We recently connected with Kimberly Duval and have shared our conversation below.

Kimberly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

In April 2013, my husband and I bought our first house – something of an investment property – two hours west of Boston, where we were living at the time.

The day we closed on the house, a 30 yard dumpster was dropped in the driveway, and abatement crews showed up to remove a basement full of asbestos floor tiles and pipe insulation. In the decade since, my husband and I gutted the house to the studs on both sides, and with my vision for the design, rebuilt most of the structure and completely reimaged both the house and the property.

Interestingly, in the same month we closed, I also got my first two referrals for residential design work – corporate clients who wanted me to work on their homes. I think fate had a hand in the timing.

The house happens to sit on a little tree-lined, dead-end street, in a teeny New England town filled with charm. The address is 41 Tucker Street. From that came my business – 41 Studios. The name has a crisp, clean classic feel, which is exactly the vibe that I created with our house. Since 2013, the house has been my living laboratory, and its origin story fits perfectly with the work that I do as a design and real estate consultant.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As the Founding Principal of 41 Studios, I am a passionate designer whose foundation lies in decades working in architecture, interior design and corporate real estate.

My undergraduate degree is in Interior Design, but I developed a much deeper knowledge of buildings through graduate studies in Architecture. In grad school, I interned at architectural firms in Boston, working on large scale commercial and corporate projects. After nearly a decade in architecture firms, I moved into a role as an Owner’s Project Manager for a larger real estate company in the US, and started influencing more of the project process, hiring the architect instead of designing spaces, and navigating clients aways from budget pitfalls, schedule delays and through to the operation of really large corporate real estate initiatives.

After working with a client on a large corporate real estate project, I was recruited to their internal corporate real estate team, managing initiatives with a focus on the company’s sites in South America. The evolution of my role allowed me to hone soft skills, since I was primary tasked with guiding internal stakeholders. In this capacity, I was also responsible for developing project budgets, schedules and priorities for the company’s real estate projects across a number of geographies.

Throughout my time in architecture and as an OPM (Owner’s Project Manager), I was also continuing to moonlight for residential projects with my fledgling business, 41 Studios. Even as I completed coursework for my MCR (Master of Corporate Real Estate), I was realizing that my heart was really somewhere else: working directly with clients, designing and managing their homes and businesses, as an independent consultant – as 41 Studios.

In 2022, I made the leap and took 41 Studios full time.

The work I do is design and real estate consulting, and I use this description because it opens up projects to anything and everything related to improving a real estate asset – not just spaces, but landscapes, site plans, due diligence, you name it. Because my background in corporate real estate is so heavy in numbers, schedules and management, I offer to my clients a strong project leadership role in addition to design. I’m able to lead initiatives from start to finish, and at all depths. I’ve managed huge construction firms, including individual subs, as well as 50+ person teams of engineers, architects, lighting designers, you name it, but I also thrive on projects that might not need nearly as much scope.

My mission with 41 Studios is to do good projects with good people. I really appreciate having a positive influence on the way people live and work. Designing spaces that flow, and making sense out of chaos are things that thrill me.

In the work I do, I try to avoid working to a specific style. That’s just not the way I’m programmed. Do I love a good white wall with some incredible art? Absolutely. Do I gravitate towards clean lines and a bit more of an architectural style? Yes, for sure. I also really love taking something old and adding to it, enhancing it. For that reason, I seem to do a lot of home additions with full remodels. I have clients in commercial spaces as well – but I don’t really do true corporate work anymore.

Recently, I had a lake house project that epitomizes the kind of work I love. The client had a small cottage amongst the trees on a prominent lake in New England. He wanted to expand it by several thousand square feet to create a family compound for kids and grandkids. He looked at designing the expansion himself, but after struggling with roof lines and connecting spaces, he called me. He told me he wanted ‘beautiful and functional’, and I was thrilled to take on the challenge. There were complexities with the site, including underground utilities that impacted where and how the foundation could be built. There were technical challenges related to shorefront setbacks, and heavy snow loads, as well as marrying the new structural tastefully into the old. All of this made it a very cool, challenging puzzle to solve.

When the client, a natural skeptic, said he was in love with the design, that made my day, and projects like that are what really get me.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

That design conversation is limited to design. Coming from a two-decade career in corporate real estate and large architecture firms, most of what influenced my work was other design work – and that’s just the industry, in my opinion. It’s very self-referential.

But when I launched into 41 Studios full-time, I thought a lot about what influences me as a designer – and, the truth is, it’s EVERYTHING. Life influences me… travel, food, relationships, people – all of it. And so I threw out my classical training to a certain degree with a slightly symbolic gesture: I started a magazine called MORE to talk about all of the things that influence me, as a designer. I self-publish, and it is truly a vehicle for my own thoughts on design. I bring in collaborators I love and respect, and work with a team that is dedicated because they are as passionate as I am about creating excellent things.

In telling stories about things seemingly unrelated to design, I’ve created a new sphere for design to live and thrive.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth and my magazine, MORE, have been my best source of new clients, and have led to some fantastic relationships. I appreciate the referral business so much more as a small business owner because through referrals, I’ve been able to entertain clients without worrying about the vetting process. My clients are vetted because they’ve been referred by good people.

It pays to know amazing people, connect to others, and be a good person to those around you, so you get referred for great projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://41studiosdesign.com/
• Instagram: @41studiosdesign
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlychristine/
• Other: Pinterest: 41studiosdesign

Image Credits

Kristin Murphy (photos)
Sasha Schnaidler (blue and white lake house renderings)