Lauren Ferrall
Kylie Broton walked into the house with the ambitious gait of a Fortune 500 CEO.
She gazed around the room and studied the environment and its composition with the eye of an interior designer. Her purpose? To bring the oftentimes unattainable quest for high design to those whose pocketbooks just got a little tighter.
But the 27-year-old didn’t study interior design. Like many who attended Purdue, a university known for its great engineering school, she studied electrical engineering and landed a solid-paying job in what she would describe as a man’s world at the largest defense contractor company in the U.S.
Then, the current pandemic sent her home for several months where she had time to really think about her future dreams. So, she posted on a community Facebook group that she would be willing to design homes for free and create a “design board” for prospective clients as long as she can use it to build her portfolio.
People jumped.
Lauren Ferrall
The timing could not be more perfect. Being stuck at home has people cleaning, nesting, and buying puppies — making their home a place where they want to be all of the time. And with less cash on most people’s hands these days, Broton has clever ways to cut costs to a minimum.
“I work with your existing furniture to eliminate costs. I will find you the best deals,” she said during one consultation. “I’m using my engineering brain to optimize space [and cost] in interior design.”
Thus, Kylie’s side hustle.
Lauren Ferrall
One of her first clients has worked with some of the best designers in Fort Worth, but Kylie caught her attention because it was affordable. Once she met her and heard her ideas, Courtney Holt was a new fan.
“One of the things that sets Kylie apart from the rest of the many talented designers in Fort Worth is that she immediately ‘got’ my style and what I wanted in a way that I didn’t even understand. The design boards that she sent me were exactly what I was looking for, but yet pieces I would have never selected or put together on my own,” Holt says.
Holt’s Monticello home was featured on HGTV in 2019 when she worked with a designer on several rooms upstairs. With two elementary school-aged children and a few months of homeschooling, she had rooms downstairs that needed amends.
Broton asked a few questions and looked around the house. She took pictures of the rooms and furniture. Then her fingers started to tap her phone faster than a chicken could eat corn. She was already in design mode.
Using what she already had — rearranging some things and getting rid of some furniture to declutter — while adding a few affordable items like a discounted rug here and a 60%-off chandelier there, within hours she had a cost-effective digital design board ready.
She nailed it on the first try, Holt said.
Lauren Ferrall
“She chose vintage wallpapers woven with my favorite colors, glamorous gold hardware, and midcentury pieces to create a home full of things that I love. It seems like such a simple concept: to choose things you love and bring you joy. But when faced with literally thousands of options from one retailer, how do you decide? What if all of the things I love look like one hot mess when they all come together? But Kylie did it for me,” Holt said.
Traditional designers make a healthy commission from the oftentimes expensive furniture, fabric, art, hardware, and rugs they put into their design plan. In this current economic environment, some of those fees just aren’t feasible. So how does Broton make money?
She has a formula some millennial entrepreneurs capitalize on that includes a tool social media influencers use called rewardStyle affiliate links.
“RewardStyle influencers have exclusive access to an innovative ecosystem of monetization tools, a global network of 5,000 retail partners, and tailored growth services — all designed to power the monetization of your content,” the company’s website reads.
She will either post a link to her social media site for a product, or she will simply send the link to her client with their design board. When they click on it, it will take them to the site, but the web address now has a “rstyle” in front of the destination site’s web address. She gets the commission once the client purchases the product.
Lauren Ferrall
She also participates in other trade programs with distributors and suppliers. When she uses their products, she gets a discount at wholesale. Broton said every company’s trade program is a little different.
As her business grows, the companies or vendors she collaborates with grow - a form of content marketing.
She plans to make the design process more efficient by connecting with clients through her social media platforms and creating virtual pandemic-friendly appointments using video conferencing. This allows her to work with more people using less time. Prices would go up when she works with clients face to face in Fort Worth on big ongoing projects, who may want a little more than inspiration.
Broton’s quest started when she bought a condo during the 2018 holiday season. Her boyfriend challenged her to find the lowest price per square foot in Fort Worth. She was up for it.
The previous owner smoked and had lots of cats. But Broton had made it “livable” by February 2019. She foraged into all things design for a year. When all was finished, she loved her new home. She also learned where to cut costs. And when the world hit pause, Broton was ready to design for others.
She’s resourceful, and with her engineer mind and love for interior design, she gave her all into making her place a home she would want to work from and live in during a pandemic. Then she thought, why can’t I bring this love to other people? So she did.
“She has the mind of an engineer with the eye of a high-end designer. She might also be a little psychic, because I’m still sitting here wondering how in the world she does it,” Holt said.
Broton and Holt will be working from home indefinitely, along with many more all over the world. She may have just found her niche doing quality design for people’s quarantine quarters.
“Success is when opportunity meets preparedness,” Broton said, a motto borrowed from a favorite uncle.
