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For Kelly Gale Amen, a high-profile interior designer based in Houston, Texas, creativity is the spice of life. “I love interiors and I love the art furniture, there’s really no separation for me in it,” he says. “I will always embrace whatever creative challenges that come my way.”
These days, Amen spends much of his time, well, flipping out. His business is “flipping” residential spaces, transforming a client’s home by relocating, rearranging and reworking existing items in a space. Amen also helps his clients fill in new homes or add distinguished pieces to create a distinct aesthetic. “My focus in life is getting into a potential client’s world, assessing it and seeing how I can ‘flip’ them into another layer of understanding in their environment,” he explains.
A native of Weatherford, Okla., and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Amen arrived in Houston in 1972 and launched his company, KGA, Inc., just two years later. He’s been flipping people’s homes, and lives, ever since.
“We had a fire in our house and I don’t think I could have made it through without him,” says Melissa Bondy, a friend and client of Amen’s for 20 years. “He’s always been that way—I can just entrust Kelly with anything and I know it’s going to get done.”
In an age of reality TV-driven interiors and overnight transformations, Amen believes investing the time to get permanent results. “What I’m interested in is the process,” he says. “I love the way how it takes time for things to happen, I love for people to have to wait a few moments. You can’t make paint dry any faster than it dries.”
Never one to sit still, the designer began producing his art furniture in the early 1990s. The fully functional pieces from coffee tables to conference tables feature Amen’s signature arched aprons, square knees, tapered legs and inverse and reversed curves. A founding member of the American Society of Furniture Artists, Amen led by example in Houston during a time when artists began to infiltrate the fine art category with more functional art pieces.
This new KGA expansion soon led to one of Amen’s most popular concepts, his commemorative benches. Also known as art benches, these creative sculptures mark special occasions or tributes, like his Triple Benches on display as a permanent installation in Houston’s Shady Groves Victims Memorial at Tinsley Park, and his Memorial Benches installed in Houston’s Bob Lanier Public Works Building. Amen also has his art furniture in the Houston Museum of Natural Science, The Thomas P Stafford Air and Space Center in Weatherford, Oklahoma, the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma and more.
In 2007, Amen launched his signed and numbered edition collection of benches, partnering with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, The Stafford Air & Space Museum and the Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing organizations. The artist has been an influential participant in the Houston arts & design community for decades and is a founding member of NSID/ASID.
Amen’s work has been featured extensively, from HGTV’s Extreme Homes to local media outlets, national books and magazines. And he’s an avid supporter of the arts as well as many charitable ventures, such as The Texas Children’s Cancer Center, Aids Foundation Houston and the Zina Garrison Foundation.
“My whole life has been about stepping through the thresholds of the doors that open,” says Amen, who plans to continue his efforts—both artistic and otherwise—for as long as he draws breath. “There’s never been a light outside of this for me."
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