Lilly Powell – Residential Interior Designer

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure. And by the way, another guest introduced to me through BNI network, which is really fun and interesting. Uh, it is my pleasure to have Lilly on with me today. Kirby and Z interior designs. She and I have had the opportunity to catch up a couple of times before, and she does amazing work. Lilly, welcome to the show.

Lilly Powell: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited. We had some really good conversation before we started recording today, so I can’t wait to really dig into the details. So Lilly, if you wouldn’t mind, just give our audience a little background and how you got into interior design in the first place.

Lilly Powell: So I was asked the age old question, what do you want to do when you grow up? And I was about 30, a little late to the game. Um, we had adopted a baby, and, uh, it was something, you know, I wanted to be a mom first. So I decided interior design was in my blood and my passion and, uh, you know, started working for a firm and realized that I was working too many hours to be a mom. And so I decided to go out on my own and voila! Kirby and Z was born. And so we’ve been in business for ten years now, and the baby is 1314 now. So yeah, she’s a big girl.

Trisha Stetzel: Goodness, Lily, by the way, 30 is not too old to be asking yourself, what do I want to be when I grow up? Because I’m still asking. I’m way past 30. Uh, I know that you have a passion for this particular industry, and I want to focus on a couple of couple of areas that I’m curious about. Uh, we’ve talked a little bit about color and the psychology behind that, and it sounds like it’s really important when it comes to decorating, whether it’s in your home, in your office, or even in a corporate space. Tell me more about color and the psychology of colors around decorating.

Lilly Powell: So I have done a couple of talks for a real estate agent and, you know, some friends and just kind of diving into the color. If you go into a dentist office like a pediatric dentist, they’re going to have these vibrant colors because they want these kids to kind of feel comfortable and still happy go lucky, you know, when they’re coming into the dentist office because it can be scary. Um, and so it’s just one of those things that’s kind of like, you tell me who your friends are. I’ll tell you who you are. It’s the same principle. Who, who and what you surround yourself with is going to evoke a feeling. And so a lot of times, I will walk into a place, for example, hospital. And, you know, I see these bleak colors and in my mind I’m just like, wow, they should have brighter colors, you know, to help these people get through whatever they’re getting through here at the hospital. And so it is it makes a difference. You know, what you surround yourself with, whether it be at home or in your business. One of the things that I do like to do with a lot of my clients is when they are decorating their bedrooms. A lot of times we’ll make those colors a little more, a deeper color. Why is that? Well, because that’s where you’re going to bed, right? It’s time to calm down. It’s time to bring your blood pressure down. And some of these colors have shown, you know, to do that. So it’s important.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Oh my gosh. So I get in this corporate environment or hospital environments what those colors should look like. So from I want to dive back into this, this home environment where the bedrooms should be dark. What about like kitchens or living rooms. Is it about your personality? Is there like a color palette that you suggest more often than not? What does that look like when helping a client pick out colors?

Lilly Powell: Uh, it is going to depend a lot on the client themselves. You know, I’ll ask them, like, you know, what colors do you like? And a lot of times they will say, oh, I like all colors. And my response is, okay, we’ll do purple with green polka dots. Okay. I don’t like green and purple. Okay. What color do you like? And so it’s my job to like, drill down. You know what? What do you like? Where do you live? So if you come into my house, it’s, um. I have two chairs that have teal and pink and lime green, and so that’s where I like to live. So if you’re going into a kitchen and it’s your personality, you know, to be bright, you go with bright blues, bright yellows. You want something a little more subdued than you would go, maybe, you know, with like a navy countertop. And a lot of times, you know, it just depends on the client. And that is one of the things that I pride myself in as a designer is listening to what the client wants, not necessarily me being the designer, you know, picking for the client. It’s it’s about listening.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. And I love that you said purple with green polka dots or whatever it was, right? Like, okay, maybe I don’t love all colors. Yeah. Uh, so I have a question for you. For those of you who can’t see us on video because it’s only audio. I sit in an in an office with no color, uh, because my walls are all cedar. So what? What does that say about me, Lily?

Lilly Powell: You’re okay with living in Cedar?

