With hard work, passion for renewal and redesign and a little luck, Chelsea and Ammon McKinney have taken what was a hobby and flipped it to a business success in Madison. As owners of Black Door Designs, the McKinneys have balanced their own personal fulltime work schedules to accommodate their enthusiasm for flipping houses and assisting current home owners with renovation designs by securing masterful modification plans to turn awful to awesome.
“Some people have no clue to what they want for the finished product, so they trust me to give them what will be wonderful in the end. They let me do everything for them,” said Chelsea of her work as a designer and renovator of clients’ properties.
The main business objective for the McKinneys, who were born and raised in Madison and attended Bob Jones High School, where each played athletics, is to purchase “down-on-their-luck” homes and flip those structures to attractive dwellings for resale. There can be as much as a $40 per square-foot differential upon completion. The McKinneys have flipped eight homes so far while giving assistance to numerous clients who just need an expert eye for design and budget.
“It surprises me how many homes that are on the selling market today that have no updates to them,” said Chelsea. “You get to update a home in a simple way to make them more appealing with the work we do. The smallest things can make a huge difference in a home.”
Chelsea, 28, not only works feverishly in the family business but also works as a senior accountant for a government contractor, Erica Lane Enterprises, and as a realtor for Keller Williams Realty based in Madison. Ammon, 34, is a fulltime bail bondsman for AAA Bail Bond Company and assists Chelsea in the endeavors of Black Door Designs. The two have been married for three years.
While attending college at the University of Alabama, Chelsea would race home upon close of classes each week and work on her grandmother’s old home, which needed a facelift prior to a possible sale. She set up a budget and design and completed the project in three months. Her grandmother quickly sold the home for $50,000 more than the original asking price. “I got hooked. It all started from there. It was my hobby,” said Chelsea. “Ammon worked nights and helped me during the day.”
The McKinneys recently purchased some apartments in Decatur as more of a retirement investment. Ammon acts as property manager while Chelsea designs. Ammon speaks Spanish from living in Honduras for two years, and he is loved by the current tenants.
The McKinney’s current home is a renovation project they took on a couple years ago. They received an amazing deal on the house, began to fix up the interior and soon, by accident, came up with the name of their business. With Chelsea’s direction and design, they painted each of the interior doors black with white trim. Those were noticed on a Facebook post and, thus, the Black Door Designs business name came into being.
“Like most of our projects, either a flip or a renovation, the starting point compated to the finished product is like night and day,” said Chelsea.
To contact the McKinneys, e-mail blackdoordesigns@gmail.com or on Facebook at www.facebook/blackdoordesigns.
