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Lyn pulled the color scheme for the living room from the two paintings on the far right wall. Her mix of styles and color provides comfortable spaces in a high-energy environment.
Navy blue cabinets and a silicone backsplash are highlights in the kitchen.
Lyn was inspired by a gift of jewelry from Tiffany in its signature blue box to create her wardrobe room. She uses the pale turquoise throughout the room in paint and fabrics. “What girl doesn’t like Tiffany and Co.?” she says.
A brightly painted mural wall has one of Lyn’s signature color dot-and-blend color scape paintings hung on top.
Mixed textures and patterns abound in Lyn’s apartment, like these geometric sculptural wall panels leading into the living room.
A richly painted dresser by Lyn is enhanced with her tools and paintbrushes handy.
When KC Lyn and her daughter moved into their standard issue two-bedroom apartment in Affton, Lyn knew she needed to color their world.
She had moved back to St. Louis from Hawaii in 2014 when Malana was born to be closer to her family. She went to the island for college. “I really enjoyed studying oceanography and marine biology, but I ended up not finishing school because I started pursuing a career in music. That was really random,” she says.
The breakdancing prowess she’d honed in high school opened the door to the music world in Hawaii. Her moves at clubs caught the eyes of music video producers.
“I was opening for Nelly, Nicky Minaj, Black Eyed Peas, 50 Cent and Twista. The next thing I knew I was in a recording booth rapping and then the rest is history,” she says. “I dropped two albums, "Dynamic" and "Supahelladopeness," which are on Apple, Spotify, Pandora — they’re pretty available.”
Lyn’s bold, colorful style in interiors and in her custom furniture pieces first manifested in a clothing line she designed and hand-painted. “I wanted to release my clothing line along with the music video premieres of "Supahelladopenes." I put together a line, staged the fashion show and dropped the album in September 2019. Three, maybe four months later, my clothing sales came to a halt. Because of the pandemic, no one was going out anymore,” she says.
Her resourcefulness kicked in. “Everybody was in the house, so I said that's what I'm moving to. I thought ‘If people are staying home, I'm going to start doing furniture and interiors,” she says. “I’ve got to go with the flow, you know, and it worked.”
The palace-style bedroom features multi-level lighting, opulent mirrors and a plush bed softly layered in linens.
To hone her style and learn techniques for painting on wood, Lyn turned to YouTube. She built on the experience she gained when she painted for her fashion line. “I just transferred what I knew from fabric to wood with what I learned online,” she says. “I try to do something different with every piece of furniture I paint,” she says. As for her color choices, Lyn hasn’t yet met a bold color she doesn’t like.
“I just love colors. The branding for my furniture line is all about color,” she says. “For my dressers, tables or what-have-you, I do a multicolored top. It’s my signature. The process is really crazy. I take a bunch of tubes of paint, maybe a hundred different colors, and score little dots all over the top. I spritz it with a water, then I’ll take a scraper, or maybe a spatula, and drag it across the top until and I get a cool look,” she says.
The ever-busy Lyn runs a side business doing clean-outs of homes and apartments, which helps supply her with furniture to flip. She brakes for yard sales, which she and her daughter both enjoy, and she’s not above alley pick-ups if the piece is in good shape. “You wouldn’t believe how much money I’ve made off the furniture some people put out for trash,” she says. She haunts thrift and second-hand stores as well. From the art that hangs on her walls to the pineapples that pop up in every room, each item in her home has a backstory.
“Those pineapples? They’re part of my logo, a reminder of Hawaii,” she says. “I feel Hawaii is where my heart is; I love it there. The pineapples remind me of that.”
She’s transformed all the rooms and even the closet in her apartment with her paints, brushes, rollers, interesting finds and vivid imagination.
Two large midcentury modern paintings Lyn collected in a clean-out now hang in her living room. She used them, and her ginger cat, Zen, as a jumping-off point for her color scheme. She created bold orange stripes that pop off an orange accent wall to cross the ceiling by painting the staid brown timbers original to her apartment.
She mixes classic wing chairs, upholstered in orange velveteen with tufted backs with classic club chair and sofa in smoothest burnt orange. Lyn turned a circular wrought iron pot rack into a chandelier over a seating area with wraps of lights.
A friend gifted her with a piece of jewelry from Tiffany as a thank-you. “I love, love, love the blue box and it came in. The color caught my eye. I loved it so much I decided to use it for my closet and dressing room,” she says.
Malana’s brighter-than-a-crayon-box room features lot of spaces and bookcases, painted by her mom, to store her things. “She has her collections, too,” Lyn says, “her Beanie Boos and her anime. She also loves to draw and paint.”
Her design and furniture business has thrived during the pandemic, but she hasn’t abandoned music. “I continue to write and I stay with my music to keep my mind fresh. I plan to work on another record here in the next six months. Right now, I'm really focused on my interior design and furniture business.”
KC Lyn and her daughter, Malana Blankenship, 8 in their Affton home, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Occupation • Artist, entertainer, interior designer, fashion designer, and entrepreneur
Family • She lives with her daughter, Malana, 8, and a ginger cat named Zen.
The living room in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
KC Lyn and her daughter, Malana Blankenship, 8 in their Affton home, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The living room in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The living room in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The living room in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The living room in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Lyn pulled the color scheme for the living room from the two paintings on the far right wall. Her mix of styles and color provides comfortable spaces in a high-energy environment.
The hallway in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Mixed textures and patterns abound in Lyn’s apartment, like these geometric sculptural wall panels leading into the living room.
The hallway in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The primary bedroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The primary bedroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The primary bedroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The primary bedroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The primary bedroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The primary bedroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The primary bedroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The bathroom in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The kitchen in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The kitchen in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The kitchen in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
The kitchen in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
KC Lyn's daughter, Malana's bedroom is decorated with her mother's personal touch of painted walls and furniture, in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
KC Lyn's daughter, Malana's bedroom is decorated with her mother's personal touch of painted walls and furniture, in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
KC Lyn's daughter, Malana's bedroom is decorated with her mother's personal touch of painted walls and furniture, in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
KC Lyn's daughter, Malana's bedroom is decorated with her mother's personal touch of painted walls and furniture, in the Affton home of KC Lyn, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
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Lyn pulled the color scheme for the living room from the two paintings on the far right wall. Her mix of styles and color provides comfortable spaces in a high-energy environment.
The palace-style bedroom features multi-level lighting, opulent mirrors and a plush bed softly layered in linens.
Navy blue cabinets and a silicone backsplash are highlights in the kitchen.
Lyn was inspired by a gift of jewelry from Tiffany in its signature blue box to create her wardrobe room. She uses the pale turquoise throughout the room in paint and fabrics. “What girl doesn’t like Tiffany and Co.?” she says.
A brightly painted mural wall has one of Lyn’s signature color dot-and-blend color scape paintings hung on top.
Mixed textures and patterns abound in Lyn’s apartment, like these geometric sculptural wall panels leading into the living room.
KC Lyn and her daughter, Malana Blankenship, 8 in their Affton home, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
A richly painted dresser by Lyn is enhanced with her tools and paintbrushes handy.
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