Interior Design with Kandrac and Kole

This podcast is sponsored by Helser Brother Hardware. Helser Brothers are a fully custom manufacturer of drapery hardware.  It is run by brothers Jay and Mark.  Jay was an expert independent drapery installer and designs new products that are installer friendly and engineered for strength and Mark, a talented metal worker with a mind of an engineer, is the mechanical genius brother. Helser has an...

1.  THIS PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY HELSER BROTHERS HADRWARD Helser brothers are a fully custom manufacturer of drapery hardware.  It is run by Brothers Jay and Mark.  Jay was an expert independent drapery installer and designs new products that are install friendly and engineered for strength and Mark, a talented metal worker with a mind of an engineer, has been regarded as a mechanical genius by al...

1.  THIS PODCAST SPONSORED BY DOWEL FURNITURE COMPANY Dowel Furniture was created in 2015 by siblings, Joanne Lee and Ray Hallare. The company sources directly from their family factory in the Philippines, which has been manufacturing fine furniture for over 30 years. They collaborate with interior designers in creating licensed furniture collections, which showcase each designer's unique point of...

1.  INTRO  We met Ray and Joanne Hallare at the Design Influencers Conference in Atlanta in February.  We were introduced to them by Mally Skok, a South African born designer, textile/wallcovering artist and friend who lives in Boston.  She was working with them on a furniture collection. Ray and Joanne work with their family factory in the Philippines that has been manufacturing furniture for ove...

1.  INTRO We recently attended our 2nd immersion event with Designers Today Magazine and PBM Events – this time in Asheville, NC. We want to share with you all about our experience because if you are a designer at any level – right out of school or very seasoned – the value is tremendous. If you aren't a designer and are listening to this episode, it will be interesting to you because we will talk...

1.  INTRO  We are very excited to announce that we are re-branding here at Kandrac & Kole.  What that means is that we are shaking it up and creating a new logo, different brand colors, a completely new website and some new design offerings.  One of them is referred to as e-design, which we will explain in depth. As a business, for 14 years, we have worked on hundreds of residential and commercial...

1.  INTRO It takes a village as they say and we couldn't agree more. In last week's episode on Partnerships, we discussed the importance of agreeing on what outsourcing expenses to incur as a company such as bookkeeping, tax prep, social media etc. Today we are going to talk about all the other people we rely on (and why) to make our business successful. 2.  ART AND WINDOW TREATMENT INSTALLER We h...

August 15th marks our 14th year together as Kandrac & Kole.   It has been quite a journey and similar to that of a marriage and raising a child!  We've learned and grown so much in these 14 years and even though there have been some ups and downs, seriously we are luck to say there have been very few downs, it has been a great adventure. Several business owners have shared that they wish they coul...

1.  INTRO We owe much of our success as Designers to the fact that we make a commitment every year (and many times twice a year) to invest our time and travel funds to the High Point Furniture Market. It is here that we have created literally hundreds of relationships with manufacturers, artisans, a long list of leaders in our industry and of course our peers. With 12 million square feet of show s...

1.  INTRO In our last episode, #56, we talked about the amazing Designer Experience event we attended that was put together by PBM Brands and Designers Today Magazine.   We were invited along with several interior designers from across the country to Greensboro and High Point North Carolina for a 3 day immersion of the Triad area where we visited some key furniture manufacturers and toured the Sun...

1.  INTRO We were honored to receive another special invitation to a trade event this time in Greensboro & Highpoint, NC. Called The Designer Experience. The Designer Experience is a two-and-a-half day symposium exclusively for the design trade. This creative forum puts a unique spotlight on North Carolina's enduring legacy as a center for textiles, furniture-making and manufacturing, as well as i...

1.  INTRO  There was a time when all we sourced were bold paint colors for walls using various shades of white for trim and ceilings.  That has truly changed, although sometimes we'll specify an accent color and, if our clients will let us, wallpaper on ceilings. The trend for white walls has been strong and for being "color" girls, we have really embraced this. A. Why White Walls i.         A gre...

1.  INTRO We are just back from Napa Valley, CA where we were invited as special guests of Design Hounds and Signature Kitchen Suite to be a part of a three-day brand immersion trip to learn all about the new SKS showroom and their luxury lien of appliances. A.    Background – Part 1 – Design Hounds i. We have been very fortunate to be a part of Modenus Blogtour and Design Hounds trips around the...

