MALOFTA VINTAGE VISITS KAIYA & BILLY
Collaborative home-making inspiration
In early June I stopped by to take a tour of the beautiful home of Kaiya Herman Hilker & Billy Becker, two MALOFTA regulars whose tastes range from mid century modern, with lots of warm woods to nautical themes, atomic era design, lush plants and some star wars. I was particularly impressed with the thoughtful and personal elements of their space, both in terms of aesthetic and keeping each other in mind. I was working the shop the day Billy came in to look at the vintage chartreuse green chair & ottoman and I remember how he loved it, especially because it is Kaiya’s favorite color. He credits her with initiating his appreciation of plants and she knows his penchant for darker wood tones, which they incorporate into their space. Special touches are everywhere, like replacing run-of-the-mill light switches with beautiful brass, tactile knobs, swapping existing overhead lights with gorgeous mid century gems and bringing in unique items like handmade coat hooks and some of their own art. Their home is welcoming and warm, well designed but not fussy, and a genuine reflection of both of them as individuals combining their styles to create a totally new one.
Lets dive in.
Entry area featuring a newly installed vintage overhead light and coat rack made by Billy (and his boat builder father).
Living Room
Kitchen & Dining Room
Bedroom
Shannon: So, tell me about you!
Billy: I am a BMW Genius - I sell cars & teach people about all the tech. I went to Kalamazoo College, got Bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology, Sociology & a Minor in Psychology. Growing up my dad built wooden boats, old Chris Crafts from hand….He built everything from scratch, so I was always doing a lot of sanding, staining, varnishing. Got an appreciation early on for quality woodwork. Once I started, kind of, acquiring my own things, the old stuff always…lasted longer than the new stuff, so I stuck with that and that grew my style into what it is now…along with pushes from you (to Kaiya).
Kaiya: Oh REALLY??
Billy: Yeah, I think I would’ve ended up with a bit more rustic modern with eposed concrete and stainless steel appliances here and there. Now I want one of those ‘50s freezer units with a cabinet.
Shannon: What about you?
Kaiya: We both grew up close to here, just north of Ann Arbor, nd we both went to the same school growing up. It was very art oriented. It’s the Rudolph Steiner school off of Newport. So it was very much like, art and beautiful things and natural materials, things like that were a big focus.
Billy: We like made wooden spoons & bowls.
Kaiya: Yeah, like art, woodwork, handwork, orchestra, singing were all required from K-12 grade.
Shannon: That’s amazing.
Kaiya: It was a really cool experience. We were lucky to have that experience, which is how we met. We both went to school there since kindergarten.
Billy: She was a grade below me.
Kaiya: In high school is when we became friends and started spending time together. And then we both went to Kalamazoo College…I wanted to study Psychology and then as I was getting into my studies I realized I didn’t know how to be in the academic world without having art as a part of it, so I just started signing up for art classes, like, on the side, which became my major as well. So I double majored in Psych & Art.
It was never really my intention to pursue art, but I loved it. Post grad, I worked in the Kindergarten for a while at the school that we went to. And now, I’m teaching art there.
Shannon: Wow, that’s so cool!
Kaiya: It’s very full circle. I think that my school experience has made me appreciate beauty in a different way. And then, the vintage part of it - it’s just always what I’ve been drawn towards. Ever since I was younger, I would always want to like, take my grandma’s old rotary dial phone or whatever and put them in my room. My room was all these ecclectic vintage things that I sourced from places. One of the first things you got me was a typewriter (to Billy).
As we began living together we moved to a 500 sq foot apartment just right down the road post grad. It was so cute and cozy, but we weren’t quite able to do what we wanted with it because it was so small, but we got really lucky because we were able to source a lot of things, like this couch was from the dumpster. We pieced things together there (at the smaller apartment), did COVID there. And then when we moved here in April, we feel like we live in a mansion. This is so much bigger.
Shannon: How would you guys describe your style, if you wanted to sum it up?
Billy: Kind of like…atomic meets MCM meets cabin meets cottagecore meets the interior of a 60 foot Chris Craft.
Shannon: Do you agree with that? (to Kaiya)
Kaiya: I do agree with that…A bit. It’s pretty broad. I think that we have this combination of a more whimsical feel and a grounded feel.
Billy: But at the same time we don’t want to be tied down, subscribing to one style in particular.
Kaiya:…we bring our different styles to the table. If we weren’t living here together our places would look completely different from one another. Mine would be more whimsical and airy and yours (to Billy) would be a lot darker and like - basement vibes.
Billy: I love basements. Like the ‘70s basements where everything was like orange and chairs & lights were really low, you had a sunken couch area…
Shannon: what would you say is your favorite vintage find?
Billy: Shit.
Kaiya: That’s really hard.
Shannon: Or you could do like, top 3.
Billy: In the instance where there’s a fire…one of the things I’d be grabbing is that poster (a 1935 Coca Cola Calender). It was my dad’s.
Kaiya: Also, a cool thing about that is that when we moved in together, the calender year lined up with that year.
Billy: Either Percival Lafer (a chair), the cabinets, which we got from the CEO of Biggby’s…
Kaiya: His wife was our art teacher’s daughter.
Billy: Or the Blaupunkt.
Shannon: What is blaupunkt?
Billy: The speaker system. It’s a very good, high quality German sound system.
Oh…the lamp. One of the first things we got that we were like: this is the style. This was from Salt City.
Also, the clock. It was split in half. It was a Christmas present my dad brought over in a suitcase. He was like, yeah, I’ll fix it up for you, I’ll make it so you can’t tell it was broken in half. And now you can’t really tell…he’s incredibly skilled.
Kaiya: Probably the table and chairs. I wanted that so bad and I - it’s actually a whole story. So, right when we moved in here and all we had was this IKEA leaf table because of our tiny place - I was like, this is my dream. But we can’t do it because we’re moving and the cost of everything. So I was with my parents one day and I was telling them about it and they were like (does mom-voice): “Oh, let’s just go see it.”
Billy: I had told you to tell her it was sold (to Shannon).
Kaiya: It said “SOLD” on it and I was like, Oh, it’s not meant to be then and like accepted it. And then my mom was like, Yeah, Billy bought it.
Billy: But didn’t I only pay part of it.
Kaiya: I think that’s why my mom told me because she was like: you do need to pay.
This green chair is one of my favorite things in the world, because of the color of it. And in the winter we went to Lucky Haskins and I scored a really cool vintage quilt.
Shannon: What music, books, shows, whatever are you currently both into?
Billy: Movies - Star Wars (the old ones, NOT the new ones), video games - Call of Duty & older arcade games, TV - It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Love, Death & Robots, music - Fallout 4 soundtrack, Dion & the Bellmonts, I can’t listen to new music.
Kaiya: Movies - Studio Ghibli, music - Fleetwood Mac, Dora Jar, Wet Leg, Books: Braiding Sweetgrass, Where the Crawdads Sing, the movie was good, too, Shows - Black Mirror, guilty pleasure show is Bob’s Burgers
Advice for other vintage seekers:
Billy: Look for quality…lots of new “mid century modern” …is just press board. Be willing to spend a little more money, support the local shops, slowly build up your collection.
Kaiya: Every single piece we fell in love with. Every little thing is something we said yes to. Take the time to find the right things.
Thank you so much for sharing your home and your story with us, Kaiya & Billy!
If you love this home like I do, head to MALOFTA for some amazing finds of your own!
beautiful! i love all the nooks you created and the warmth of the wood and plants! lovely home!
This is amazing! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our home and make us look so good!