K2 Studio owner was raised on creative entrepreneurship
Photo by Colby Rabon
Kim Hubbard’s Asheville cred is irrefutable. She grew up in the neighborhoods Oakley and Shiloh, and her parents were nursery people who worked with local growers, selling plant plats at Dreamland Flea Market and at the “before times” Bele Chere festivals. “Growing up, I saw my family being entrepreneurial, and teaming up with the talented community members all around us,” says Hubbard.
Hubbard’s journey to creating downtown’s K2 Studio, a custom furniture and interiors store in the historic Kress Building, started when she and her former husband purchased it more than 25 years ago. It was in dreadful shape, but even then, Hubbard’s ability to visualize was powerful. “The space was sitting there, and Kress Emporium [the gallery venue that adjoins K2] brought together many artists’ work, so we asked ourselves, ‘What could Asheville use?’ and it was a natural progression.”
Photo by Colby Rabon
She admits that the project was “daunting,” in part because local skaters had established a ramp inside the cavernous but long-neglected architectural relic.
Opened in 1997, K2 is the reflection of Hubbard’s love for creative reuse of space, and location has been key. Asheville is only two-and-a-half hours from High Point, “the largest furniture market in the world and where the ‘big boys’ of furniture manufacturing are, like Bassett and the original Stickley,” she points out. “One day I made the trip, found some great pieces, connected with fabulous makers, and started forging relationships with manufacturers.”
Hubbard returned with her treasures and a strong idea about creating a space that offered eclectic, often one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and décor in a relaxing, genial atmosphere, along with design-consultation services. She doesn’t have formal design training, but she sees this as a strength — it prompts spontaneity, for instance.
“I don’t hold myself to one design philosophy or style, and that makes it easier for people to imagine possibilities that may not be as easily conceivable when you’re dealing with too many rules.”
Aesthetically, K2 Studio feels like a balm for overstimulation. Hubbard supplies the store with a mélange of shapes, colors, and textures that create a simultaneously Zen-like and innovative mood. “I love giving customers a feast for their eyes,” says Hubbard. “In one visit, they might consider a gorgeously crafted furniture piece done by a local maker, spy a vintage Mid Century vase, or get ideas about how they might reinterpret their space to be more visually pleasing, more usable. … The pandemic has certainly caused us to use our home spaces differently — to demand more from them.”
Hubbard says the past two years also proved what she’d always suspected — that the Asheville community is second to none when it comes to banding together and supporting local businesses in trying times. “We closed for four months, and during that time we couldn’t believe the outpouring of love we experienced,” she shares. “People would contact me and say, ‘I need to spend some money with you.’ It was really touching.”
She acknowledges that each client is special, but she also employs some practices from which she never deviates. “It’s all about them,” she declares. “My only job, really, is to help clients understand their own needs and their end goal. I must listen and deliver more than a series of repeatedly performed design ‘tricks.’ I approach every project thinking that we’re going to have fun, and by the end of it, my client is going to know more about themselves.”
Whether they’re locals, second-home owners, or repeat visitors, her regulars possess a collective discernment, according to Hubbard. “This year has been fun, too,” she says, “because we had a ‘collect, not decorate’ theme, which is all about merging what you love with new pieces you find in your travels.”
Photo by Colby Rabon
Through K2, Hubbard found a fulfilling way to combine her biggest loves, retail and design, and nurture long-term — even multi-generational — relationships.
“I may finish up a design project for a client and then water their plants while they’re away, refer them to a babysitter, or acquire their adult children as clients,” she says. “We continue to play a special role in downtown Asheville, and I’m grateful.”
K2 Studio, 59 College St., Asheville, 828-250-0500, k2furniture.com. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 11am-6pm; Friday and Saturday, 11am-7pm; and Sunday, 12-6pm.