Driven by data and design: The story of “A Home Revival”
Bethel alum launches into an entrepreneurship journey and becomes a nationally recognized, award-winning home staging and design professional.
By Hannah Hunhoff, lifestyle reporter
Kelly Zabel, then a sophomore mathematics major, measured the dimensions of the Bethel University dining center’s backed-up, single-level tray return system in 2007 to design a simulation model for her operations research class. Students restlessly stood back-to-back with trays caked with dirty glasses, porcelain white plates and stainless steel silverware to the brim. There must have been a solution.
Zabel kept a close eye on the ever-expanding line of students waiting to place their trays in the tight dish return, using a computer simulation program called ARENA to analyze the system and adjust its speed and capacity.
Along with her classmates, Zabel proved that a more costly, tiered and triple-level tray line would maximize efficiency. Their research findings were implemented in 2009 — when the newly-renovated Monson Dining Center opened — and still chauffeurs disposed trays to the dishwashers today.
Twelve years later, Zabel makes a living by solving problems and helping creative visions come to life in the stylish world of staging homes across the Twin Cities for Parade of Homes events, real estate companies and local buyers. She still uses her information-gathering, application-oriented, and efficiency tactics that she learned in places like her Bethel math classes, where she served as a teaching assistant for Math Professor Patrice Conrath.
“She was very responsible, dependable, could communicate well and work hard at whatever task was given to her,” Conrath said.
Zabel liked when there was a right answer in math classes. To know how her work affected the world around her. To discover how her efforts affected things for change or for the better. To learn how to work smarter for efficiency- which has helped in running a business. At the same time, she found herself registering for an art class almost every semester, such as art history or pottery, feeding her creativity.
“I never had a dream that I wanted to own my own business and it’s cool to see how God has done that. He did a lot of things after Bethel, where it was evident that He was teaching me things.” — Kelly Zabel, home stager
Zabel graduated with her B.A. in mathematics in 2009 and says she still stands in awe of God’s work in using her math brain and other intrinsic gifts to start a national award-winning staging company.
“I never had a dream that I wanted to own my own business and it’s cool to see how God has done that, ‘’ Zabel said. “He did a lot of things after Bethel, where it was evident that He was teaching me things.”
Zabel entered corporate America in the fall of 2009, pursuing various analyst and project management roles at U.S. Energy Services and Kinect Energy for over 9 years.
Filing spreadsheets for natural gas and electricity consulting.
Being the face of the company to clients.
Working with clients overseas.
Soon, Zabel found that natural gas and electricity was “not her dream industry.” In 2015, she began shadowing and helping Jess Puccini, a local interior designer and really enjoyed it.
Zabel’s friend planted interior design seeds that blossomed to a flourishing career one day, as Puccini brought up staging as a career possibility and connected her with Shar Sitter, who led a home-staging certification class and owned a staging company called “Rooms with Style.”
Zabel still remembers walking into Sitter’s warehouse for staging classes in 2018 in Apple Valley, sitting in the circular tables, picking furniture items from the warehouse and getting hands-on experience staging multiple homes in the area. She had finally found her niche that made use of her problem-solving brain and creative spirit.
“I want it to be a life-giving company. I didn’t want it to be Kelly Zabel Staging. I thought maybe someday this will be bigger than me.” — Kelly Zabel, home stager
Zabel quit her job near Christmas 2018 and in 2019 she started her own staging company, “A Home Revival.”
“I want it to be a life-giving company,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be Kelly Zabel Staging. I thought maybe someday this will be bigger than me.”
In August of 2019, Kelly collaborated with Sitter’s company, “Rooms with Style,” to lead one of its services that encompasses filling empty homes, vacant staging services.
“The best part of our partnership is being able to pray together and support each other in prayer, both from a business standpoint and a personal one,” Sitter said. “It really brings tears to my eyes to think I have that in a business partner and one that will honor the Lord in her work as well.”
Zabel and her employees execute full vignettes, hand-picking a combination of neutral and vibrant coffee tables, sofas, artwork, lamps and pillows in their warehouse, loading their moving truck and transforming houses into homes across the Twin Cities.
In the same warehouse where Zabel’s passion for home staging was ignited, she reaches for her bid sheet, a layout of the rooms in a home and decides what home furnishings to select amid the towering rows of both colorful and simplistic decor items.
“If you’re just innately math-brained, you’re usually pretty good at spatial things. I can look at a room and figure out what furniture can fit in there and I can’t even explain how.” — Kelly Zabel, home stager
Every plan is curated from scratch, as the staging is customizable to each home. While there isn’t a calculator in her hands, Zabel’s analytical and mathematical gifts are integral in the home staging process.
“If you’re just innately math-brained, you’re usually pretty good at spatial things,” Zabel said. “I can look at a room and figure out what furniture can fit in there and I can’t even explain how.”
