From Where 2026 Award

In the middle of February 2026, I received an email that honestly stopped me in my tracks.

The email read, “ Hello Kiara. We’re excited to have Honey Home Designs featured on From Where as one of Spokane’s top interior designers.” From there they asked me to proof read the details insuring everything was correct.

To be grouped alongside some of the most talented interior designers and another incredible staging company in Spokane as one of the best of the best… it feels surreal even typing that. This has been a quiet dream of mine for a long time. Not the recognition for the sake of attention, but the acknowledgment that the work, the sacrifice, and the standard I hold myself to actually matter.

Staging is beautiful when you see the final photos. It looks polished and effortless. What people don’t always see is how labor-intensive it is. The heavy lifting. The late nights. The constant reinvesting. The mental load of running a business while raising babies and trying to be present at home as a wife too.

When I first started, I didn’t have inventory. I had vision.

For our very first living room stage, I used my own family’s couch. That meant my kids went 30 days without one. We made it work. Blankets on the floor. Adjustments. Sacrifices. I remember thinking, this has to mean something one day. I had no guarantee it would. But I believed it would.

And now, being recognized like this at the start of a new year feels like one of those full-circle moments. The kind that reminds you why you didn’t quit when it would’ve been easier to.

This year, my goals are big. I want to elevate everything. More furniture. More refined, high-end pieces. A smoother, more elevated process for my clients. Working more closely with professional photographers so every home is captured the way it deserves to be. And maybe — just maybe — finally wrapping the box truck.

But here’s the honest part of small business ownership that people don’t talk about enough: big upgrades come with big trade-offs. Every large expense is a choice. Do I wrap the truck? Or do I take my kids on a trip?

So far, the trip has always won.

A few months ago, I chose hiking all over Utah with my babies instead of investing in branding the truck. And I don’t regret that decision for a second. Watching them explore, laugh, and experience something new — that fills me in a way no wrapped vehicle ever could.

There are moments when it’s hard not to want everything at once. The recognition, the growth, the polished image, the expansion. But I’ve learned that forcing timelines steals peace. Putting my trust and faith in the belief that what’s meant for me will happen when it’s meant to has changed the way I run my business.

I don’t need it all right now.

I just need to keep showing up.

Being recognized as one of the best in Spokane is such a huge accomplishment for me — not because it means I’ve arrived, but because it proves the sacrifices weren’t wasted. The couch-less month. The heavy installs. The reinvested checks. The constant balancing act between ambition and motherhood.

We’re growing.

We’re elevating.

We’re doing it with intention.

And if this is how 2026 is starting, I can’t wait to see what’s next.