselves the quality and then, to trust us making the leap to the piece we were recommending for their homes.”
But the showroom turned shop took on a life of its own. “We had completely outgrown our little space where we had been for the past two years,” she says, “We knew the building was going to be torn down, so we’ve been looking for our new home.”
Kinder, who lives in an unincorporated area of Washington County, went looking for a place that would allow her to share her favorite brands and objects with the world. “We just love Beaverton,” she says, “We have three teenagers so we love The Round and just everything about downtown Beaverton.” She also has a couple of commercial design clients in the area that she is helping with staging for apartments and senior centers so she is in the area a lot for business as well as personal reasons.
When she decided to find the ideal home for her burgeoning business, she got herself a map of downtown and started walking around looking at what sorts of places were available. When she walked past the storefront at the corner of Watson and 1st, she knew she had found what she was looking for. “I found my dream space,” she says, “I needed double doors to get the furniture in. I can’t just have a regular door. I need a parking area and this spot has it all.” But she didn’t get it, at least the first time around, so she waited. Eventually, a couple of months later, the spot came open again. “I literally dropped everything the moment that I heard and jumped on it,” she says.
The larger design business is on hold for the moment while Kinder and her crew get the shop set up and running. Her plans for the space are so much greater than just having a showroom. Within Kinder Home, Kinder envisions a space that serves a variety of functions. “We are open to the public. Anyone can come in just like a City Home or a Pottery Barn. You can buy a pillow or a throw or whatever you need. We have a pretty wide range of price points too,” she says.
While home decor is the theme, Kinder Home branches out to include gifts and accent pieces that are hard to find and easy to desire. “We have seen what our clients want,” she says, “They can come in and buy a really nice cutting board, say, for a gift. Maybe they’ll want the cheese knives to go with it and, of course, they’ll need a card. They can get it all right in the shop.”
Interior design services are also available, it’s just not the main effort as the shop comes into focus. “Shoppers can talk to us about larger projects,” she says, “We’re not taking on any new design clients until fall but we will help our customers make the choices and get the results they are looking for. My team is awesome at helping people style things and make recommendations.”
Kinder says she’s looking forward to all kinds of creative ways of meeting customers’ needs. As the shop becomes more established she looks forward to doing pop-ups with other Beaverton businesses. This winter, Heather, the store manager, will be holding workshops on some aspects of Christmas decorating bringing new meaning to home for the holidays.