Kera Jeffers is the creator behind Haute House Love, an interior styling, e-design and home consulting business based out of Terre Haute, Indiana.
When she gets a break from her 4 small kids, she enjoys furniture restoration, painting projects, and her new found love of woodworking. Kera takes great pride in creating attainable DIY content and inspiring people to have the confidence to do whatever project their heart desires.
Q&A with Kera Jeffers
What interests you most about taking on DIY projects?
I am an incredibly creative person by nature and I love the challenge of taking on new things. When it comes to design I’m always looking for ways to make things slightly different than anything I have seen before. DIY plays a huge role in that for me because it allows me to make things completely my own.
What creative areas do you prefer to focus on?
This has really changed for me over the years! I started off doing crafty things then moved to furniture restoration (which is still one of my favorite things to do), accent walls and now woodworking! I’m the type of person who gets bored easily and likes constant change so I’m always switching it up… but my heart definitely loves anything involving paint!
What do you consider to be your greatest business accomplishment thus far?
To be honest my greatest business accomplishment was having the courage to actually start this business! I was a stay at home mom to 4 kids under 7 and at the time my plate felt pretty full! Haute House Love came about in late 2018 after we spent 16+ months building our dream home. A home that I single handedly designed every square inch of! (My husband helped, of course, but he cared more about what was inside of the walls and let me have free rein of the pretty stuff.) When we moved in I started my HHL Instagram page as a way to document our home once we moved in. My husband saw the fire that design lit up in me and encouraged me to take on a few “clients” on a consultation/home styling basis. My business took off in early 2019 and with the help of my growing IG following I was able to add e-design to the mix as well. I continued to show the process of decorating our new home and slowly but surely the doors kept opening. By March 2019 I was filling up with design clients and I started marketing myself as a social media “influencer.” For the first time in a LOT of years I felt like I had something for me again. It reignited my spirit and I’m so grateful that I chose to take the leap of faith!
What has been your most difficult project that you’ve tackled?
I just completed my most difficult project VERY recently. As in, just a few days ago. This spring I decided to join in on the One Room Challenge and it has taken my brand new woodworking skills to a whole new level! I’m working on my formal living room for this challenge and I decided that instead of forking over $2000 for built in storage benches I would build my own! Up to this point I had only built VERY basic things like shelving and frames with mitered edges so I was in an entire new world making a furniture type piece with drawers! Luckily, my step-dad lives nearby and he’s MUCH more knowledgeable in a workshop than I am. He came over every afternoon for a week and helped coach me through the process. The built-ins are far from perfect but i’m so dang proud of them!
Do you have a brand partner that you consider to be your favorite?
I have been so fortunate to work with some incredible brands over the past year. More recently I’ve began partnerships with both Sherwin Williams and National Hardware and both have great people that I’ve enjoyed getting to know as well as products that I love! Im actually working with both brands for my room for ORC.
Which platform helps you to reach your audience the most, and how do you keep them engaged?
As of right now Instagram is my largest platform. I’ve worked really hard to obtain a loyal and engaged audience through stories, responding promptly to DM’s and comments and building genuine friendships with other influencers/bloggers. Ive recently started blogging and using Pinterest and I’m hopeful that these platforms can grow with as much success as I’ve seen on IG.
Based upon your personal experience, what’s one piece of advice that you’d give to blogger/influencers?
Don’t be afraid to take the a day off! When I first started with Instagram I felt like I needed to make an appearance every day to make the algorithm happy. What a realized over time is that it wasn’t making ME happy. I decided to set a personal boundary to not story/post on the weekends. I needed the time to shut my work off and be able to focus on projects that I didn’t HAVE to document. This may not be right for everyone but my point is… if you are feeling the nudge to take some time off just do it! Your mind will thank you for it!
What’s one fun fact about you that our readers would be surprised to know?
One of my other passions in life is fitness. I was a figure competitor in my early 20’s and I used to teach a weightlifting class at a local gym! If I wasn’t a DIY/Design influencer I would definitely have my hand in the fitness sector.
What do you like most about HAVEN Conference?
HAVEN is where the Influencer side of my business became real to me. I started Haute House Love solely as a design/interior styling business and was hoping to use IG as a platform to reach more clients. I learned about HAVEN shortly after I noticed my venture becoming more than just a small local business. HAVEN changed everything for me. It educated me, connected me and made me feel like I was capable of anything in this crazy social media world. In the past year I have met some of the BEST like minded friends. I’ve launched a website. I’ve started working with brands, I started blogging and utilizing Pinterest. I picked up a flipping power tool!
What do you want your audience to take away from your presentation at the Heart of HAVEN virtual conference?
My presentation at the Heart of HAVEN is about blogging side hustles. Im teaming up with some amazing ladies to talk about how you can own a small business that filters into blogging too. I hope to inspire others by sharing my story and personal tips and tricks for starting a home styling and e-design business from scratch.
Q and A with a HAVEN 2020 Speaker Series
(This section will be updated as more articles are published)
Amber Kemp-Gerstel
Heather Cooke
Carmen Smith
Jessica Litman
Corey Hudson
Wendy Zock
Racheal Jackson
Jessica Russell
Cara Newhart
Jess Crow
Tracy Pendergast
Brittany Norman
Jenn McMurray
KariAnne Wood
Karen Snyder
Yuni Min
Kate Smith
Erin Marshall
Erin Ruoff
Rachel Rosenthal
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