“You have to be a certain kind of person to run your own business. A self-starter, you have to be incredibly motivated at all times,” says Brenda Kelly Kramer, a Westchester-based interior decorator who was recently invited to be a featured designer for Calico Corners”™ fall/winter 2012 catalog.
“I am not a sit-on-the-beach kind of person. I am in the waves, collecting shells, taking photos,” says Kramer, who learned the art of multitasking early on from her parents.
Her father had his own graphic design firm, Ken Kelly Associates in Irvington, and was always searching for new clients, designing and traveling. Her mother had her own catering company. “My dad used to have a sign on the wall of his office, ”˜Do it yesterday!,”™” Kramer remembers.
The charming historic Chappaqua house Kramer shares with her six sons is where the design magic begins. Her own home has been featured in spreads and was named “Kitchen of the Month” in House Beautiful”™s March 2007 issue.
Kramer”™s spacious, light-filled chartreuse kitchen with kid-friendly chalkboards, her dad”™s 1960s framed TWA advertising artwork and stunning pearl-colored Christopher Peacock cabinetry is a good reflection of the decorator”™s bright, functional and thoughtful aesthetic and her appreciation for mixing new pieces with family heirlooms and knickknacks found roadside. “I have memories of everyone all over the house,” she says.
Her business evolved from doing 15 years of freelance design work for friends and neighbors into a full-time job following the popularity of her March 2007 kitchen feature. “It was an honor to be chosen and I was told at the time, only well-known designers are featured, so I guess this was my true aha moment.”
With four projects on her hands now, Kramer says that word-of-mouth referrals from happy clients is the cornerstone to her visibility, as well as magazine and newspaper articles. She”™s also working on a TV pilot about bargain decorating. A true local, Kramer works primarily in the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey area.
The business”™ success also stems from Kramer”™s goals to be budget-conscious in a struggling economic climate, avoid being too on-trend and genuinely listen to clients”™ ideas.
“I would say 90 percent (of clients) have a budget and I can totally relate,” she says. “I use all my creative resources to find gems for them. I love to shop at consignment shops. …I have even converted several clients to finding things by the side of the road ”“ no joke. People throw away amazing things and they don”™t know what they have. One client of mine found an amazing chair that had a broken leg, she had it fixed and it is worth $2,000.”
A good example of reinventing is found in the Bermuda-themed home office Kramer designed for her Calico Corners feature. Clients should always design with their own personal stories in mind, she says, and her own house and her Calico Corners room were influenced by her British father”™s passion for the island. “Bermuda was always a favorite vacation spot and my father, who was in the Royal Navy, donated a large collection of ship photographs and models to the Dockyard in Bermuda, and the Queen came and my parents were presented to her. It was very exciting,” says Kramer.
Kramer “was given creative rein” by Calico Corners to design a home office and “chose a room that reminded me of Bermuda ”“ a restful, relaxing office with personality ”¦ people love the fabrics and colors I chose and can relate to the reupholstering of my grandmother”™s chair (used as a desk chair). Sentimental and economical,” she points out.
“I love to see the look on clients”™ faces when I show them how beautifully their mother”™s old loveseat looks when reupholstered ”“ that makes me happy. I shop at salvage yards, eBay, consignment shops and find bargains ”“ that is why my business is growing in these tough economic times. You have to adapt to the times to succeed,” she says.
Inspired by her historic home and the antique-filled 1929 English Tudor on the Hudson River she grew up in, Kramer enjoys mixing old and new in her designs. “I hate really trendy stuff that is out of style tomorrow,” she says. “I mix a Chippendale sofa with a Lucite table, an antique Heywood-Wakefield wicker table with a modern lamp ”“ your style shouldn”™t need to change every year,” she emphasizes.
In the design business, customer relations are everything, and that”™s something Kramer picked up through studying retail management at Simmons College and working as a buyer for a Fifth Avenue department store.
“I told my new client today on the phone that my hope is to guide them in their design, that their home is a reflection of them, not me. ”¦I hate designers that push their taste on a client. I have so many clients that say that has happened to them: ”˜This room doesn”™t look like us,”™” she says. As a designer, Kramer wants her clients”™ homes to be theirs ”“ and she”™s just there to help, she says. Ultimately, “It is a fun process and I love meeting new people.”
Visit brendakellykramer.com.
