Episode 204: Natalie Kaman
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Natalie Kaman of At Home Design and Staging!
To watch the full episode, check it out on YouTube below. In the meantime, here’s a transcript of the conversation…
Here’s what you missed from Natalie Kaman…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Natalie Kaman.
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Brad: You’re listening to The Brad and Taylor Show, a podcast that inspires entrepreneurs to pursue their passions. We’re sitting down with some of the best to learn how they got started and some lessons they learned along the way.
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Taylor: Hey Natalie.
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Natalie: Hey guys. Thanks for having me.
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Brad: Awesome. Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Natalie: Well, my name is Natalie Kaman, I am a wife. I am a mother of four and I’m also a business owner. My company is called At-home Design and Staging, and we specialize in home staging and interior design in West Michigan.
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Brad: Awesome. I like it. I like it. So how’d you get started on this and what’d you do before this?
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Natalie: Well, a lot of things before this. My degree is in Practical Theology. So I worked in different churches, different ministries. But then I became a full-time mom, I guess. I was a mom staying at home with my children for a long time. And about 12 years ago, my husband started doing real estate investment and he brought me on board to help with houses that he was updating to become rental properties or flip properties. And so I was kind of hired on to do the design work for those jobs. I was doing interior design selections, like paint, plumbing, fixtures, lighting, you know, anything and everything in the house. Flooring and cabinetry, countertops hardware. So that was kind of my role, which was pretty part-time just working for my husband’s company while my children were little.
00:01:37:20 –> 00:02:05:15
And then when my youngest one about 8, 8, 9 years ago, my youngest one went to school full-time I started to think, well, you know what, I could also do this for other people. I could reach out to some other real estate investors that we knew, talked to some other realtors. We knew lots of realtors and we let them know that, Hey, I’m now available to do this for other companies. So that’s when I started my LLC, got my website, got my business cards, and really went and started networking from there.
00:02:05:22 –> 00:02:17:00
Taylor: So you had a lot of experience then when you were working with your husband when you went over on, you’re kind of on your own doing it for other people, did you find that that was super helpful and you got booked right away or did it take a little bit of time?
00:02:18:09 –> 00:03:20:24
Natalie: It did take a little bit of time, which was good because, with my daughter going to school at first, it was just, you know, three days a week. And so my time was still a little bit limited. So I was really happy, for the steady growth. That’s kind of how it happened. And it started with occupied home staging consults, going to realtors, and saying, Hey, you know, I can do your two-hour appointments with your clients to help them get their houses ready. And then also, I was able to start purchasing inventory to stage vacant homes, which became very popular and very in demand. I’m one of the only stagers in West Michigan that has their own inventory. So that became a real niche for me, to bring realtors on board that way. And also out of that, when some people would walk into the properties, they’d look around and be like, wow, we want you to help us with our house. You know, whether it was just the furnishing side of it. So that opened up the door for more on the decorating side of things.
00:03:21:05 –> 00:03:38:19
Taylor: That’s awesome. So you’ve really grown in the last couple of years then going from working with your husband to your own, your own side of it. So that’s awesome. What is the best transformation you have seen so far with the home? Do you have one that sticks out that your favorite? Your favorite one.
00:03:39:19 –> 00:04:34:02
Natalie: They’re all good. And you make an improvement to a house you can be, you’re just shocked at what a difference things make. I would say one of the best and maybe one of my favorites was from about six years ago, it was a foreclosure property that was actually an estate property actually. The homeowners had built it in 1950. We have the original hand-drawn blueprints with 1950 stamped on them. And it was a mid-century modern house. The original owners lived in it up until the time when we took possession. So I believe the wife passed away and then, later on, the husband passed away and everything was left in the house. So it was completely 1950s decor, the original style of the home. And then of course it was just chocked full of their stuff. All their memorabilia, all their family photos were still there, all their books were there, every piece of furniture was there.
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So you know, it started with the removal of everything first and foremost. But then I came in as a designer and in the past, I’d really only do traditional or transitional properties, so a totally different feel than mid-century. And so it was a little bit out of my wheelhouse and a challenge, and I really enjoyed that challenge of designing it with a mid-century feel in mind. So we put in all new wood floors. There was like an old non-working waterfall that was there, right when you walked in the front door. Of course, that was something that we were not able to keep, unfortunately, but you know, so we were removing those types of things. There was a freestanding closet that wasn’t attached to any walls or the ceiling. It was just standing in the middle of a room, separating the entry from the kitchen.
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So we removed that and turned an office into an en suite for the owner’s bedroom and added a full-size bathroom attached to that bedroom and a full-sized walk-in closet. We transformed a dark room and a really good-sized laundry room because, in a house of that size, people really want a good-sized laundry room. So just everything in that house, the exterior and interior were a hundred percent changed and the end result just turned out great. It really still had that mid-century feel that we wanted to keep. And then I was able to stage it with mid-century furniture, which also made a huge difference. Then they had so many offers the first day the house was listed and people still talk about that house. So it was a great project for the real estate investors. They made a lot of money on it and it was really good. It was a good thing to add to my portfolio of a different type of design that I hadn’t really showcased before.
