Miken Builders now offers interior design to complement its building chops | Dollars & Sense

Clients of Miken Builders are now being offered another service — the talents of a newly hired senior interior designer who strives to be sure homes reflect owners’ individuality.

“I don’t like to just cut and paste,” Brittney Keidel Mears said, a few days after being hired by the Millville business.

Some customers, she said, are clutching a photograph when they meet with her.

“They say, ‘I love this house. I want this exact house,’ and I say, ‘We can do a similar house — but let’s do it your own way. You want creativity in your house, so let’s create it in your own space,’” she said, adding that she consults with clients on both exterior and interior designs.

It’s common for homeowners at the beach to select a nautical décor.

“I ask them, ‘Are you planning to retire here?’ Most people are, so I tell them, ‘When this becomes your full-time residence, it won’t be your beach house. It can embody the ocean, and be light and airy and a serene place without a beach décor. So, let’s make it a place you feel relaxed. Regardless of if it’s your vacation home now, you don’t want to have to invest all this money later,” Mears said.

Mears, a native of Salisbury, Md, initially studied education at High Point University in North Carolina.

“I grew fond of the design industry, so I wanted to get into interior design. I graduated with a degree in liberal arts, then I started my design career. I started as a furniture consultant, and I started working for a company in Bethany Beach, then in Fenwick Island, and I learned on the job,” she said.

“I taught myself a lot of the computer programs and anything I could use to advance my career. I wanted to take my career further, so I had to educate myself and research things I didn’t know how to do,” said Mears, who, with her husband, Justin Mears, has a 5-year-old son, Weston, and 1-year-old daughter, Sutton.

Among trends she is seeing in new homes is a move away from all white, as had been the trend.

“We are seeing a lot more color. For a while, we saw all white kitchens. Now there is more colors in cabinetry, instead of plain white cabinets. We are seeing more patterns in wallpaper, textured walls, plaster. What’s popular for walls now is a creamy white, not a stark white, and we are giving each room its own color. There is a trend called ‘color drenching,’ meaning even the ceiling is painted the same color. The ceiling is not white, but it’s the same color as the walls,” she said, adding that she chose soft sage as the color for her daughter’s bedroom. Her son wanted navy blue.

“Burgundy, blues are popular. We are at the beach, and people also like light colors. They love their blues at the beach, but I think we’ll see a change in cabinetry down here,” she said.

Hiring an in-house interior designer aligns with a trend, said Sean Cummings, son of founder Mike Cummings and a partner in the business.

“If you look at our major competitors, people are shifting toward interior designers, and they are looking that. We build a lot of high-end homes, and we want to offer that personal touch,” he said, adding that Mears will design for customers and collaborate with clients “to take our product to the next level.”

“We also work with other interior designers. They bring a really nice aspect to the job. That can make it a little more challenging, but anything easy isn’t that impressive. Now that we have a full-time designer, we can do all the renderings, concept drawings. She can design cabinets and aesthetics,” he said.

Miken will continue to outsource designers — “because we work with some great designers” — but having one on staff is beneficial, he said, adding that Mears will develop concepts for home features including shelving, custom woodwork and cabinetry.

“She will be taking over using the Google SketchUp platform that gives clients a concept of what it will look like in a 3D concept. We kind of feel out their tastes at the beginning of a job, as well as their budget. That is just as important. She goes out and finds all of the materials it’s going to take to build your house. She helps collaborate with clients and puts all those pieces together while staying in the budget, which can be hard to do,” Cummings said.

“She will put all the pieces together, and the result will be a fantastic product.”