We are so honored to be featured in the Hidden Gems segment of the VoyageKC Magazine. The publication highlights entrepreneurs and their small businesses in Kansas City. We get a glimpse into how each owner began their journey and what their company is all about. It was so special to have our story shared on the history of how Collected Living Design began, progress we have made, and our hopes for the future.
Hidden Gem: Collected Living Design Featured In VoyageKC Magazine
Here’s a little sneak peak of the interview:
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My business partner, Abby Humphreys, and I both owned our own interior design businesses when we met on Instagram through a mutual friend. We met for drinks at Piropos and discovered we had so much in common. From learning we were both from small towns in Southwest Kansas only an hour apart, to funny family similarities (our dads are both named Randy, Shandy has the same birthday as Abby’s sister Jandy) and even a shared love of the French culture, an amazing friendship started that night. We also learned we lived just one exit apart!
But our business was born out of our shared love of vintage rugs. We began collecting a few and setting them aside for client projects, but one thing led to another and it wasn’t long until we had a collection of 60 rugs. Even we knew that was excessive, so we reached out to Bella Patina in the West Bottoms about becoming vendors. We started out as “The Rug Ladies,” but from the beginning, we knew we wanted to create a full retail experience blending our very different aesthetics. The name Collected Living is born out of the idea that our homes are curated over time with pieces that speak to us and that layering in different styles of pieces feels more authentic to how we live. After about three months of working our retail business together, it became clear that we should merge our interior design businesses as well and become 50/50 partners. It’s been amazing to see how our business has exploded since we made that decision. Fast forward two years and one month to today, we just moved into our design studio and we have a staff of three. We specialize in creating a collected, curated, #reallifebeautiful home for families all over the Kansas City area.
You can find the full article on the VoyageKC website!
