We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Hoekzema recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
From the beginning we wanted to do things differently with KLH. The process of custom building felt like it was stuck in the past and far more stressful than it should be. We set out to have fun with our clients, be open about what things cost, take the work off their shoulders of running around making selections, and eventually, to create one design house for architectural plans, interiors, building, landscaping consultation and even custom pools.
We regularly compare building a home to having a baby. There’s excitement, all the planning and prep, moments of waiting and eventually the big push at the end. Naturally there’s some pain involved! Moving in general is not fun, to say the least, and it’s difficult to make a million decisions and feel confidence in each one.
We love having all the decision making be under one roof so that we can guide a cohesive picture from how the house sits on the land all the way down to the last plant species that goes in the ground, or which ceramic sits as a focal point on the kitchen shelf.
Since we’re all working under one vision, you don’t get a chorus of voices (separate builder, showroom salesperson, etc) contradicting each other or drowning each other out, needing to be heard but then complicating the direction + confusing the client.
It took years to organically build a team to this point, of the right skill sets for each position + the right collaborative mentality as well. Internally we still have it out sometimes, fighting for aesthetic decisions vs. practical, or how to work out a splurge material moment with respect for the client’s overall budget…..but we like to hope we save our clients a lot of headaches by doing this behind the scenes.
Kevin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
KLH started as just Kevin + Liz Hoekzema, over a decade ago.
I had framed houses during college + went on to get a business degree with a focus on finance, and Liz graduated with a liberal arts degree in English + communications. Our very first client basically cold-called us based on following Liz’s blog (estimated following: maybe 100 readers?) and we were off to the races building our first custom home with Liz leading the interior design. That first client actually had to push us to create a website, name our company, print business cards….they saw something in us and our combined talents before we could articulate it.
We didn’t set out with a defined plan of growing a business to the size that it is now (16 employees including a remote designer in Nashville + an unofficial ‘team’ of many more subcontractors we’ve partnered with steadily over the years), but rather had a mindset of thinking on our feet and seizing opportunities for growth as they came.
We’re immensely proud of how we’ve set ourselves apart as a boutique firm, not just locally but nationwide. Our aesthetic is generally focused on natural light, clean lines, custom details and just the right amount of quirk. This can be a character home with traditional references or an ultra pared back modern project with a killer color or material moment — either way, we love hearing that our look is recognizable.
Our current personal home has drawn comparisons to Gru’s house in Despicable Me. We went all-in with black on the exterior knowing that we wanted your eye to travel through the glass moments + have the crispest possible contrast to our natural oak-lined surroundings. Not all of the attention was positive, but since then we’ve received countless requests for a similar look — something resonated with people, allowing yourself the freedom to go big even on an exterior.
All that to say: we aren’t afraid of color or a bold choice, since we believe in designing for yourself vs. some unknown future resident.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Liz started our social media presence about ten years ago with the simple thought that Instagram would be a fun – free! – way to share cheeky updates about what we were up to.
Our business was still fairly fledgling at the time, and there was total freedom in it back then. Liz used Instagram to give KLH a distinct voice. Playful, but serious about our work; big things to say, but carefully chosen, minimal word choice to communicate those things.
Not long after we started our KLH account, we noticed a new firm called Studio McGee showing up online. It’s been fascinating to see their explosive growth over the same sort of time frame, Target products and all, but also a reminder to stay true to ourselves and our own vision. They have their audience and play beautifully to it, and Liz works hard to display our vision and path to ours.
We are always working to adapt and learn and keep pushing ourselves. There is joy in sharing that dynamic journey, since the work itself is rewarding and challenging. Therefore it’s easy to speak authentically, which is vital! There will always be an account that’s bigger than your own, but I think our main advice would be to continually distill who you are + where you’re headed…..at the end of the day, your personal perspective will be far more interesting than a design or marketing model that mimics what’s already out there.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Initially we were tempted by every single amazing project that came our way. We were excited to grow KLH, to do bigger + better things, and most of all, to take on projects that really showed off our core design perspective.
In doing so, we took on a build-design client on the other side of Michigan because the project was going to be really unique, the property was beautiful + the clients were lovely. We figured we were adaptable and we could make it work by just changing our process a bit!
We learned quickly that it made far more sense to keep our custom build territory closer to home, for our own team’s sake + that of our subcontractors. Less time on the road, better sense of quality control and just overall smoother process for all involved — our clients, too. Since then, our design + architectural plans studio has grown greatly as we’ve partnered with builders and clients in-state and nationwide that we won’t physically build for but for whom we’re thrilled to design. Saying no has opened up more doors and allowed us to use our energy wisely.
Contact Info:
- Website: klh-homes.com
- Instagram: klhcustomhomes
Image Credits
Majority of images – Diana Paulson, Linea Photo Black house / pool house image – Dionel Fisher