When home accessories and fashion designer Katie Kime walked in to an East Austin bungalow next to Texas’s first cat cafe, she knew she had found her new headquarters, despite the glaringly white walls. Katie Kime, known for her colorful prints and patterns, doesn’t do white walls. So, she quickly got to work, lining the ceilings and walls with poppy wallpaper stripes and prints (like a repeating Moroccan-inspired camel) from her eponymous line, transforming window trim with neon yellow paint, and styling each room with a high-low mix of items from her modern-meets-glam furniture line coupled with flea market finds and reimagined pieces from the likes of Ikea and Costco. Her new office digs are ideal for dreaming up items in her line of clothing, jewelry, pajamas, swimwear, wallpaper, fabric, pillows, furniture, and Lucite (many of her products are made close by in North Austin). Kime, an interior designer, launched her company as a one-woman shop in 2013, starting with pop-up trunk shows at friends’ homes before opening her brick-and-mortar on Austin’s West Fifth Street near the Whole Foods Flagship store on Lamar Boulevard. Take a tour through her fanciful office, which is immersed in vibrant hues and pattern play.
A peek inside Kime's office from the main hallway, which runs from the front to the back door. "The vision for the space was a launchpad, or true headquarters, for our team," the Duke University grad says. The birdcage chair perched outside her office is Kime's own design, while her desk is a West Elm outlet find, and her office chair is from Costco.
Photograph by Molly Culver
"This space serves as a true meal table for team lunch breaks and as a space where people will take their laptop when they need a change of scenery,” Kime says. She chose yellow, her current color obsession, to paint the trim in this corner of kitchen. "I just wanted to go big there,” she says. "I also felt like the break and common area should be a happy space."
Photograph by Molly Culver
The designer's inspiration board is an ever-changing wall of colors and textures. "It's usually all images that relate to the woman I want to design for, the life, the feeling that I hope my work evokes."
Photograph by Molly Culver
Kime stands in the designated designer (to the trade) room of the house, where removable KK wallpapers hang and other textiles are on display. The company also makes custom Lucite pieces, like islands and bar carts.
Photograph by Molly Culver
The dark navy formal sitting room is a contrast to the rest of the house and features what Kime calls a "hodge podge" of spray-painted Ikea shelves, trinkets, and books from Kime's world travels. The coffee table was a find from High Fashion Home in Houston, and the moss-green chairs come from One Kings Lane.
Photograph by Molly Culver
On the way back from a trip to Morocco last year, Kime sketched the first iteration of the camel print that would become a wallpaper design her collection. She chose it to adorn a section of the main hallway.
Photograph by Molly Culver
While driving by a thrift sale after college in Atlanta a decade ago, Kime pulled over when she spied the piece that she now uses a conference table out on the lawn. She bought it for $75 and has painted the base a different color five times now.
Photograph by Molly Culver
Kime’s team includes about a dozen employees. "Our store on West Fifth Street is obviously retail and not conducive to office-ing. And until now, we’ve always had our offices connected to a warehouse for our e-commerce operation, so we have never had an inspiring space,” she says. "Now we have a creative workspace for day to day, as well as a first ever separate room for designers to the trade. So it’s those things and an event space.”
Photograph by Molly Culver
Drawing inspiration from the likes of Dorothy Draper and the coast, Kime's prints are full of color and style.
Photograph by Molly Culver
Kime hopes to make the cottage more of an event space this year, and will host all the SXSW Style Speakers for brunch in March. "We recently allowed a book club to use the space for free because what they're doing is just cool. None of these types of things were in mind when we rented the space, and so we're excited to see what organic uses will unfold," she says. "Mostly my plan is to fill the space with energetic, cool, creative women and see where we can go."
Photograph by Molly Culver
Kime and her team are gluing real tassels to each of the 1,200 or so camels on the wallpaper covering one side of the long hallway, adding texture and a splash of even more color.