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. That’s funny. It is just. Yeah. Just to be clear, it’s a tiny house, so I’m not painting the cedar. But I do have some really cool paintings. It’s all filled with brightly colored, uh, music. Artwork. Uh, so that probably says some crazy things about me, right?

Lilly Powell: And that’s what it is. Your personality comes out through what you surround yourself with, and people don’t realize it sometimes. Um, I did have a, you know, a period in my life where I wasn’t as happy and I did, you know, battle depression a little bit. And that was around the time that we moved into this house. And I had a friend come in and she said, you know, this house doesn’t look like you. And I kind of took a step back and I was like, oh, that’s because I was not in the right space when I decorated. And so I decorated to where I was at in my life. And it was the weirdest thing that she she was able to point that out, but I was able to take a step back and be like, oh, we need to redo this. And now we’ve got, you know, the pinks and the blues and the lime greens that you know, I’m talking about. And so it does it, you know, it it matters. It really does.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah I can see that. Where colors really bring your personality to life. Meaning things that make you happy, right? And it really brings out the best in you. Even just thinking about the clothes. So it’s just as important to think about the colors in your house as it is, ladies, to pick out the outfit that you love. Right. You’re going to go in your closet and you’re going to pick out an outfit and wear a certain color. You know which colors you like and which ones you don’t. It’s just as important to have that surrounding you in your, um, home and even in your office. So I’m curious, Lily, um, what types of clients do you typically work with? Is it home? Is it office? Is it home? Office? What does that look like for you?

Lilly Powell: So I mostly do residential. Occasionally I’ll have an existing client ask, you know, hey, can you put some stuff in my office? But it’s mostly residential that we stick to. Um. The demographic. We did some research and come to find out that it’s mostly, uh, women. Uh, I think it was over the age of 40 and divorced men. Very weird. But those are my clients that I’ve been drawing to me. Uh, and so, yeah, those have been my clients. But, you know, in between, I’ve had families starting, um, you know, couples starting new families where we do a nursery. We have, um, you know, a library shelf built into an existing office for, you know, all the clients are now working from home. So it just varies.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, wow, I love that. I know you and I had a longer conversation the last time we met about, uh, all of these, um, most of them are women. The people that I engage with that are moving from office to work, from home, and they’re sitting in a place that’s not actually their office. And how great would it be to engage with someone like you who could help them through the process of really turning that into a place that they can grow their business. Like, that sounds amazing. Yeah, that sounds like so much fun. So the most it is interesting that your clients are women over 40 and divorced men. So if you’re listening, uh, Lilly might be your gal, right? Uh, especially for those of you who have started working from home. And by the way, just from a business perspective, you need to fill your office with things that make you happy and excited and the things that are going to help you flourish. And I know that, Lilly, you could help folks with that. Um, really get that office into a space where they can grow, right? You don’t want it to be a place where you dread going to the office, even in your own home, right? Yeah. Um, so talk to me about why having someone like you with your skills on my team is important. So why would I hire an interior designer in the first place?

Lilly Powell: A lot of times it is less expensive to hire me than for you to go out and buy furniture out on your own.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Lilly Powell: Shocking, right? So a lot of times you go into a furniture store and their ceilings are going to be either 22 foot ceilings or it’s a giant store. And so you find this wonderful bed that looks amazing. You buy it, you get it home and you realize, oh, my ceilings are nine foot ceilings. And all of a sudden you have this enormous bed taking up the entire space of your room, and you have room for nothing else. And so a lot of times that’s where I can come in and just consult and just be like, okay, this is a great bed and everything, but let’s see if we can find something that actually is to scale for your house. And so I do have one client in particular. She hired me for that reason. And she told me she’s like, I know that if I do not hire a designer, I’m going to end up spending more money because I’ll get it to the house. It’s the wrong shade. It’s the wrong size. It’s whatever. So a lot of times it’s just easier to have that person that does this for a living to come in and just say, hey, this is going to work. This isn’t going to work. Let’s see what we can find. Um, that, you know, that’s going to make you happy and still give you what you want.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, yeah, I love that. My bed’s way too big for my bedroom. Lily, I might need one of those. Uh, well, and, you know, just just to give myself a little credit, it was because we moved from one house to another house, and we had that bed there, and, well, it doesn’t exactly fit here. It fills the room, which is. Okay. Um, let’s. I know that most of your clientele, uh, as you mentioned in your study, are women over 40 and divorced men. But I also know that there’s another area that you specialize in which is aging in place. Can we talk a talk a little bit more about that? What does it mean and how do you help?

