Running an interior design business is about more than creating beautiful spaces for your clients. In today's world, it's a multifaceted business that involves furniture design, product licensing, brand partnerships, content creation, and more. Increasingly, entrepreneurial designers are turning to real estate to bring all aspects of their business together in one package and, of course, sell it.
Flipping a home is not a new concept for designers—HGTV has garnered a cult following that wholeheartedly endorses the idea—but digitally savvy designers see the process as more than just a real estate transaction: It's an opportunity to showcase their vision without having to answer to a client.
Here, we share how three designers approach the process.
Lifestyle trendsetter
Two years ago, when California-based fashion and interior designer Jenni Kayne launched her home collection, her team converted an Airstream into a mobile pop-up store that resembled Jenni Kayne's home. They visited nine cities over three months and received “a ton of press” about the renovation process, which her team took as a sign to “try it again.”
“Since then, we've been wanting to work on more residential projects,” said Julia Hunter, president of Jenni Kayne Design, adding that two of Kayne's homes have been featured in home magazines. “We wanted to blend her way of living in her homes with content that would help showcase our products together.”
Jenni Kayne's flip at Lake Arrowhead
Tessa Neustadt
Kane's team finally found their opportunity this spring, when they purchased a 2,678-square-foot home in Lake Arrowhead, California, for $1.1 million in April. Kane's team documented the five-month renovation process, taking photos and videos of every room before, during and after to deliver content that would resonate with their viewers.
The bounty included a 100,000-view Instagram TV tour and blog video and photo tours, all of which were distributed to press. Upon completion in September, Kane's team invited 50 influencers to spend a day in the property, post about it on social media, and then hosted a contest for their followers to win a stay in the home. The home also served as the backdrop for photo shoots for brand partners who provided products.
Of course, like any renovation, Kane's project didn't come without its share of woes. As the project progressed, expenses mounted (the team declined to share exact figures, saying only that the renovations exceeded budget) and the need to sell the house at a profit became apparent. It's now on the market for $2.195 million. Assuming the deal goes through (“Selling this house is a prerequisite for doing more in the future,” Hunter says), Kane's team is now searching for its next flip—perhaps a ranch-style home in Ojai or Santa Barbara—and hopes to unveil Jenni Kayne House No. 2 next year.
Queen of Content
Blogging and social media aren't just a sideshow to Emily Henderson's design business. In many ways, content creation is her business. She has 835,000 followers on Instagram and growing, over 10 million monthly visitors on Pinterest, and a full-time blog staff. She's been blogging for 10 years and knows that the most effective posts are those about her personal projects. She creates over 20 posts from a single project by sharing bits of the project, inspiring others, and lessons learned.
The Mountain House Sarah Ligoria Trump
“Unlike working for a client, I can be most honest and transparent about the process, mistakes, resources and pricing, and I can execute much faster,” Henderson wrote in 2017 when announcing a new renovation project, coincidentally in Lake Arrowhead.
The Mountain House, as it's known to her followers, is offered as a rental property, not a flip because Henderson never intended to sell, in part because it was “the most over-budget project in the world.” But the content strategy behind the property is what ultimately led her to branch out into the flipping business.
In January 2018, Henderson announced a new project, “Portland Fixer Upper.” Her brother wanted to invest in real estate, and she was “looking for an investor to do more high-end projects as content without a client.” They struck a deal: her brother and his wife would buy a house, Henderson would design and document the whole thing, and then they would sell it, with Henderson getting a cut of the profits.
The couple purchased the home in January 2017 for $850,000 (they spent a year designing and gutting the house before publishing content on their blog), put it on the market in July 2018 for $2.6 million, and sold it last month for $2.398 million. Henderson didn't disclose the total cost of the renovation, but the post suggests they didn't make a profit.
She's careful to point out that this project wasn't a typical remodel: “I made a huge mistake and cost myself dearly by choosing to do custom (and therefore expensive) work to my home that I would never do in a remodel,” she wrote in April.
Henderson continued, “My goal with this house was never to make a ton of money. It was a portfolio project, and I'm very happy with how it looks, but I know where all the profit went – the custom cuts at my request. Do I think doing these things increased the overall price of the house and helped drive the emotional sale? Not as much as I would have hoped.”
The Modern Luxury Marketer
To get an idea of the budget for designer Windsor Smith's latest renovation, consider this: The team spent $250,000 on marketing alone, with almost half of that cost going into creating the two-minute, 40-second video. “We wanted to tell the visual story of a day in the house, a la Fellini,” Smith says of the video. “We wanted it to have an element of fantasy, but also something that was tangible and that you could imagine living there.”
Called “The New Homefront,” the home is a 13,000-square-foot mansion in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Records say the house is an “aggressive renovation” of an existing home that Smith originally purchased for $7.5 million. The project took four years to complete, and is now on the market for $33 million.
Windsor Smith's latest kitchen renovation
Melanie Acevedo
Smith has been flipping homes for years; her husband is a real estate agent, and the couple often converted their own homes into projects, steadily increasing the value and luxury level of their properties. In the late 2000s, Windsor branched out into spec homes, and her first project, “The House of Windsor,” an 8,000-square-foot home in Brentwood, sold to Gwyneth Paltrow for $10 million in 2012.
She sees her latest project as a sequel to Windsor House: “When I build, I'm architecturally representing where a luxury family would be, and for me the design always comes from there,” says Smith, who attributes her success to a deep understanding of her client and her presentation.
This includes high-touch videos and the products and brands that are showcased in the space. Nearly a third of the home's furniture is from Smith's Opus collection, and her Kravet textile line and Arteriors lighting line are also featured throughout. Smith says the home has been a sure-fire lead generator for new projects.
“It's the ultimate business card. It's the ultimate showcase,” she says.
Home page photo: Design by Emily Henderson | Photography by Sarah Ligoria Trump