On a sunny morning, Nichole Sullivan is busy organizing inventory at her gift shop and creative studio, Keppel and Kismet. Filled with laser-etched wood signage, markers, pens, candles, and handcrafted jewelry, the newly opened store is a craft lover’s dream, and a fitting addition to Hamilton-Lauraville’s bustling Main Street.
For locals, the name of the Hamilton Avenue shop likely rings a few bells. The first Keppel and Kismet, which opened in Towson in 2019, lasted less than a year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions made it hard to run the business. After a four-and-a-half-year break, Sullivan soft launched the second iteration this past March.
“Our mission is to encourage intentional gifting and to inspire people to gather, to create,” Sullivan says, wearing black Dansko clogs and a pair of Duluth Trading Company overalls.
Behind her sit boxes of “Baltimore Breakfast” and “Maryland Mint” loose-leaf teas from the local Wight Tea Company and small jars of Hon’s Honey, made locally by women trauma survivors. Most items sold here — if not made in-house, like the hand-painted, laser-cut lemon stick earrings that hang on a rack near the doorway — are made by small Baltimore businesses.
“When you come in, you see things that you could get for yourself or give to a friend. Or if you’re a business owner or executive director, you could buy gifts for your team and put your logo on it,” Sullivan says.
At Keppel and Kismet, there’s space (and supplies) for adventurous crafters to make their own gifts, too. A wooden work table, where various brushes and heavily pigmented paint bottles sit, is where visitors gather for workshops on modern calligraphy, journaling, and more. This fall, a workshop will teach guests to hand-knit their own chunky blankets. And Sullivan wants her store to be seen as “a destination business” for other crafters hoping to lead workshops of their own.
“Come in, and if you don’t see it offered, call us. Email us. Let’s get it offered. You want to teach something? Let’s give it a shot,” she says.
Days after Keppel and Kismet’s grand opening in August, I caught up with Sullivan to chat about what locals can expect and how she brought the effervescent, artsy space to life.
Grace Hebron: Tell me about yourself, Nichole.
Nichole Sullivan: I was a teen mom. Let’s start there. I had a kid at 14, and felt like everyone assumed that I was going to fall into the cycle of continuing to have babies and not do anything with my life. I was very determined to go to college, finish, get into corporate America, and climb the ladder. I went to University of Maryland Baltimore County and immediately started working in the financial services sector, where I spent my entire career working at different large banks.
GH: What prompted your big shift from corporate employee to entrepreneur?
NS: I realized that as a Black woman in a majority white, male environment, I had lots of favor in corporate America; lots of mentors and lots of rapid growth. It was exhausting. I don’t think I [decided], “I’m going to create something as an outlet to give myself a mental and emotional break.” I just did it. I would make greeting cards. For a while there, I had so many friends having babies, and I did all their baby shower invitations. I started baking a lot. Growing up, watching my grandmother cook and mend and reupholster, maybe that was how she dealt with her stress. I just know I saw it, and so I did it. When I wanted to furnish my first apartment, and I had Pottery Barn taste and no budget, I would go to flea markets and take furniture and refinish it. Part of me thinks it was just nurtured into me, because I don’t know a time that it was different for me.
October of 2017 is when I officially left Bank of America. The following year, I learned about this organization called Moms as Entrepreneurs. They were having an information session at Open Works, and I just happened to walk in. I didn’t even know it was happening. That’s where Kismet comes from. Things like that kept happening. In January 2019, the program finished, and I had a family member who was willing to give me an investment. It was $25,000. I said, “Okay, what can I do with this?” In November 2019, I opened a brick and mortar in Towson, and it took off immediately. And then March of 2020, we know what happened. I was like, “I cannot believe this. I just spent the last 18 months getting to this place. Seven months went by of me paying rent and not being able to do business because of the need for social distancing. So my landlord let me out in October 2020, and this is my first time back in another brick-and-mortar since then.
GH: What’s your overall vision for this new version of Keppel and Kismet?