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Taylor: And since then doing that one, have you done more mid-century modern? Is that more, I know that’s kind of popular right now. Everyone seems to be going for that theme.
00:06:25:00 –> 00:06:58:02
Natalie: Yes I have. And I’ve definitely leaned on that. Kind of like what brands of lighting to use, what different colors are going to be more popular? What type of cabinetry are you going to use? You know, it’s not going to necessarily be like a shaker cabinet that you’re going to put in a mid-house. So it’s very different from the more popular options I’d say right now. And yes, I’ve done several mid-century since then. Several houses on that same street even, not all of them are mid-century, but I’ve done a lot of projects on that street of all different types of houses.
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Taylor: What is the most requested room that you see or area of the home? Is it like the main living area with the kitchen living room? Do you see a lot of bathrooms right now? What’s the most requested for a remodel?
00:07:13:26 –> 00:07:59:16
Natalie: You know what, it’s probably, I’d say it’s half and half. I’d say it’s either the owner’s bathroom or it’s the kitchen, which is very smart for either of them because you’re going to get a great return on investment. But yeah, I’ve had a lot of kitchen remodels recently, especially since the pandemic, and then a lot of owners also request for bathroom remodels, and a lot of times people will put that owner’s bathroom on til last, especially if it’s connected to their bedroom, because they’re like, oh, guests never see it. They don’t know that there’s laminate and carpet and not tile in there. Even in higher-end homes. You’d be surprised what remains in an owner’s bathroom. So yeah, I’ve done a lot. I’d say probably the kitchen, bath, and owner’s bathrooms.
00:07:59:28 –> 00:08:12:02
Taylor: I know you mentioned carpet in the bathroom. I have never actually seen carpet in a bathroom. I’m sure you have though. I’m sure you’ve seen a bunch of them. I just can’t imagine stepping out of the shower onto the carpet. Like it’s just squishy.
00:08:12:03 –> 00:08:25:08
Natalie: Well the worst is when you know that they maybe have young boys and it’s something around the toilet area and you’re just thinking like that can’t be sanitary.
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Taylor: Yeah, no, I’ve got, I’ve got three boys. It’s not.
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Natalie: Oh, there you go. We have two boys.
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Taylor: Oh my goodness. Yeah, definitely not. What kind of goals do you have in mind to finish out the end of this year and into the next year?
00:08:40:24 –> 00:09:22:10
Natalie: Oh, you know, it’s a little bit of a slower season in the December months as we wrap up because a lot of people aren’t selling their house right now. If they’re thinking about it, if they’ve been thinking about selling, they might want to pull it off before the holiday so they can just relax and enjoy that time with family. So things do get a little bit slower on the staging side for me. And so during that time, I like to make improvements to my website, get my newsletters up to date. That’s what I’m doing right now is kind of looking over what newsletters I’m gonna be sending out and getting those kinds of things prepared. Also looking at what services were the most popular, what services were the least popular, and do some eliminating there.
00:09:22:10 –> 00:10:20:04
So I make sure that I’m still on target with what my clients are requesting. For instance, I just added this in the last month. I added window treatments to my offerings because I always have clients ask me to do window treatment consultations, but I never advertised for it in the past. And now I’m like, people are always asking me to do it and I do it, but I don’t tell other people that I do. So that was it, I just added that to my website and sent out a newsletter. So people were aware of that fact. So yeah, kind of looking at my services and seeing what’s needed and what’s not. And just maybe taking off some of that low-hanging fruit and just tightening things up with the coming year. I’d say focusing a little bit more on online furniture options for people. I do have a store that I can access because as a designer and having wholesale accounts, I have a store where I can offer people to be able to shop and ship straight to their home on the design side of things.
00:10:20:17 –> 00:10:33:12
Taylor: Nice. Now, typically when you stage a home, even if it’s going to be listed, does that furniture stay with it when that new owner buys it, or do you take that furniture back and use it in your warehouse for the next time? How does that kind of work?
00:10:33:21 –> 00:11:40:15
Natalie: A great question. I do. We take the furniture back. So when we send out our proposal to clients in the staging. They’re paying upfront for everything to be delivered and installed. And then the rental for the time that it’s there. And then they’re also paying upfront for the D staging, how the movers and myself, or an assistant come back and remove all the items and leave the house as it was when we came. People often ask like, oh, do people walk in and want to buy everything? And we do get questions about that. Like people do come in and ask us for pricing. But oftentimes, I mean, I’d say it’s less than 1% of the time when people actually decide to purchase some or all of the pieces in a home. Even though it usually looks great. A lot of times people are coming with a healthy spool of furniture and they’re not necessarily starting with all of it or like it. I think some people have sticker shock. Our pricing for the furniture we use is, I would say very competitive, but if people haven’t bought furniture in the last 20 years, they might still think that every couch is, you know, $500. And that’s absolutely not how it is now.
00:11:42:06 –> 00:11:48:13
Taylor: I know you mentioned all of your services kind of earlier, but can you go into detail on what your services are that you do offer?
