Hey, I'‘m Kristen - Founder/Owner of The Swan, A Plant Store & Gathering Space born in Swannanoa and residing in Black Mountain, NC.

I was inspired by my bestie, who also works at Swan, when she was repurposing vintage containers as planters and selling them through her vintage pop-up. I started adding it to my own vintage pop-up and found that I enjoyed it much more than lugging clothing and housewares around (forever my fave thing to source, though). Through that, the plant business was formed.

As someone who quite literally grew up in the service industry, it’s always been something I have loved, hated, and have a really hard time staying away from. The concept of owning my own bar or cafe has always been somewhere in my mind, and it began forming along with the plant business around 2018. I wanted to open a sun-drenched space to drink spritzes and be surrounded by plants - specifically, a greenhouse bar. I didn’t really do much with that dream, in that time - and looking back, I’m so glad it didn’t take shape then, I wasn’t ready.

Around 2019 I began making earrings with polymer clay and I started a business that I still have called These Hollow Hills. It took off somewhat quickly and I chose to say goodbye to the plant game and the greenhouse bar dream.

This road ended up taking me back to a new iteration of a prior creative job at Burial Beer Co, as their Head of Art & Design. I had worked at Burial since 2015, and worked in the brand team for a total of about 6 years.

Then, well, Hurricane Helene. I can’t blame it all on Helene, but living in a heavily affected area of WNC, my perspective changed in a time where I was too distracted to see it. Everything started to feel fragile, my whole head just took a loop. I left my job in April of 2025 with no plan. The original plan kept popping back up, and with some (many) highs and lows later, I found the building that will be The Swan.