A Year of Growth

I feel like I was typing this post just a few months ago, and yet another year has rolled by. I started this tradition a few years back, and I always enjoy reflecting back on how we have grown and what we are proud of from the past year.

I’m the type of person who is always looking forward, and sometimes I need a reminder to reflect back and appreciate where we have come from. This post is the perfect opportunity to be grateful for all the wonderful work we have done, and the people who have helped us do it.

To see our previous years, click here: 2016 | 2014 | 2013

{Somehow 2015 didn’t happen according to our blog, can you tell I had a baby that year? 😉 }

At some point I will have to stop growing the number with the year, or I will be writing one loooong blog post! I’ll try and keep this short and sweet, but it really has been a wonderful year and I’m so happy to share it with all of you!

17 Accomplishments

And now, our 17 accomplishments- in no particular order 🙂

1. 1. Hammel House: My father and I decided this year to buy a piece of property in his hometown and start a development company! We wanted to provide beautiful new homes at an affordable price for the community. It’s pretty typical to only have 1 or 2 houses on the market at one time in the area. It’s important for housing to be available for the community to grow, and that’s just what we are doing!

   2. Scottsdale: We wrapped up our Scottsdale house project this year! We brought in the fabulous Alyssa Rosenheck to photograph the home and we are sitting on pins and needles waiting for the pictures to come back! For now, here are a few before pictures… (not bad bones to start with right?)
   3. Baltimore: We also wrapped up our Baltimore project this year. We are so lucky to have such amazing clients who trust us to push their design to a beautiful level. To shoot the home, we worked with the fabulous Jennifer Hughes Photography and just got the pictures back! We haven’t shared them yet, but here is a sneak peek 😉
   4. Style Spotter: On my bucket list as a designer was to be a Style Spotter for High Point Market. Ever since the first time I went to market I always loved following the Style Spotters. I love to see what inspires them and what direction they are taking their designs in the upcoming year. This year, I received an email this summer asking if I would be a Style Spotter for the upcoming 2018 markets. To say I was shocked is an understatement. It was such an honor to be asked to join this fabulous group and I can’t wait to get started!
   5. We work with a lot of local builders here in the Minnesota area. Most of our projects with them are custom, but a few of them are what we call spec homes, where we build to a spec and then once it’s completed the builder sells it. I always think building without a client is actually harder for us then when there is a client involved. I love getting a design direction for a home and building to a clients taste. When we work on a spec home, we kind of have to create a fictitious client in our minds and build to that style. I’m happy to say every spec home we worked on this year sold right away! Keeps our builders happy and tells us we must be doing something right 😉
   6. Our team kept on growing. We are actually up to 10 employees now, and in another week we will be at 11! We need to get a new team picture, but here is most of our lovely team BHI!
   7. Speaking of our fabulous team… I checked off another bucket list item this year. I’ve always wanted to do a BIG Holiday Party for my team. This year, after all their hard work, I decided it was time. I surprised the team with a weekend trip to New York City! It was such a beautiful, holiday filled weekend that we will never forget! {To see the entire trip, check out our blog post here}
   8. We started a new hashtag this year! #BHIPets has been quite popular on Instagram. Our clients love their pets like their own children, and we love featuring them in our pictures! We also added to the #BHIPets family with our own puppy, Hunter!

   9.  One of our goals for 2017 was to really focus on the content we are sharing here on our blog. I want this to really become a place where people can be inspired by design, fashion, family and entertaining. We were able to do some amazing collaborations with brands we really believe in, including Serena & Lily, Jule, Great Lakes Northern Outfitters, Joule, and Meiomi Wine to name a few.
   10.  Another one of our goals for 2017 was to really become relevant on Instagram. I don’t do Instagram for a popularity contest. But I do see how much we can share and help our followers learn about our world of design through the social platform. I call it our working portfolio. Where else can you go on a daily basis to see beautiful inspiration pictures of such talented people? We went from inspiring under 5,000 people to over 32,000 people in 2017. We couldn’t be more honored to have so many people share our journey with us! If you aren’t following along, we would love you to join us! Click here to see our feed…
   11.  Our work was featured in so many inspiring places this year, including Inspired By This, Style Me Pretty Living, ReStyleSource and Home Bunch!
   12. I had the honor of being asked to speak at 2 different Design Conferences this year. The Interior Design Summit in Denver Colorado was a weekend full of growth, collaboration and soul searching. I shared my story of how Instagram has grown our business and the steps we took to make our feed the best we could. In High Point, North Carolina I sat on a panel sharing our areas of brilliance on growing our businesses by working smarter not harder. It’s a humbling experience to be asked to speak at events. You stand in front of a few hundred people and just hope you can share something that will help make a difference in their business.
   13. When I spoke in High Point, I brought my entire design team with me for 4 days of inspiration. High Point Market is no joke. It’s a lot of fun but it’s also a lot of work! We walked more than we probably do all year in a few short days 🙂 It was great as a team to soak in all the new furniture, lighting, and accessories coming out and really understand what we consider on brand with BHI.
   14. This fall we had not 1 but 2 Dream Homes on the Twin Cities Parade of Homes. It was a crazy busy month for us but the homes were beautiful and SO different. I love being able to share so much style in 2 different homes!
   15. Remember how I said growing our Instagram account was so important to us? Because of Instagram, we are traveling more than ever across the country to help new clients build beautiful new homes. Our latest projects are in Oklahoma City and Miami! I wonder where else we will go this year?
   16. I have to give a shout out to my amazing hubby for the support this year. Let’s see if I can remember everywhere I went?: Scottsdale, Baltimore, LA, North Carolina, Nashville, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Jackson Hole, Amelia Island, New York City, Cleveland, Madison, Chicago, Denver, Naples, Pennsylvania… I think that was everything in 2017? Needless to say I couldn’t have done it with out his loving support.
   17. I don’t want to give away too much as we are still in the development phase but we are working hard on a new business idea that will allow us to touch more people’s lives across the country with our style and functionality that we put into our designs. This is a BIG step for us and I couldn’t be more nervous and excited! Our goal is to launch in 2018, and there is a lot of hard work to come to do it right, but it feels like this is our big next step- and I know myself well enough to know to follow my gut. We have a big trip to India planned in February to work on the business, so make sure to follow along on Instagram for more sneak peeks on what we are working on!

Needless to say 2017 was a killer year and will definitely be hard to top, but I have a feeling 2018 might just do it! We so appreciate all the love and support we have received from all of you and hope we can help make a small difference in your life with this blog, thank you for following along! Here’s to a joyful and prosperous 2018!