Kieffer Design Group
Perfect Match

Who doesn’t love and admire an aesthetically pleasing interior?

Judi Kieffer, a Boise-based interior design professional, has always been inspired by design through travel, nature, yoga, sustainability, and architecture and uses her years of experience and intuition to craft properties that are both functional and beautiful.

Kieffer Design Group (KDG) is a premier, nationally recognized, and awardwinning, industry-accredited interiors and procurement firm specializing in hospitality, restaurant, retail and multi-family projects, with offices in Boise, ID and Portland, OR. Since its inception, the woman-led design firm has been focusing on balancing clients’ needs with long-term strategies while surpassing expectations with its environmentally conscious design and procurement solutions.

Serving as a full-service interior design and procurement firm since 1990, KDG offers a boutique-like service to clients, with its teams working side-by-side to provide top-notch design and procurement expertise through every phase of a project. With over three decades of success in the market and a focus on the hospitality, restaurant, and multi-family spaces, team KDG is keenly attuned to what makes a successful procurement process. The firm is equipped with the in-depth experience needed to help clients navigate through each avenue of the process before, during, and after a thoughtful design.

“Our goal is to make a positive impact in clients’ lives and their projects by knowing their needs and delivering the best for them while taking ownership of the entire process,” says Kieffer, principal designer and president at KDG. “We don’t just work for our clients; we work with our clients as a team. When they succeed, we succeed.”

The Beauty of Blending Design and Procurement

KDG’s core competency lies in its ability to deliver design and procurement as an all-in-one service package, managing the aspects of the design and procurement processes, cultivating budgets, lead times, multiple vendors, and aesthetics collectively. As an extension of the client’s team, its design and procurement specialists work with them from day one, gaining a holistic view of their needs. This approach allows each client to receive specialized guidance in designs and selecting the right vendors early on. By adopting a collaborative approach to client engagement, KDG ensures its teams work with clients to create project specifications that align well with their requirements, exemplifying their commitment to customer success.
As the client’s trusted design and procurement partner, KDG manages behind-the-scenes problem-solving and anticipates solutions before needs arise. The company redesigns or reselects inventory in real-time from its in-office library studio or direct from vendor reps to help keep the procurement process moving. With an eye on budget, lead times, and quality products, the team at KDG also maintains complete control over design aesthetics.

When hired exclusively for procurement services only, the KDG team works in tandem with the client’s design team to ensure everyone’s expectations are met, and the designer’s vision is honored. With many outside procurement firms, they do not have designers on staff or a library of materials to select from, so they rely on their vendors to suggest options. As a creator of better experiences, KDG understands how important it is to bring design vision and procurement strategies together to deliver the best results for clients. So whether handing the design in-house or working with outside designers, the KDG team ensures that everyone has a clear picture of the vision, and they will prevent vendors from sending alternatives that are not a good fit for clients’ projects, making KDG unique in its offerings.

Additionally, the procurement team at KDG, comprising analysts, negotiators, project managers, efficiency experts, communicators, problem solvers, and circus trapeze artists, holds in-depth interior design expertise, making them ideal in the design paradigm. With all of these talents, they understand the entire process, and the importance of the design vision carried out with balanced budgets, quality products, and successful installations.

Fostering Relations Built on Transparency

“Communication is at the heart of our business operations,” says Chrystal Hellums-King, vice president of procurement and operations at KDG. “We regularly interact with clients, identify their requirements and deliver complete turnkey services and support needed to take projects forward.”

KDG believes every project is an invitation to embark on a fascinating journey and aims to narrate evocative stories - adventurous and full of soul - incorporating a unique mix of materials and influences that resonate with the project and its locale. It all begins with the KDG team, who conducts a kick-off meeting to understand the client’s needs. The team runs through a questionnaire and gathers extensive information about mindsets, objectives, and issues. The company then advances to the ‘concept’ phase, where it crafts a rough design based on wish lists, ideas, and mood boards. Clients are informed about the budget and timeline, and with the client’s approval, the process moves to the design phase.
Procurement soon follows, and the teams work together to ensure that the process is streamlined from the start, taking into account client lead time, budget, design vision, and quality specifications. Backorders are expedited as the design team is in tandem with procurement professionals, helping them reselect and make quick decisions. This eliminates bottlenecks due to poor communication or vendor delays
KDG also goes above and beyond the offerings of traditional procurement partners by assisting in the hiring of a receiving warehouse, coordination of delivery and installations, and finding vendors to manage their end-of-life FF&E. Clients also benefit from KDG’s maintenance and warranty manuals that equip their engineering and housekeeping staff with the product information and expertise to take care of the products.

In other words, Kieffer Design Group stays true to its highly collaborative team culture, understanding how all design is interconnected and how changing one thing may have a ripple effect on other aspects of the project.

With the unique combination of service excellence, thoroughness, design integrity, and industry best practices for vetting the best vendors, Kieffer Design Group is a go-to partner for clients needing design, procurement, or in most cases, both.

Excellence Put to The Test

Recently, KDG leveraged its expertise to help one of its most prestigious clients overcome a procurement challenge. The client was facing serious construction schedule issues related to a delayed custom lighting order, which prevented them from completing the project on schedule. KDG mitigated these challenges by collaborating with the existing vendor and procuring temporary in-stock lighting. With KDG’s timely and innovative intervention, the client was able to open and, a short time later, received the custom lighting. The vendor even covered the cost of the installation.
“We always ensure that each of our clients gets the best possible vendor and product for their projects,” says Kieffer.

Although rare, in the procurement world, things can happen that are uncontrollable, like a warehouse fire burning a client’s ordered product or a vendor closing shop and not releasing products. “Luckily, in 30 years, we have only experienced a couple of these unexpected hiccups, but we dove in and didn’t look back until we mitigated the issues, worked with E&O insurances, and secured optional product replacements,” says Kieffer. “Transparency and discussions with clients about issues or concerns are real and important,” she adds.
To that end, for years, KDG has been adopting a comprehensive approach that helps find and vet the best vendors for clients. KDG identifies top vendors, researches referred vendors, and embraces a thorough research approach to find the most reliable partners with high quality for the cost. This process develops a comprehensive picture of a vendor’s worthiness before working with them, from investigating reviews and interacting with key executives to testing samples and visiting factories. Often, the firm remains true to its longstanding vendors, who share the mission of delivering the best products to clients.

Kieffer Design Group believes that open communication and mutual trust are vital in maintaining long-term relationships with vendors and clients. This approach has helped the group foster a strong connection with a large pool of vendors and hold them accountable for their products in both quality and timelines. The team leverages this network to deliver commercial hotel-grade materials and FF&E that have longevity, high quality, and low maintenance while remaining aligned with the region’s distinctive design look.