00:11:49:21 –> 00:13:04:14
Natalie: Yeah, so my most popular would be my occupied staging consult, which is really geared towards realtors. It’s a two-hour walkthrough with the client and I meet them at the house. I talk to them about what we call the five D’s of staging, and then I take my iPad and I walk throughout the space, interior and exterior. And I type up during that report. During that appointment, I type up a full report for them. Usually, it’s around eight pages long of everything they need to do. And then before the end of the appointment, they’re being emailed that report as well as their realtor. One thing that really sets me apart, a lot of stagers do a walk and talk where the client walks with them and takes the notes where in this case I’m taking the notes there, they have it in a PDF form as well as the realtor. And then if there’s anything we recommend they add like if they have very outdated light fixtures or outdated cabinet hardware, or they really need some new pillows, new towels, I add a Pinterest board for them with items to click and purchase. And usually, those items are very affordable and they’re very accessible. They’re usually from Target or Amazon or Home Goods. Something that’s going to be easy for them to just pick up and really easy to use in their home.
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Taylor: I love that Pinterest board idea that makes it super helpful, especially for someone maybe who doesn’t know what they’re looking for, what would look good in the home. So I love that idea. That’s awesome.
00:13:15:13 –> 00:14:06:23
Natalie: Yeah, absolutely. So that would be the most popular one. The occupied home staging consult. The next would probably be the vacant staging. So right now, because of the month we’re in, it hasn’t been very popular this past month, but vacant staging would probably be the next, which is when we bring furniture into a home that is vacant. We usually do three main areas. Usually, it’s the living room, dining room, and the owner’s bedroom. And then we accessorize the kitchen and bathrooms along with that. So that is probably the other most popular. And then going into design services, we offer what’s called a design and a day. Basically, if a homeowner has one room that they either want to be remodeled or refurbished, I meet with them at the house, we take measurements, we take pictures, we kind of come up with a shopping list.
00:14:06:27 –> 00:14:56:14
So it could be for a kitchen remodel, it could be for a bathroom remodel, or it could be to get new furniture for a living room. So we’re going to have that shopping list. And then together we’re going to either go to the showrooms to pick those items out. I guess it would be showrooms either way furniture showrooms, or it’d be going to be like the tile showroom or the cabinet showroom and that type of thing. So we go together and make those decisions. And then at the end of the day, they’re going to have either a Pinterest board of what we selected or they’re going to have a design document that says like, here’s the tile, here’s the grout color, here’s the cabinet style. And it kind of just gives them in their contract or something to go from. Another design service that we offer is called interior design with a Pinterest board, which is very similar, but it’s for the client who doesn’t want to go hand in hand to the showroom, if they’re like, no, that’s not my thing.
00:14:56:14 –> 00:15:44:24
I’m happy to. I trust you. You go ahead and do it. I will meet them at their house, look at any ideas that they have. And typically too, I send out a questionnaire beforehand. So I have an idea of what their budget is, what their style is, where they like to shop. And then they can also send me any Pinterest boards or house boards that they have with inspiration. So I know what they’re hoping to accomplish. So that happens even before I arrive at their house. So we meet, we talk. And then I go back to my home office and I create a Pinterest board for them of whatever I think is going to work well in the space they received that Pinterest board. And then they can decide, yeah, I want to purchase it all at once. Or I’m going to start with getting that couch and then I’m going to wait on the chairs or I’m gonna get the couch in the rug, or they can do the shopping and the ordering and the receiving of it on their end.
00:15:45:19 –> 00:15:50:01
Taylor: So that one you can do pretty remotely then, right? So if you had a client that was further away.
00:15:50:28 –> 00:16:05:17
Natalie: Yeah. And I actually did some of that. I definitely can do that with clients that are farther away. It was something that came in handy during the pandemic when people weren’t comfortable having other people in their homes. I was able to do that with clients that way too.
00:16:05:29 –> 00:16:09:02
Taylor: That’s awesome. Yeah. Well, before we go today, how can people get a hold of you?
00:16:10:14 –> 00:16:31:16
Natalie: So my website. It’s really long, but it’s my company’s name athomedesignandstaging.com. And there’s a contact us button there. Otherwise, my email is even longer. It’s [email protected]. Otherwise, you can look us up on Instagram or Facebook. And again, it’s @homedesignandstaging.
00:16:32:03 –> 00:16:34:23
Brad: Sweet. Awesome. Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
00:16:35:21 –> 00:17:06:00
Natalie: Yeah. And I wanted to say to you guys on your website, I really like how you tell people like you guys have a checklist too about what to do before your company. So we have some great overlap there. I love that. It’s very comprehensive and I really think that’s great because people, everybody lives in their home differently and it’s not always ready for those photos. And so letting people know in advance gives them a lot of help to get us ready and having those pictures be Pinterest worthy, basically.
00:17:06:02 –> 00:17:47:14
Yes, So true. So true. Anything will help. So just if I needed a little, I always tell everyone, as long as they follow some of the ones on there, then you’re good. There are so many on there. You can’t feel all of them, but if you do, if you truly try, it’s going to look way better. So awesome.
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Check out Natalie Kaman:
At Home Staging and Design
http://www.athomedesignandstaging.com
Facebook: @athomedesignandstaging
Instagram: @athomedesignandstaging
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