NS: I’m just trying to pay very good attention to what the community is looking for. I want people to think of us not just as a place where you come in, sit down around a table, and make stuff, but “Oh, you know what? We can go over there and get personalized gifts. Let’s go see what they have.” It’s like, you go into a space, and every time you turn your head, you see something, and you get an idea. That’s kind of what we’re going for. I want you to come in, and I want your imagination to be triggered in the best way, where you just want to be here.
GH: You grew up in the area. What makes Hamilton-Lauraville the perfect home for Keppel and Kismet?
NS: It’s such a concentrated area of creatives doing different things. You have the Strand Theater, you have the Hamilton Gallery, you have the restaurants that are locally owned. In some ways, it reminds me of Hampden, but a little bit more close-knit. It feels more like a community here. Like, these people are from here, or if they’re not, they were very intentional about landing here. These folks get Baltimore. They want to be in Baltimore.
GH: Keppel and Kismet is such a unique name. You spoke briefly about where the “kismet” piece came from, but what about “keppel”?
NS: A friend of mine came up with the name, because I was struggling. I said, “I need something creative, but don’t pigeonhole me into one thing, because we’re going to be doing all kinds of things in this place.” She was like, “Let’s just make it about you.” She came up with keppel, which is actually the Pantone name of my favorite color. It’s a blue that has a little bit of green in it, so it’s kind of teal. It just speaks to me, who I am, and my fingerprint on the business.
She came up with kismet [meaning destiny or fate], because she knows that I believe that God is orchestrating all of this for me. It could have been “serendipity,” but I was stuck on K, so we got kismet.
GH: I’d love to hear some more about your workshops.
NS: We do paper modeling with a local artist who does a lot of pop-ups in the area. We do wood sign workshops. You won’t find canvas painting unless we bring a person in who can facilitate people making it their own. I don’t want a situation where everyone’s following the leader and they’re not able to use their creativity, so I kind of stay away from that. We do painted tote workshops. When you come in, you can choose the design you want. You can paint that thing whatever color you want. And you know you can go well beyond the stencil we give you, right? The goal is for you to make it yours.
GH: What’s the philosophy behind your gift selection?
NS: “Gifting for Connection” is our tagline. From a household goods standpoint, it’s things that inspire you to get around the table. It could be just you and a friend having a glass of wine, and you put a little charcuterie board in between you, and just sit and have a chat. It could be that Thanksgiving is coming [and you’re looking for] a really nice platter for the turkey. [The goal] is to inspire you to connect with other people because the closer you are with humans, the better human you tend to be.
GH: You spoke to me a bit about your journey as a teen mom. What would you say to today’s teens who might find themselves in similar positions?
NS: I volunteer with an organization called Young Lives, and they support teen moms around the country. One of the things that I share is that no one’s journey is linear. My mentee just graduated from high school. She and her twin sister are both going to college, but her sister gets to live on campus. So [maybe] your life doesn’t look like that, but you can still go to college. Do you know how many people go to college and don’t live on campus? Do you know how many people go to college and don’t finish until later in life? Don’t let other people’s expectations of you force you into an unhealthy place. Set a goal for yourself and keep working at it, understanding that you have someone else who you have to take care of that your peers may not. Understand that people’s journeys meander, and don’t see yourself as different. You have a unique challenge.
GH: Any advice for other small business owners, particularly Black and women entrepreneurs?
NS: My biggest advice is to build community. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It doesn’t have to be you who does all the things. You’re not going to grow a business if it’s just you. You need people advocating for you. You need people willing to help you learn things. My friend Kacey Stafford, who owns Found Studio down the road, taught me how to do photography. She came to my shop with this painted wood board and said, “We’re gonna put stuff on here. We’re gonna take pictures.” There wasn’t anything in it for her. She just wanted to support another business owner, and most of us are like that. We can’t see each other as competition, even if we are in a [similar] business.
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Keppel and Kismet is located at 3015 Hamilton Ave., Floor 1. Retail hours vary from workshop hours. For more information, visit keppelandkismet.com.