We were lucky to catch up with Kirsten Holmstedt recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kirsten, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
I actually came up with the name of my company before I even thought about starting a business! The name “Treasure in the Detail” was developed from the nickname “Treasure Bucket,” a name my dad coined for me when I was born. He still calls me Treasure Bucket to this day and has named my daughter, Treasure Bucket #2! What is even more special to me is my dad joined my company a few years ago and has been instrumental is making it more efficient in so many positive ways.
I have also always been a very detailed oriented individual and see the beauty in the details. While the name is not a typical one for an interior design business, I love how it is different and strikes up a fruitful conversation when explaining it to new people we meet!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Kirsten Holmstedt is the Founder and Creative Director of Treasure in the Detail. Kirsten holds a Masters in Business from Arizona State University and possesses an abundance of knowledge and experience in Project Management, Residential Design & Styling, and Professional Organizing. Kirsten’s collective experiences have equipped her to excel at time management, problem solving, and attaining exceeding results. She has been continuously credited for contributing precision and laser focus with an ability to take something complex and lacking strategy and transforming it into a structured, beautiful masterpiece!
Kirsten’s company has grown into a full-service design firm and has garnered attention in the media world from HGTV, Phoenix Home & Garden, and Business of Home, just to name a few. In the past few years, the company has launched an online shop called Homes to Treasure, a curated home decor collection of the Treasure in the Detail aesthetic. The firm also recently opened an interior design studio + home decor shop in Gilbert, Arizona
Treasure in the Detail is a modern interior design studio rooted in providing busy families and professionals with beautiful, livable spaces. Creating and implementing a design can be both a lengthy and stressful process. At Treasure in the Detail, making a home feel relaxed, well thought out and welcoming is their top priority while working diligently to ensure the process is, too.
They are a team of experienced designers and project managers who are committed to executing design plans seamlessly and effectively. Whatever the scope of your project, they follow their careful processes to ensure professionalism every single time.
Any advice for managing a team?
This is a tough one and I definitely don’t have all the answers. I think some of the things that have worked well for me and my business is first, seeking to understand our different employees’ love languages and learning how to manage and reward them according to how they desire to feel valued. Everyone is different and this may mean different things for different people. Secondly, I am also a firm believer in publicly recognizing the efforts of our team and individual talents and performances. As an example, it should come across very clear on our Instagram that Treasure in the Detail is a design team. I highlight my employees and credit our Lead Designers on a project when applicable and make sure they are recognized or tagged accordingly. Although it is my business, our team is what truly makes the magic happen and I am so grateful for talent and dedication that makes Treasure in the Detail tick every day. I also feel it is important to recognize and reward with bonuses or whatever form of incentives you can afford when possible based on individual and company performance. Another thing we also try to do in our weekly team meetings is run through “recognitions” or “thank yous” to appreciate the efforts put forth each week. Whether big or small, appreciation and recognition of the hard work is key.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
Although I had always known I had a creative side to me that complimented my analytical, organized nature, I took the conventional path of pursuing my education in Business and obtained my MBA while working full-time in Corporate America for several years.
While enjoying a two-month sabbatical that my corporate job awarded, I got absolutely lost in the immense joy of decorating a new home my husband and I purchased together. A passion I always had come to light and with some amazing help of our dear lawyer friend arose the formation of Treasure in the Detail. I left my corporate job 8 months later and have never looked back. I am so grateful for my business background and the experiences as it laid the foundation with respect to knowledge around creating and implementing processes, budgets, preparing project proposals, conducting accounting activities, data analysis, and so many other critical skills needed to successfully run a business.
Treasure in the Detail started off small with me running it solo for the first few years. I remember when my first assistant approached me about joining the team and I was very nervous to bring anyone on. I think that was one of the best decisions for my business because it set the foundation for establishing a team to infuse the necessary skills needed to improve our business and processes and ultimately scale the business. We are now a team of 7, we are servicing over 15 large scale projects at any given time and run a studio + retail shop in beautiful Gilbert, Arizona.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.treasureinthedetail.com
- Instagram: @treasureinthedetail
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treasureinthedetail
- Other: Homes to Treasure Shop: https://homestotreasureshop.com/ Homes to Treasure Instagram: @homestotreasure
Image Credits
Photography: Stephanie Studer of LifeCreated Treasure in the Detail Interior Design Team: Shelbie Plautz Jamie Van Noord Lissa Steele Lauren Feenstra