Designing a home with KTI means spending a lot of time with our team. We have the honor of getting to know our clients on a deep, personal level through all the meetings, site visits, and installs. At the conclusion of a project, there’s nothing we love more than seeing our clients fall in love with their home. We sat down with our client, Colleen Messenger, to get the scoop on what it was like working with KTI and how Project Mr. + Mrs. Blue Sky came to be.
How did you decide to use KTI for your project?
“My husband, Dave, worked for a home builder, and one of the guys he worked with came in with pictures of his ranch. We got to see the pictures, and then I said “Who did THAT?” I just told my husband, “This HAS to be who does our house,” and then… we did it!”
What was your first impression of the KTI team?
“KTI to me—when I first found out about it—was very, very high end, and I was very intimidated. I was at home, and I was on Zoom, and I remember cleaning the house because I was afraid for them to see what was behind me. It was Nikki and Carter, and they were young! So, I was intimidated, but to be honest, when they were younger than me, I thought ‘Okay, I’m fine.’ They were just so sweet, and they were very smart, right off the get. So, it started off very easy and natural from day one.”
What was IT LIKE WORKING WITH THE KTI TEAM?
“Working with Nikki, Carter and Natalie was just really fun. I loved it. The favorite parts for me were going into the office, or going to the furniture store, or going to the design center, or when Nikki came over one day and we sat at the kitchen table and we went through art together. That part was most fun for me.”
What was your vision for this project?
“So our vision for this house—because it’s very different from our old house—our old house was more traditional, now we’re in the city, it’s a modern house. I wanted it to stay modern, but I wanted to warm it up. It felt very cold when we walked in. I wanted it to feel like when you came in my house, you wanted to hang out and lay down, sit on the couch and watch TV, or have a glass of wine, or read a book, or whatever! I wanted it to be very comfortable, but I also wanted it to look like we had deliberately picked beautiful things to be in the house. We wanted our house to reflect the ease of where we’re living now. So, I wanted it to be beautiful, but it was more important that it be comfortable and inviting.”
What’s something about your project that surprised you?
“I think the biggest surprise is how long the process takes. Even though you’re having a good time doing it, it takes a long time to curate all of this stuff and bring it all together. And, the vast amount of choices. [Nikki] would hand me a book of fabrics or we’d go into a store, and the sheer amount of things that you can choose from [was surprising.] And I might like 10 of them, but you can’t have all of them, so you have to figure out, ‘What do I really want in my house?’ And the best part was, that I was able to say, “I have these 15 or 20 things that are very important to me. I know they came from my last house, they aren’t part of your scheme, but they need to go somewhere.” And they worked with us to do that, so I felt like it was my house and not someone else’s house.”
Was there any design decision that made you nervous during selection but that you absolutely love now?
“Putting wood on the ceiling in the master bedroom! I loved it from the concept photo, but I was a little nervous about that whole thing working out. Putting leather panels on the wall in the basement—which is gorgeous, so beautiful—and I was a little nervous when that went up but that is just gorgeous. I love it.”
What do you love most about your home?
“We find ourselves, probably three times a day, whatever room we’re in, looking at each other and one of us will just spontaneously say, “I LOVE my house.” We just are so happy here, we love every room. Every. Single. Room.”