Lilly Powell: Absolutely. So aging in place is exactly what it says aging in place. A lot of my clients are baby boomers that are now empty nesters, um, retirees. And a lot of times the choices are they either move to a facility where, you know, um, aging, uh, I forget what the name of the facility is anyway. A facility where they can, you know, grow older. They have assistance if needed, or they have to downsize to a smaller house. And a lot of times I can come in and I can just help them by opening bathroom doors, you know, to fit a wheelchair or a walker if needed, later on in life. I can reinforce the walls so that we can add grab bars to showers and bathrooms, stairwells, you know, different areas of the house, um, install different kind of flooring. That’s not going to be so slippery so that, you know, as they’re shuffling, shuffling along, which happens, it’s going to happen. You know, most of us, they don’t slip and fall. I even went as far as installing a heated floor for one client, which is in Houston. She’s like, yes. I was like, all right, let’s do it. So we did it. And recently we did. Um, we installed an elevator for another client. Same thing, aging in place. It’s a four story house. She doesn’t want to move. And we did research and we looked at all of our choices as far as, like, you know, this is where you can move to or this is where you can stay and this is what we can do. Price point I brought in a real estate agent to help her. You know, this is how much your house will sell for. This is what we’re going to buy for, you know, your new facility. And we just went through the whole process with her and helped her make that final decision, you know, to remodel and install an elevator. So, you know, that’s it’s just it makes me happy to see her, you know, in her little elevator. And she had a party and brought all her friends over. And so it’s it’s very cool. So. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. You do so much more, Lily, than than just help people with colors. It’s amazing. And so for those listeners who know me well enough, you know that I have, um, uh, lots of energy that I put into, uh, my grandmother and my mother and I. These things are so important, Lily. You know, there are studies that say our seniors who are getting older and older fear losing their independence more than they do actually passing away, which is this space that you’re in, which is aging in place and helping them be able to stay at home and keep their independence is so important. We have so many baby boomers, um, living right now, uh, who are in that difficult place, right? Can I stay here or do I need to go to a facility? So in that, in that space as well. So you do some can we call it remodeling. Like what. So aging in place you’re doing a lot more than just interior design. So can you really describe all of the services that you can provide for your clients.

Lilly Powell: Well let’s see let’s pull out the list. So yes I do pick out colors, um pillows, which is, you know, the basic interior design stuff. But we do, uh, go in and we can remodel kitchens and bathrooms. Those are typically the things that we’re remodeling a lot of times, um, it’ll start with, hey, you know, I need a new color for my bathroom, and we just it kind of just escalates and moves into, you know, let’s just do a remodel. And so that’s definitely something that we provide. So it’s it’s a little bit of everything. Um, but our niche and what we started doing ten years ago was truly interior design. Wallpaper, paint, selecting tiles. Me going into a tile store is like a kid in a candy store. Like, I love doing it. Or even picking up paint. Everyone’s intimidated by it and I’m like, it’s just paint. Like you don’t like it. We redo it. So. And everyone’s, like, scared of it. I’m like, no, don’t be afraid. But that that just painting is one of the simplest things that you can do to your house to just, like, juice it up. And people are very scared of it. And I’m like, no, that’s like the easiest thing you can do is paint a room. And the best thing is, if you don’t like it, redo it. You know, it’s just paint.

Lilly Powell: You can paint over it, right? Use a different color.

Trisha Stetzel: So, uh, that brings up another question then, Lily. What? What is your bet? What’s your biggest piece of advice to someone who may be selling their house in the next six months?