1.  INTRO We are thrilled to have Gray Malin as a guest on the podcast today.  Gray is an amazing fine art photographer and author.  He is best known for holding a camera out of a helicopter and shooting the world's most exotic beach locations all over the world.  You get a bird's eye view of the colorful umbrellas, towels and sunbathing bodies.   His first book entitled "BEACHES", which came out...

1.  INTRO This morning we are excited to chat with a designer friend of ours, Mitzi Beach who is not only an award-winning designer but also an author and lifestyle specialist. She has a new book out called "Design Smarts, Inspiration for Home & Life" and so we are pleased to welcome her to the show to talk all about her new book. 2.  A LITTLE BACKGROUND Even though Mitzi lives in Ohio now, we lit...

We are so excited to be back from High Point, North Carolina where we spent 3 days at the International Home Furnishings Market, the the largest home furnishings trade show in the world.            A. Furniture Market stats: a) 10 million square feet b) 2000 Exhibitors c) 180 Buildings d) 75,000 attendees e) Twice a year – April and October B. Attendees: a) Furniture store retailers b) Online reta...

1. INTRO Happy 50 th episode! WOW! That was a quick 50. To celebrate, we are responding to our listeners and answering your design dilemma questions again. This is always a popular episode. We reached out via various social media platforms and received great questions for Episode 50 so let's get started. Question #1: Kathy Cousart, Athens, GA How can I as an Artist better connect and help the Desi...

As we continue our discussion about the design, marketing and unique qualities of vacation rental properties we are very excited to have Jeff Hylton here with us today to talk about his unique vacation rental. We found the "ARK ON LAKE LANIER" while doing research for a previous podcast and were so impressed with their facility and story, we wanted to share it with all of you! The Ark on Lake Lani...

1.  INTRO Today is a great day because we get to chat with a guy whom we adore and revere as a close friend – Adam Japko. Adam is the CEO of Esteem Media. If you are a designer or design enthusiast, you might know of his publications Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles and New England Home Magazine . He is also the Founder of the Design Influencers Conference (formally the Design Bloggers Conference). We a...

The 2 nd episode of our podcast last year was on the 2018 Kitchen and Bath Trends from KBIS (The Kitchen and Bath Industry Show) that we attended last year in Orlando, Florida and coincidentally was the 2 nd highest downloaded episode since we started this podcast! Unfortunately we weren't able to attend KBIS this year (it was in Las Vegas where it snowed for more than 7 hours resulting in delays...

As we continue our discussion about the design, marketing and unique assets of certain vacation rental properties we thought we'd bring to your attention a special area of the U.S. that we have both vacationed at and loved and that is Tybee Island, GA. However, if we are going to talk about Tybee Island, we absolutely must bring your attention to the adorable cottages to rent thru Mermaid Cottages...

We started the conversation about VRBO, AirBNB and vacation rentals in our last Episode 44. We talked about what "big business" this has become and are very excited about how we are working towards having an impact for owners, managers and the general public. The varied offering of rentals is quite fascinating! You can go down a rabbit hole when searching, but it is really fun. A. Luxury Rentals a...

Today we are talking about how the websites AirBnB and VRBO have completely revolutionized the travel industry and put hotels on notice that they need to step up to their competition.  We find this phenomenon fascinating not only because we travel a lot but more importantly because we are consistently appalled by the interiors of the spaces being rented. 1.  What exactly are these sites? A. AirBnB...

1.  Intro – Kelly and I have always been huge fans of Sherwin Williams so we are thrilled that Sue Wadden, the Director of Color Marketing is our guest today 2.  Sue Wadden's background A.     Where she grew up B.     Where she attended college C.     Her working career and how she landed at Sherwin Williams and became Director of Color Marketing D.    Someone that has inspired or encouraged her a...

The landscape of the interior design business has been altered over the last few years. The days of buying home furnishings through a designer that were considered "trade only", meaning items could only be purchased from a designer, have changed. Manufacturers almost exclusively sold to designers and brick and mortar furniture stores. There was generally a set retail price and designers either sol...