Today we’d like to introduce you to Kendra Oden.
Kendra, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am a Houston native, I grew up in Southhampton and have lived in the Montrose area for a majority of my adult life. My mom was an interior decorator for over 40 years and my dad worked in oil and gas. I always loved traveling and always had an appreciation for beautiful things from childhood. In high school, I was an exchange student in Tokyo Japan and was driven to go there by Japanese architecture and culture.
After spending many summers in France with my parents, I decided to go to the American University of Paris for college to enjoy the beautiful culture and all the wonderful things France has to offer. I ended up finishing college at the University of Houston where I then moved to Mumbai, India to do an internship at a business process outsourcing center. Upon finishing that internship, I followed in my father’s footsteps and entered into Oil and Gas and worked in the industry for over 12 years. After marrying my husband Matthew Reeves the owner of Reeves Art and Design my creative personality was calling very persistently. Have a great opportunity for synergy with my husbands business I decided to follow in my mother’s footsteps and start my own interior design and real estate business. I wanted to offer people turnkey dwelling solutions. I also had experience from helping my mom all through like and I also worked in interior design in college for a few firms. So it seems natural to take that new career path. So I created my business in 2016.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it has not. I really relied on my mother for a lot of guidance and support and she passed away in 2017 so I have been having to reach out to friends and establish new mentors for help and guidance when I need it. It’s great to be able to have such wonderful people in your network that you can call on for help, I am really lucky for that.
Please tell us about Oden House.
I founded ODEN HOUSE ASSOCIATES in 2016 starting with real estate. I really wanted to be able to offer my clients turnkey dwelling solutions to differentiate myself from other realtors or interior designers. ODEN HOUSE ASSOCIATES offers residential real estate, interior design and estate sale solutions. I can sell your house, everything in it, stage it, help you buy a new house and design or decorate it. I partner with several people who specialize in these specific areas so that we can ensure the best service for every offering. My real estate partner is Emerald Estates Properties and my estate sale partner is Reeves Estate Sales. As a designer, my philosophy is to design based on what the client loves and makes them happy and not about what makes me happy. Ultimately the client has to live with it, so I want whatever makes them happy and to ensure that the design is functional for their lifestyle, a good investment and is cohesive to their space.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Traveling with my parents to France and before they sold french cheese in America we would get cheese in France. We would drive all over the countryside with this stinky cheese in this hot little car and we would just laugh and laugh and make jokes about how stinky the car was. We would stick our heads out the window and joke about it smelling like feet and then we would enjoy eating all this delicious stinky cheese we had been constantly joking about.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4101 San Jacinto STE 201
Houston TX 77004 - Website: www.odenhouse.com
- Phone: 713-240-2889
- Email: kendra@odenhouse.com
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