Designer Kurt Bielawski to open Dallas Design District shop

It was just a matter of time before interior designer Kurt Bielawski opened his own store. You don’t just leave behind some 15-odd years in retail, especially if those years were spent in the hallowed halls of Neiman Marcus (where he worked as a women’s fine apparel buyer, among other roles). “I always wanted to do this,” Bielawski says of KD Biel, the home design shop he’s opening in the Design District and online this month. The 2,500-square-foot retail space will be a full-circle moment for his career.

Bielawski owns MORE Design + Build, a luxury firm with construction and renovation projects in Dallas and well beyond. He left the fashion world in the early 2010s when the design firm, initially a side project he launched alongside designer Chad Dorsey, grew so successful that it demanded his full attention. But even in the two decades of success that the firm has seen, there was always a draw to his retail roots. “If you’re a retailer, I don’t think that ever leaves you, to tell you the honest truth,” Bielawski says. “I think that’s in your blood. It’s something I’ve never not been interested in.”

His initial vision was simply to open an e-commerce shop with capsule collections of pieces. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just do a little online test and kinda go from there,’” Bielawski says. But the artisans he wanted to work with preferred brick and mortar over virtual, and they voiced hesitation to become vendors otherwise. “After, I don’t know, the fourth one of those, I finally was like, ‘Fine, I’ll have a store. I’ll do a shop.’”

That decision came in April of this year. On Sept. 25, just six months later, Bielawski’s home design store will begin welcoming shoppers in the Design District.

KD Biel’s physical location is set up as a series of rooms — a living room, dining room, kitchen, butler’s pantry, garden room, bedroom and bathroom — each filled with artisan-made pieces Bielawski sourced during his travels or through his work as a designer. In the garden room, buyers will find planters by Copenhagen-based Bergs Potter and Japanese-made garden tools by Niwaki. There’s a wealth of tableware in the dining room, from everyday dishes by UK-based potter John Julian to the formal designs of Italian-made Ginori 1735, and flatware from Italian-made Mepra and UK brand David Mellor. “Of my assortment, almost 60% of it is nowhere else in Dallas,” Bielawski shares. “The other 40% of it is so limited distribution [that], if it’s anywhere, it’s in one more store. It’s a special assortment of things that you won’t find all over town.”

He’ll also have a handful of private-label product lines with items he designed, such as Italian-made bed linens, a candle and fine furniture, including side tables, coffee tables and upholstered pieces. Bielawski’s description of his inventory can be summed up in one word: timeless. “I’m hoping that I’m buying beautiful things that will stand up to the test of time. And that’s my taste.”

He adds, “I’m hoping that everybody wants to come shopping. There’s a combination of everything, from furniture all the way to great gift items.” There’s a registry option, too.

Bielawski wants the store to bring as much joy to shoppers as it does to him. “There’s so much craft involved in making things for the home that I think it kind of feeds my soul.”

Bielawski’s favorite KD Biel products

John Julian Plates

In addition to carrying John Julian’s striped line in an exclusive burgundy shade, the shop will offer four side plates Bielawski designed with the brand. Those plates — sold only through his store — are adorned with illustrations of a dog (Bielawski’s Jack Russell terrier, Jackson), a palm tree, a cowboy hat and a set of skis.

He picked these styles because many of his home design clients have second homes, and a set with a themed motif would suit a vacation home: the palm tree for a beach house, for example, or skis for a winter chalet.

KD Biel Fine Linens

The Italian-made bedding Bielawski designed exclusively for his shop is 400 thread count — a quality he likens to some of the best and most expensive linens on the market but at a better price point.

Goods by Perfumer H

The shop will carry cologne, candles and tea from Perfumer H, a London-based and woman-owned company that Bielawski was thrilled to be able to get as a vendor.

Shore Studios Rug

In his garden room, Bielawski will offer a selection of products from Shore Studios, an outdoor furnishings brand based in London. Of his favorite pieces, there’s a rug designed for his shop that he’s quite proud of — and there will be some outdoor furniture, too.

Mg by hand

KD Biel will be one of only a handful of locations in the world to carry Brooklyn-based potter Melissa Goldstein’s line, Bielawski says. The artist’s blue-and-white designs are inspired by 17th-century German and Japanese botanical illustrations and Scandinavian and Japanese ceramics, each thrown and decorated by hand.

Prime location

The store’s location at 1316 Slocum St. in the Design District is none other than his associate Chad Dorsey’s former office. Esteemed designer Jan Showers will be Bielawski’s next-door neighbor. For a time, Dorsey stored pieces from his fireplace mantel collection, STRIKE, in the space, and Bielawski opted to keep a few and integrate them into the design of a few rooms in the shop.

Store hours are expected to be approximately 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; check the website closer to the Sept. 25 opening for exact times.

Love homes, gardens and design? Get more good stuff from Abode by following us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.