Lilly Powell: Uh, selling a house in the next six months. Mm. This is tricky. I do have real estate agents that bring me in to prep the house and stage it. Sometimes we do staging with the client’s their own furniture. We don’t bring any furniture in. But one of the things that we do tell them is if you are one of those people like me that has various colors in your house, you’re going to have to paint it back to a neutral color. Why is that? Because the people that come in to possibly buy your house, they need to be able to envision themselves in that space. So you have to take away all of who you are. Right. Because we’ve surrounded ourselves with the things that we love and that we like and that bring us joy, that includes colors. Uh, we have to take those out and allow someone else to visualize themselves and their stuff in this new home. So.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, and that’s hard. But we’ve also made the decision that we’re going to sell our house. Right. So when we make that decision, then we’ve got to put something more neutral, I’m guessing on the walls, so that it when people come in to look at the house, they can see themselves there without your big red wall or your big yellow wall or whatever color that you love right in there.

Lilly Powell: Red or blue or whichever.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh, Lily. So I’ve done some crazy things. We had a yellow wall with, uh, purple handprints on it. When our son was younger, I had a bathroom that I painted purple. I’m talking about purple with, um, blue sponge over the top of it. I am not afraid of.

Lilly Powell: My own heart. I mean.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m not afraid of paint. Uh, although it is hard to cover up when you use those dark colors. I’m just saying. Now, paint has come a long way. Uh, you know where it does cover up those dark colors and, you know, way more than way more about that than I do. So if listener if if we’ve got some listeners that are really interested in connecting with you. With you, Lily. Just having a conversation. Want to know what it is that you do, or maybe even want to talk to you about services. How can they find you?

Lilly Powell: I have a website. It’s a glorified business card. I have pictures on there and a little bit about me. If you want to go in there and read, it’s WW, Herbie and Z and z.com and you can find all my information there.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. I’m going to put that in the show notes as well. So if you happen to be in front of your computer listening, you can just click and go directly there. You can even comment in the social posts where you’re watching this and get a hold of Lily. You can just do it at Lily and I’m sure it will pop up and tag her. So, Lily, uh, as we get to the back end of our conversation today, I would love if you would share one of your favorite client stories.

Lilly Powell: So right now, top of the list is a young lady that we installed the elevator for, and we went in and she just knew she needed to update her kitchen and her bath. And like I said, we slowly started talking about, you know, aging in place and what that’s going to look like. And we went from a I think it was a just basic white kitchen. I don’t even remember what color it was at this point, to a beautiful blue with brown doors, stained brown doors, cabinets and kitchens, all new appliances, new beautiful backsplash. I just got a picture. They installed the chairs yesterday. Her dining room chairs. We installed an elevator so now she can go up and down. So yeah, that that makes me happy. And when I see things like that, that keeps me going. So yeah, I love it.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So was it an easy decision for her to go with blue in her kitchen?

Lilly Powell: No, she it was one of those things. When you hire me, we have to build a trust, because I can walk in there and I can visualize what it’s going to look like, and not all my clients can. And so we’ll, you know, we’ll do renderings and I can show you more or less what it’s going to look like. But it’s one of those things that you have to trust that I know what I’m doing, and I know what it’s going to look like when we’re done. And she did tell me she goes, Lily, I’m a little scared of this floor. I said, okay, you know what? You don’t like it. We’ll just repaint it. And that was kind of like, oh, okay. And so we went with it. But she loves it. She’s happy with it. And, you know, it brings her joy. The house looks completely different. It’s very bright and vibrant. She’s happy.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s amazing. All right. Kirby and z.com. Right. That’s where folks are going to find you. They can look up pictures. They maybe soon can see the blue kitchen if you put it out there and even connect with you on social. Are you on social media where people can find you as well?

Lilly Powell: Yes, we are on Facebook and Instagram. Same thing. Kirby and Zee.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, fantastic. Lily, I’m so glad you came and joined me today. This was so much fun.

Lilly Powell: Thank you for having me.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. You may have to come back and we can talk about, like where how our furniture should sit in the rooms. Like, how is it really zen and does it work for people? Right. I’m just saying, I think that would be a ton of fun.

Lilly Powell: Anytime.

Trisha Stetzel: Thanks so much again, Lily, I appreciate it. Anybody who would like to connect with Lily, please check the show notes. Or you can just go to Kirby and A and z.com to connect with her and see the beautiful work that she’s already done. That’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another exciting episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.