Photo courtesy of Kristie Cromie, LPhotographie
Shirley Strom, right, can't remember a time she didn't love to fix up her living space. When she worked in non-profit management, she found what she enjoyed most was designing her office. About fifteen years ago, Shirley decided to follow her passion and started doing design work for friends. She gave them decorating advice and, instead of charging them for her service, she photographed the finished product for her portfolio. For the experience and to get her name "out there," she also worked for a St. Louis furniture store that offered design services.
After Shirley’s daughter Katie Marvin attended interior design classes at Meramec Community College she asked if she could join the business. What she could offer, she told her mother, was a knowledge of social media, which Katie was certain would make the small business even more successful.
During our interview Katie said she made herself invaluable in the early days as marketing and social media expert, a role that has brought S & K Interiors all of the business they’ve had ever since she came onboard. Katie put S & K Interiors on websites including Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and most importantly Houzz, where S & K Interiors is ranked #1 among all 1300 professionals in the St. Louis area. ALL of their business inquiries, even local ones, have originated from Houzz. A recent inquiry through the Houzz website came from a museum in Beijing asking for a proposal for a retail space that could also host events. According to Shirley, most of their interior design discussions with clients involve email anyway, so working with a client that lives in St. Louis, Colorado Springs, Arkansas, or as far away as Beijing is all about the same. Yes indeed, the world is flat!
Photo courtesy of S & K Interiors
The dramatic living area in Shirley and David Strom's CWE condo is shown above and below.
Photo courtesy of S & K Interiors
Photo courtesy of S & K Interiors
A rehab project Shirley and Katie completed on "The Hill" in St. Louis shows the "before," above, and "after," below.
It took about a year from design to completion for Shirley and Katie to finish the rehab of a downtown loft with 7600 s.f. of living area. Their clients, whom they describe as just fabulous, are a family of four who put four apartments together to create a living space that includes 7 bathrooms and 2 kitchens. The designing duo staged a HGTV-type "Big Reveal" when the clients were away for the day, and did the bulk of the installation before the family returned.
At the end of our interview Shirley told me that the team's design philosophy is to "push the limits and think outside the box." One of their latest projects, designing a home with a Moroccan decor, would appear to be right up S & K Interior's alley. Shirley and Katie have also just started the design of a three-story loft in the Syndicate Building downtown.
Here are links to each of the sites on which S & K Interiors has listings.