about rumba
Interior designer and sole proprietor of her retail shop, rumba, in Santa Monica,
California for nearly seven years, Kimba Hills exemplifies the freedom of
downsizing and making what you have work for you, both metaphorically and
literally. Last year, Kimba made the decision to rent out her own spacious three-
bedroom home and moved into the 1500-square-foot living space behind rumba's
Ocean Park storefront, which is where she currently resides with her 18-year-
old son, who is college-bound this fall. The rumba annex serves as an extension
of the retail store, where everything is for sale while simultaneously existing as
an element of Hills’s daily life. Her “life’s work” has truly become her actual life’s
work and she couldn’t be more thrilled. Raised in Tennessee, the art of Southern
hospitality runs deep in Hills and the concept of inviting customers into her home,
sharing her living space, and experiencing her design ideology is perfectly suited
to her attitude of endless transformation.
With her passion and ability to continually envision and redesign an existing
space, Kimba launched her SpeedDesign service in 2006, an accelerated interior
design concept in which she and her team transform a client’s home within a
single day – rearranging, reconfiguring, and reinventing what the client already
owns while supplementing from her rumba collection and shopping on demand
when needed. Her philosophy emphasizes the importance of making your home
the best version of you rather than a space that looks and feels “designed.”