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| ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: Kimberly Schlegel Whitman (pictured right) has partnered with developers Travis Blalock and Jerry W. Mooty to build houses such as this Bluffview beauty. The residences are as suitable for family as they are cocktail parties. | |
Socialite, lifestyle expert, and author Kimberly Schlegel Whitman is now in the home development biz. And she’s added her own sense of style to the job. KSW Homes launched a year ago and has entertaining—dare I say social climbing—built into the DNA of each floor plan. Prices start at $830,000 and top out at $2.5 million. For those of us who have followed 31-year-old Whitman’s path from single girl about town to married woman (the wedding was one of Dallas’ largest and most lavish) to recent mommyhood, we wondered how she managed to squeeze it all in. Easy: Like most women who want it all, she never stops working.
Whitman confesses to embracing elements of the 1950s domestic lifestyle, the grace and beauty that was injected into everyday life such as garnishing a plate of macaroni and cheese even when casually served to a child. This is the gracious living she’s applied to all of KSW Homes’ designs, helping young wives impress their husbands’ management entourage with more than just an attractive and well-kept house. (Remember, we’re talking about an anachronistic lifestyle when women stayed at home and made things pretty and the men went off to work. Never mind that Whitman herself does not fit this model.) It was the era that launched the cocktail party. There was an emphasis, an importance, placed on entertaining at home.
“I think there is a way to apply that mentality to the way we live today,” Whitman says.
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| HOME SWEET HOME: KSW Homes’ customers are looking for a house that can comfortably hold 50 of their closest friends. The newly constructed 8310 Midway Rd., with its open kitchen and vast backyard, makes meeting that need a snap. photos courtesy of Bill Griffin. | |
In KSW homes, hostesses can hold dinner and cocktail parties more efficiently thanks to the flow of Whitman’s carefully planned rooms. She has thought out, for example, a triangular traffic pattern from the front door to the kitchen with exterior spillover because each home is built on a generous lot. There is a tasteful division between family and public space so, in Kim’s analysis, the main part of the house is always ready if the doorbell rings and you need to entertain on the spur of the moment. Kitchens are outfitted with high-grade gourmet appliances, all achieved in houses with relatively conservative square footage (3,900 to 6,700 square feet). Bonus: Each KSW buyer is given a collection of Whitman’s books loaded with entertaining stories, recipes, and tips, and a welcome kit with beauty products and gift certificates.
Could there be a better publicity magnet? Whitman, a marketing wiz herself, was approached by developers Travis Blalock and Jerry W. Mooty, who had been seeking a well-respected woman to complete their team. Not only did Whitman offer mega name recognition, she also brought a tasteful feminine perspective.
“Builders are known as “Bubba the builder,” Blalock says. “At the end of the day we thought the community could really identify with her name on the sign.”
“It would have taken thousands of marketing dollars to get to this level,” he says. “With Kim’s name, we have instant exposure.”
KSW buyers aren’t interested in McMansions for the junior set. They want contemporary Tuscany, Italian barn, or California Mission styles with lots of glass and wooded lots. To date, Whitman has built 13 houses, all planted on topographically interesting, wooded lots scattered from Midway Hollow to Bluffview and Lakewood. Each home is custom designed for the lot. Whitman knows her market, as if building products were in her genes.
KSW’s market of twenty- and thirtysomethings were potty trained on branding, so Whitman has well-known Dallas architects’ names stamped on the blueprints. Will Snyder of Boerder-Snyder Architects is drawing the homes on Swananoah Road in Bluffview; David Stocker of Stocker, Hoesterey, Montenegro Architects drafted previous plans. The point is to give KSW a cachet geared for a certain demographic of career-obsessed couples or the “mailbox-moneyed” whose trust fund checks arrive each month along with the mortgage bill. Her clients are upper income, starting a family, and want to live inside the loop. They are socially conscious, giving back to the community through fundraising and charitable causes. They are well educated and energy conscious, preferring a Prius to a Hummer, like Whitman herself, who drives a hybrid Lexus. So the homes are energy efficient and whenever possible utilize recycled materials. KSW’s goal is to recycle at least 30 percent of the older homes they tear down, and the company often uses recycled products for playhouses and greenhouses.
As much as they embrace green, this crowd has a number of social considerations, as well. Can I throw a cocktail party for 50? Will the refrigerator be wide enough to hold the caterer’s trays, and if there’s no warming drawer, will I be able to add one easily enough?
In other words, these are Whitman’s peers, so her hands-on approach is important. Between meetings, she jots notes in an organizer in the 12-by-14-foot “mistress” closet of 4327 Bluffview Blvd. It’s under construction and priced at $1,550,000. “I think we need a desk in here,” says Whitman, measuring the distance between shelves: perfect fit. “We’ll need plenty of outlets for the computer, hair appliances, all that,” she adds.
Not only does Whitman supply expertise to builders, she’s got some advice for buyers, too. She offers KSW clients her personal formula for getting settled in a home quickly: Get rid of all the boxes as soon as they are unpacked. Do not have a room where you keep unpacked boxes for a future date. Plan a dinner party one month after moving in to motivate yourself to get everything unpacked, pictures hung, pillows out. And don’t forget the moving announcements. Whitman has you covered in that regard. After closing, she designs and prints personalized stationery for each KSW buyer.
Welcome home, budding socialites.
