The last time I spoke with Kim Myles, she was still reeling from her 2007 win on season two of ?HGTV Design Star.?
The designer?s career has been on overdrive in the five years since that televised coup, and recently included a gig for ApartmentGuide.com helping renters solve their small-space dilemmas and promoting that site?s ?Your Pick Your Place? sweepstakes.
Speaking earlier this week from Los Angeles, where she relocated from New York less than a month after wrapping up ?HGTV Design Star,? Myles, who?s also a licensed hair stylist, revealed one thing that hasn?t: her infectious enthusiasm for creating comfortable, fun and affordable spaces.
Q: How has life evolved since your win on ?HGTV Design Star??
A: I think I know what it?s like to be shot out of a cannon!
It started with an instantaneous cross-country move, and then becoming a public person overnight.
Q: Do you get spotted or approached on the street?
A: I do, all the time. It speaks to just how giant the HGTV fan base is. Everybody loves it and is obsessed with it.
?It?s been about learning what works on television, and developing a creative process that is compatible with television production. Because they are kind-of mutually exclusive. I had to figure out my recipe for delivering really stark befores and afters.
This is something that I can say at this point was hugely frightening and stressful.
Q: We?re talking today about small-space living. Tell me about the most challenging little place you?ve lived in, and your favorite solution there.
"Kim's message is that great d?cor and style can and should be driven by imagination, creativity and self-expression." -- CuttingEdgeStencils.com
A: My most challenging space happens to be the one that I spent the most time in. For 12 of my 14 years as a New Yorker, I lived in a fourth-floor walk-up. It did have a lot of square footage for New York ? 700 square feet. But it had no storage. The location was great, in Astoria, Queens, right off of the N Line. The light was good but the views were not great. I was looking at the requisite brick wall.
?Apartment dwelling and renting really gets short-shifted. We tend to focus on homeowners and large spaces. But there are millions of people who rent and still want to live beautifully.
With ApartmentGuide.com, I really felt I could offer their consumer that perspective. My parents rented for my entire life. They never owned a home and we moved a lot. My first opportunity to buy a home was here in L.A. I kept it for three years and then I sold it because I am not a homeowner. I really felt tied down and locked in.
Q: So what was your favorite small-space solution in your little Queens apartment?
A: I felt really good about figuring out how to hide storage in plain sight. My favorite trick, and I employed in almost every room, is that I would cheat out a whole wall of storage (by putting it) behind floor-to-ceiling curtains that also went wall-to-wall.
What you do is, measure out a foot of depth and then floor-to-ceiling curtains, which provide luxury, softness and color. Then hang shelves behind those curtains.
Another trick that I love, and honestly it?s not sexy but I feel like it?s something that I run into over and over again: Color. I do everything in color. It?s a way to amplify your mood and uplift your spirit.
But one thing you see again and again with rentals is you don?t have any say. So here?s this sea of texture and color that maybe you don?t love. Well, put a rug down on the floor or carpet, just to get color and pattern into the space. They are available at every price-point and instantaneously change the space.
The last thing I want to talk about is the ?Your Pick Your Place? sweepstakes. I want to make sure everyone knows that August 14th is entry deadline. This is cash to do what you want with!
Apartment Guide ? Kim Myles from MagicBullet Media, Inc. on Vimeo.
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