BY SHALEEN DESTEFANO
House of Thayer has arrived. Or will be soon…
One half Kat. One half Jerri. Together, a sustainable design duo inspired by the hands of the past. They’ll curate, design & make artisanal products that consider the earth first. When most brands won’t consider the toxins released within your home. They will.
Kristina Thayer (Kat) of Candelaria and Jerri Hobdy of MENO Home have each created a strong sense of community within their respective businesses over the years. But it was 2024 when they connected and made the realization they could be better together.
Candelaria, as a brick and mortar, started in 2016 as predominantly a candle shop. Years later, it earned the accolade of Denver’s Best Candle Shop and was widely regarded as THE GO-TO stop in the Highlands neighborhood for small batch gifts and artisanal goods. Kat led a small staff at Candelaria and curated her space with guiding principles in offering quality made, non-toxic, artisanal & vintage goods specifically made in the US. Kat’s become the authority on home fragrance and is well-respected with her flawless eye for retail curation.
Jerri opened MENO Home as an extension of her decade of experience designing furniture for major brands to be a fresh curation of vintage and sustainable furniture. With a showroom and pop-up at Free Market in downtown Denver, Jerri fostered discussion, experiential learning and observation of the creative mediums in furniture manufacturing to move the needle in a more sustainable practices in an industry that didn’t quite have that on its radar. Jerri became a strong vocal advocate and expert in sustainable furniture design that has landed her speaking engagements on educational panels and accolades.
And if this experience wasn’t enough, Kat and Jerri both came to Denver having given up their glamorous big city lives just to do things a little differently.
Fresh out of grad school, Kat moved to Chicago to join the inspired work in historic preservation. When that didn’t pan out, she worked in corporate retail at Bloomingdales, responsible for over $1+ million in sales annually. It became tired; working for someone else’s vision. She moved on to opening Candelaria and 12 years later, uses a unique blend of entrepreneurial energy under the guise of structured and corporate training.
Armed with a degree in furniture design, Jerri transplanted herself to Philly from Texas to work in-house design for Anthropologie Home. Trendy design requirements articulated into guiding principles in sustainability. Like Kat, Jerri found herself ready to use design ethics that more aligned with her convictions. She left the corporate world, and Philly, to continue designing but just a little differently. Sustainably focused and still furniture-focused, she created a brand designing in her own way.
As a fan of Kat’s curation at Candelaria and non-toxic candles, Jerri approached her in response to a stunningly vulnerable Instagram post wherein Kat painted a vivid picture of the type of retail landscape 2024 had brought. They had a wildly productive conversation that led to an exchange of information where they later met and discussed the downfalls of each of their respective businesses: Kat struggles to find time for creativity that both she and her clientele crave for new products. Jerri struggles to curate sustainable home products outside of furnishings that her clientele quietly requests. Together, their businesses seem to finish each other’s sentences.
Like a perfect venn diagram, Kat and Jerri have a developed skill-set, built-community and eye for curation that overlap in all the right places. And together, they have many things in common: chief among them a commitment to sustainability. From this logical relationship, House of Thayer was born. The brand name housing Kat’s given last name but an overarching idea of brands and creations culminated under one roof.
Together, their time in the corporate big leagues provides a roadmap and structure required for continued business success. Their individual skill sets and mutual guiding principles create a niche in the market that can’t be found elsewhere and certainly not at their level. Denver might not be Chicago or Philly, but they bring that authority with them. Kat & Jerri with House of Thayer is your trusted and experienced source in sustainable design. Kat and Jerri’s merger into one brand is a transformative move of these visionary artists that could become a global brand (and one to watch!)
House of Thayer will be a Mountain West decor design studio known for its grounded concepts, fearless approach to design and focus on heritage & sustainability. They plan to assist their clients, both trade and the public, with procurement of functional & quality pieces, selection of peripheral details and finishes to highlight spaces with one-of-a-kind interior elements, and designing project-specific custom furniture and decor elements.
To say, we’re intrigued would be an understatement. Luckily, we were able to inquire a bit further about their vision.
As a woman-owned business, what message do you hope to convey through this partnership about leadership and innovation in sustainable design?
We hope to demystify the space where beautiful objects and sustainable living overlap and to use our physical store front and studio, not to compete with big brands and quick-ship programs, but to rekindle a romance with retail, real spaces.
Sustainability is a cornerstone of your brand. Can you share any eco-friendly practices that you use at home? How does this mindset shape your focus for leading a sustainable life outside of work?
We both curate our homes with a blend of new and vintage goods, like a lot of people do. One thing that does make us unique, however, is that we started making candles for ourselves years ago. That of course is less common place, and so it is part of our creative souls to share what we make which we have created to be a better option. We both use Ridwell, a service that helps us put less in the landfill in addition to composting. Landfill waste (even organic materials like food scraps and scrap wood pieces) creates GHG’s (Green House Gasses). Home waste mitigation is a HUGE part of being more sustainable. However, there is nothing aggressive or sterile about our homes and lifestyles, and we want to translate that approachability into our work. It’s not about perfection, it’s about progress.
What future trends or innovations in sustainability and design are you most excited to explore?
I think we are most excited to develop an evolved creative process where instead of chasing trends, we simply enjoy the continual curation of a decor brand and a physical studio space whilst honoring the core principles of House of Thayer in all that we do. That means, we are not going to markets and simply buying up trendy wholesale decor to resale for a quick season. Everything in the studio and online will be something we would live with and items that are consciously either found or fostered. From an aesthetic perspective, we are excited to explore an intersection of more contemporary furniture and really romantic decor as a combination that becomes signature to our brand together.
Can you share any local, small businesses you love to support?
J: I like supporting the businesses that aren’t on Instagram getting all of the hype attention. Kat and I are busy ladies these days, and there is nothing better than homemade tamales from Panaderia Rosales on 32nd and Clay street and asada tacos from Tacqueria La Familia right next door.
K: In my moments of free time, I’ll always find myself at an antique store, bookstore or music store. I particularly enjoy browsing at Westside Books, Wax Trax or Angelo’s, and Heirloom Antiques.
What music or art are you finding therapeutic at the moment?
J: I am a trained oil painter, but I recently have begun practicing water color before bed as a creative wind down practice. It is helping me explore newness and also get comfortable with things not being perfect. 🙂
K: Music has always played a very active role in my daily life for productivity as well as moments of relaxation. My music taste is broad but for the changing winter season I’ve relied heavily on Nordic folk music to ground myself. And as far as art goes, as long as I can use my hands each day to create something, I feel at peace.
In February 2025, we’ll see their atelier storefront radiate nostalgic charm, offering heirloom quality products that evoke timeless minimalism while promoting sustainability through thoughtful design principles. The House of Thayer design gallery seeks to rekindle the romance of retail. Their distinctive goods will engage all senses through the charm of a layered yet modern space, which will radiate into their online shop, www.houseofthayer.com.