A Unique Design Malden Shop Owner offers new service By Dan Baer Friday August 25, 2006

kilebode — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:07:41 +0000

(NOTE FROM KELLY), this article was published in the Malden Observer in 2006. Since then many changes have taken place. It shows how individual journeys can dramatically change if we allow them to.

Kelly and the Angel Gift Shoppe closed and Staged Design Solutions grew and eventually was renamed to my name . I have been blessed and with complete gratitude have consistently adjusted to the needs of my clients and have converted to a Life Coach decluttering business. (Thank you to all of our past, current and future clients for your continued patronage).

A Unique Design Malden Shop Owner offers new service By Dan Baer Friday August 25, 2006

Kelly Ilebode has no regrets in life. Ask her about her story, and that is the first thing that the Malden resident and mother of four will say.

She has experienced the struggle of moving to multiple foster homes as a young girl in Maine, the pain of losing a child as a young mother in Malden, and now the satisfaction of watching a business that she started from the ground up, using skills she learned in those many foster homes, blossom into a successful side project that is taking off in Malden and beyond.

The proprietor of the Kelly and the Angel Gift Shoppe on Irving Street has started a new home design business called Staged Design Solutions, a service offered to anyone who wants to redesign the interior of their home, either to sell the property or just de-clutter the living space that they occupy.

"I do not help decorate the rooms with new items, I simply give recommendations on what to do with the things that people already have," she said. "Essentially, you are shopping within your own home. A lot of people who think that they need to redesign everything just need to change the look. That is what I do. I come in and recommend ways to improve the look of the room based on the things that are already in there."

Ilebode says that most of her business comes from potential sellers and people who want to thin out the amount of things in their houses.

"When someone is selling their house I try and make sure that they have as much packed away as they can get," she said "People have to remember that when they are moving they are going to be packing anyway. So when someone is coming to look at the house I try and make sure that most of the family pictures are down, we thin out and move the furniture and work on the layout of the room. It is designed to make the room look appealing to someone who is thinking about purchasing the house."

She says that much of the pleasure she takes from her new business is watching people fall in love with their own things again, and helping people realize that they don't need to pay absurd amounts of money to hire an interior decorator to redesign the entire house.

"I am here to help average, everyday people. What I do can create the same effect as spending a few thousand dollars for an interior designer for a few hundred dollars," she said. "I think there is a problem in this society with people always wanting what others have, or something better. So they go out and they spend all of this money when they don't need to. My job is to help them enhance what they already have. I come in and I try to show them ways to improve the rooms with their own things. We sit down and decide about furniture placement and organization. We pack things away to make more room. It is really a joy to stand and watch as people fall in love with their old things all over again."

Staged Design Solutions is the offspring of the Kelly and the Angel Gift Shoppe, which Ilebode is quick to point out, isn't really a gift shop.

"It is the only name that I could come up with for it," she said. "It isn't really gifts, it is things for the home, pillows, jewelry, antiques, more eclectic things really."

Ilebode began making her own pillows while working on a farm in Maine, one of the four foster homes that she was a part of as a child. She worked with fabric and found that she enjoyed creating things for her doll houses, beyond the basic dresses and curtains.

"Growing up in that environment in the mountains of Maine, I was always working on learning something new, whether it be making candles, knitting or crocheting, I was always doing something." she said. "At the time I thought of it as work, but as I got older I realized that I really loved fabric. I always had big pieces of fabric that I loved using, so when I became old enough I began designing and selling pillows, and eventually, it just took off."

Just over 18 months ago she opened the store, where she stitches her own pillows on site, rather than working from out of the house. Noting the changing needs of her clientele, she recently began to help people de-clutter and redesign their homes, spawning this new project, which she admits is taking up quite a bit more of her time.

"I have taken some time off from the gift shop, and I have a lot of appointments lining up for Staged Design Solutions," she said. "I have some people that are helping me out with the store, and I'll just have to get used to balancing everything out."

Ilebode moved to Malden about 10 years ago, a city that she chose due to its diverse and accepting culture.

"We settled on Malden because of my husband," she said. "I am married to a man who is both British and black, and Malden is just such an accepting, diverse community that we feel very comfortable here. Some of the other areas we looked at just didn't feel comfortable, especially some of the nicer, higher class areas. In Malden everyone treats everyone else the same. I am not worried about sending my children to school or they way people look at us. It is an extremely diverse city that is very culturally accepting. I knew what we would be ok here as a family because of that."

The Ilebode family had foster children earlier in their relationship, and eventually four of their own, and have now established the family, and her two businesses as part of the fabric of the Malden community.

"I hope that eventually when my kids are older, I can go back to foster parenting and give back to the system that helped me," she said. "I have absolutely no regrets in life, and I am extremely happy and grateful for where myself and my family are in our lives right now."

No regrets. That is the theme of Ilebode's life, even when it comes to giving out a little free advise to someone looking to redesign their home.

"The biggest advice that I have is to pack away as much as you can. Just pack away the things that you don't need," she says. "Look at how other people would view the room and go from there. Always remember that the less furniture and the more open windows the larger the room will look."

Kelly is taking appointments for Staged Design Solutions and will be back from a short vacation at Kelly and the Angel in early September. For more information call (617) 872-8335

In The News

A Unique Design Malden Shop Owner offers new service By Dan Baer Friday August 25, 2006