00:00Hi, I'm Kim White. This is Refinery29 Sweet Digs. Come on in.
00:08I'm a makeup artist who fell into doing interior design during the pandemic.
00:13Once this apartment became available, I jumped in, got my hands dirty, and made it a home.
00:20As the years tick, I take project on after project.
00:23It feels like me, and I love being in Brooklyn.
00:26So this is my kitchen, and I actually cook often.
00:32So I had the kitchen redone when I moved in.
00:36The cabinets were in disarray, so I'm a huge fan of Copacabana stone.
00:42I created a wallpaper to kind of just mimic the texture and the movement of that stone,
00:47and instead of putting it on the countertops, I decided to put it on the cabinets,
00:52and it really made the white cabinets turn into something.
00:57It made a moment of this kitchen.
00:59With Best Eye being such a historically Black neighborhood, I live in a Black-owned building.
01:07I can't help but have community in this space.
01:10My neighbors drop by.
01:12We all get together and share plants and art.
01:17I got this little burst of sunshine from walmart.com.
01:20They have a new line from Timmy Coker.
01:22I'm going to put all of my bright-colored plants in it and show them off.
01:32So this is my home office.
01:35It's also a spare bedroom.
01:37It's also the workout room.
01:38It's the everything room.
01:40This room is north-facing, so there's no light here.
01:44So instead of trying to fight that, I went with it and painted the walls black
01:49and brought in all of these, like, sultry additions to it.
01:54So it became like a, I don't know, kind of a sexy home office.
01:59When I moved into this building, I had just experienced a breakup.
02:02So I moved into a much smaller space.
02:06I created a space for myself that was a safe haven.
02:10A friend of mine suggested that I share it.
02:13That apartment went viral, and it opened my life up to lean into some of my other talents,
02:20and that would be interior design.
02:22It's crazy that that tiny little apartment changed the trajectory of my life.
02:28More recently, I took on another apartment in this building right above this one.
02:34It's a place to be able to tinker, to get messy.
02:37It gives me an opportunity to have a home base for my interior design business.
02:43And I'm excited. I'm pressing forward.
02:49I love doing trampoline workouts, but they're so ugly.
02:54So this is a trampoline disguised as an ottoman.
03:00I figured out a way to wrap the trampoline itself.
03:04Now I'm hoping to get it into production.
03:08Who even knew that a trampoline could look so fabulous?
03:17Oh!
03:18Oh my God!
03:20So now we're in my living room.
03:22This is the most challenging room that I was telling you about,
03:25with all of the openings everywhere and difficult to design.
03:30I love that my home is representative of who I am.
03:35So I absolutely have Black brands and Black art because it's me.
03:42It's legacy. It's heritage.
03:45I am one of those people who wants every room to have at least one piece of vintage.
03:51Like, I often start there.
03:53My grandma's lamp is the piece in here that means the absolute most to me.
03:57My grandma was very special to me.
03:59She is the person that I attribute all of my style from.
04:05And this lamp was in her home when I was growing up.
04:11So right now we're in my lounge.
04:12This is where friends and I gather for dinner, have drinks.
04:16Sometimes we even play jigsaw puzzles and game night.
04:20This lamp was a Facebook marketplace find.
04:25It's one of those vintage deals that you get and you're like snagging it.
04:28This was a major find for me.
04:30It really set the tone for this whole lounge area.
04:36So now let me show you my studio.
04:38So this is the space where everything is launching.
04:44This space for me is all about having the freedom to create.
04:48I am building. I am painting.
04:51I am creating a brand new wallpaper line.
04:54I have been straddling both makeup and interior design for the last five years.
04:59And I find them both to be a great way to express myself.
05:05I wanted this space to feel very different from my home.
05:09I wanted color and pattern.
05:12And I found this rug.
05:14Timmy Coker designed it for Walmart.com.
05:17And it brings so much energy to the space.
05:20And I love the movement that it adds also.
05:24It's just kind of like this winding graphic pattern.
05:27It's just, it's gorgeous.
05:30So I'm starting a new business.
05:32My grandmother was a huge part of my life.
05:35And I credit her with every ounce of style that I might have.
05:39She lives on a street called Showplace Drive.
05:42And that is the name of my new company.
05:45My first drops will be the wallpaper that you saw in my kitchen.
05:50That Copacabana print.
05:52And since it is the first, I'm calling it Genesis.
05:54This is the shape of my grandmother's lamp.
05:58I really love the way that grass cloth is.
06:00So when you look really closely, you'll see little bitty lamps.
06:05When people leave my home, I hope that they feel like they know me more.
06:10I hope that they can see who I am in the details.
06:13I hope that even the flaws, that they can appreciate them just like me as a person.
06:21Well, you've officially seen it all.
06:23Thank you for coming to my sweet digs.
06:25It was a pleasure having you.
06:27Bye.
06:34Bye.
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