At Home with Sarah Bayot of Kicheko Goods

Meet Sarah. Sarah is one of my favorite people in all of the DC maker community. She is the founder and maker behind Kicheko Goods, a social impact jewelry company keeping DC sparkling. Her work is like her- warm, refined, elevated, and a bit glamorous. She’s the kind of person who’s energy you just want to be in, and I feel so lucky to call her one of my studio neighbors on the Brookland Arts Walk. Get to know her, her drastically altered home and family life during quarantine, and the most adorable baby that will ever peek through your shop windows that is such a light in this strange pandemic year that all of us small business owners have been dealing with.

Take 15% off your purchase from Kicheko Goods with the code “LOVEATHOME” through 2/19/21 11:59pm EST.

Who are you, what do you do, and why? 

I’m Sarah Bayot and I own and operate a jewelry studio + shop called Kicheko Goods, based in the Brookland neighborhood of DC. The collection is mainly earrings that are designed to be mixed material pieces and there’s also a social impact component built into the business model. Proceeds have gone to fund school construction, a scholarship program in Congo and local, education-based nonprofits. While I design and sell jewelry full-time, much of my waking hours in the last 10 months have been dedicated to caring for a tiny human. 

I love the intersection of the tactile, art, entrepreneurship, and running a shop. Bringing materials together and exploring concepts through design lights me up. Since college, I wanted to be a social entrepreneur. I think the arc of my work will take many paths in my life. No matter what I end up doing though, my aim is to do something meaningful and bring beauty, warmth, and inspiration to people. If I can also spark an open mind and curiosity, that would make me happy. 

How does home feel for you right now? Has it changed over the course of the pandemic? 

Home is filled with a lot of mess and joy these days. Home has held tremendous space for the changes in my life this last year - an unconventional maternity leave, keeping my business going, new parenthood and adjusting to our new roommate, many hard moments and even more great memories. 

I gave birth to my daughter, Olivia, in April last year and her arrival changed our home life 100% on top of the shutdowns and quarantining. Her age charts time for us since she’s been around pretty much as long as the pandemic. While we were planning on family visits to help with the transition, that just couldn’t happen in those early months so my husband and I did our best to learn to be parents and care for our daughter just the two of us. Home became everything in those early days.

My husband’s job is currently all remote so he also works from our home during the day and I do almost all my administrative work from home too. Recently, we decided to enroll our daughter in daycare part-time so I could have some days back in the studio and he could have uninterrupted work days. That’s been a game-changer for us. 

I can have a good chunk of the apartment for myself to read, do yoga, do whatever before I go to the studio. I can leave the apartment more freely too and my husband has the place to himself. Having our own space throughout the week feels so healthy. Our home feels full and at more ease now.  

How do you make apartment living work with a young family? 

The pandemic has demanded so much versatility from our one-bedroom apartment! Life, work, a baby, and staying connected with the people in our lives, it’s wild. I grew up in apartments and condos and while there are pros and cons, knowing that it can work gave me confidence that we could expand our family in our current place. That said, apartment living for a young family in a pandemic however - ah that’s challenging! I’m bewildered and grateful that neither one of us has completely lost it yet. 

It cycles back and forth between many pocket messes and then these serene, plant and light-filled moments where we’re all playing or doing our own thing and I feel happy we have this place and each other.

I make sure to go for a walk or a drive almost everyday. Getting out for fresh air is important to me. Otherwise, I feel the apartment’s smallness. I’ll go to the gym in our building to stretch or walk on the treadmill and also walk the grounds saying “hi” to the concierge staff, the other families and the elderly residents that hang in the common spaces and courtyards. These brief but daily encounters mean so much to all of us!

We’ve rearranged the furniture a few times and I’ve added a lot more organization tools like storage bins and bags to our home to keep things contained and tidy. We do frequent drops at Goodwill or sell items we no longer need. There are still zones of mess but my husband and I are pretty in step with our cleaning and tidying routines. No matter how tired we are, there are certain tasks that need to get done in order for us to feel good in our home - the kitchen gets cleaned at night, the dining table is wiped down, Olivia’s books get put back and her play area is tidied. Other things like unfolded laundry or vacuuming can wait until the next day or day after that.

I have a lot of affection for our plant babies around the apartment but I LOVE them even more now. They’ve given a lot of life to our place. The objects we have out are meaningful to us too and establishing decor and a flow that feels good is important to me. These days, it’s lush plants, pottery, books, a candle burning, a slight breeze coming in from the window and the sun shining in, it helps center and energize me for the day. We each do what we need to do to fill our respective tanks so we can live and dream big even from a physically small space. Ultimately, it’s all about our dynamic and relationships that make our apartment work as a home. 

Covid times has been so so hard on my fashion life. I've gotten super committed to comfortable clothes over everything else. Do you have any tips on still being inspired to dress up even a little bit during this time?

I knoww! I make jewelry and there are weeks when I’ve hardly worn any. There’s a lot of unworn clothes in my closet currently and my sweats and leggings are feeling all the love and attention right now. Sometimes it’s just a bit much with jewelry, masking, and wintry layers. 

I don’t have any sure fire tips but I will share what I’ve noticed works for me with dressing up a tad more. The days when I luxuriate in a warm shower, linger a little longer with my post-shower grooming, and put on some make-up, I tend to dress up and put on jewelry. It’s like a pavlovian response since that’s what I did pre-covid. I’ll put on some concealer, highlighter and mascara and then want to wear jeans or easy hoops. 

Sometimes coordinating an outfit with my mask or feeling especially inspired when I know I’m going to see a friend or people in the shop is the motivation I need to play in my jewelry box and closet. It’s like a love language, “I miss you. I wanted to make an effort.” 

When Olivia started daycare, I automatically put earrings on during those days too since it’s a few days a week. It was like I could get away with it during the day and not have her cute, pudgy hands grabbing for my ears.  

Low key, I’m also working on a few mask chain styles that will likely be one of a kind and will be available in the spring. That could help with easy accessorizing and come time when we don’t have to wear masks anymore, they can be used for glasses or sunglasses. 

Give us a moment of joy, something that makes you smile / excited / hopeful. 

My daughter’s laughter and babbles are giving me a lot of joy. Her new favorite spot is at the window and she bounces herself up and down as she’s finding her legs and knocks on the glass when she sees a dog being walked or really, anything moving. Recently, she started saying “Ma-ma,” and hearing her tiny raspy voice name me makes my heart burst, almost enough to make up for all the sleep deprivation. :)

The other thing that gives me excitement and hope is the reflection time and creative energy that’s being tapped into since there’s downtime from travel, events, and the busyness of business. The pandemic has surfaced a lot of distilling questions for artists, makers, and business owners, not only about survival but also about what we’re creating, how we’re doing it, and what matters. I’m looking forward to what will come out of this time even if it's of a more personal nature and we have conversations about how to build a thriving business and lifestyle better. 

Thanks so much to Sarah and her family for opening their home to us! Don’t forget to glam up with 15% off at Kicheko Goods through Friday, 2/19/21! Use the code “LOVEATHOME” at checkout.