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AUGUST 23 | 2022
I started my Interior Design business on August 1st, 2022. I was ecstatic.
After waiting much too long to work with a designer, I met with the manager at Sherwin Williams and she told me a little story about herself. She had been working with a crew 20+ years ago and was treated terribly for much too long. One day she had had enough and opened her own business- the whole team followed her. She told me just go for it! There are a lot of people out there doing a much worse job than I could ever do and making a lot more money.
I was scared, don’t get me wrong. I am only 24, newly married, and just moved away from our whole family. This was a huge undertaking on my part. I didn’t care, I LIVE and BREATHE design.
It is in my blood, my mother has great taste as well and that’s probably where I got it from. My parents built 5 houses from the ground up, practically by themselves. So really I lived in a construction zone my whole life. I loved seeing the new paint chips in the living room, the textiles for unique shades, and the tile samples in the bathroom. My parents ran their tile and heating business, raised me and built & renovated houses in the evenings and weekends. My mom did all the space planning, designing, and organization while my dad did the heavy lifting when it came to new builds.
Having experienced so many things over the years I feel that Interior Design is embedded in me and is my life’s calling. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else with my life and honestly I didn’t want to wait until I was in my 30s to start. I tried many different things in the 10 years I was in the workforce and learned as much as possible. My biggest takeaway was to sell yourself you need confidence, and you need to be able to talk to anyone and keep a conversation going. Another big thing was always staying positive, no matter what you end up specializing in.
Nailing customer service was so important because no matter what you do, chances are you deal with people, and being able to understand the needs of clients is the most important part of the design. The intimate and probably best part about this job is creating spaces where hundreds of memories will be made, kids growing up playing in the yard while mom is baking lasagna in the kitchen. Playing cards at the dinner table after dinner, tucking in for bed at night. You get to play a huge role in how your clients will feel for years to come since our surroundings have such a large impact on how we feel day to day.
I got lucky. Right away I got in touch with some old friends who I grew up with through church and had 3 jobs lined up. Keep in mind I was working full-time at a furniture store at the time and stress quickly caught up with me, putting too much on my plate at once.
I wanted to slowly go down in hours as my business grew but that was not happening, they wanted me to stay on full time and that was pretty impossible while trying to start this business and learn the ropes all by myself.
Back in Kelowna, I gave out resumes to 50+ designers, one was just on the brink of retiring, one got pregnant a week after we spoke and the others were just too busy, taking on too much. To be fair, this happened while the pandemic was pretty much in full swing so I picked the wrong time for sure, I was just so eager to start somewhere.
After trial and error over and over I almost gave up. Trust me it was hard having all these turndowns and I thought it was a sign from the universe to just quit while I was ahead. But on the other hand, I had nothing to lose, I could just go out there and try it. Of course, I was worried we wouldn’t make it financially and stress caught up to my body, quickly. I didn’t know what to do.
I believe in myself and my work ethic, I am my father’s daughter and he is a workaholic 100%. The problem was I was worried I wouldn't make it by myself since I don’t have a degree in business. My husband on the other hand does. The idea was to have him take care of the business end once it got big enough to pay the bills. For myself, I would focus on the customers and design, which would work so well since we are an amazing team and Ty is so level-headed and very much a realist, I think it would work out super well.
The only problem was Ty’s job at the bank was going so well, he was just an entry-level financial advisor when he started 6 months ago. At this point, the regional manager told him he was already on track for upper management. I was so proud of him when he came home with the news, I mean he is a smarty pants. No lie. It would take some time to climb the ladder, but he would be making quite a bit of money just moving up a couple of positions. I have always been a dreamer so I think it would be amazing to work alongside my soulmate and support each other through this business venture. He has been so amazing with just being there for me and supporting my dream no matter how hard it gets.
How did I get so lucky? No idea. How did I find him? Well, I stopped looking for “the one” and honestly, I just walked into his life. It was so easy with him, I mean the first time we spent time together we talked for over 5 hours about our lives, families and dreams. To be honest, it was fate. I know that’s cheesy and maybe even stupid but that’s our story in a nutshell.
SEPTEMBER 16 | 2022
I am honest to say, lost. I don't know what job to take at this point, of course, it would be a dream come true to work with a Designer, do an internship or even become a personal assistant.
I would love to be able to work with Trades, go shopping with clients, work on floor plans and to top it all off of course decorate. I feel as though I've been sending this out into the universe for some time now and I've had a couple of interviews but nothing has grasped my attention.
I went to the gym earlier and was chatting with one of my old Phys Ed teachers from middle school, I hadn’t seen him in over 10 years and he remembered me! He taught at that school for over 20 years and he remembered my name and quite honestly many, embarrassing stories. We were chatting about my life and what I’m looking into doing and he chuckled. Turns out his wife has been a Painter and Decorator in town for years and has been very successful! I gave him my card and told him to please pass it along to his wife, I mean honestly. If this works out, I will be in tears. I would get to work alongside a Designer in
town and work on my business on the side, I was crossing my fingers.
OCTOBER 6 | 2022
Fast forward to yesterday I woke up with the sun, had my coffee, did my daily 5
(5 things in grateful for), got ready and headed off to another interview. I was so fortunate to be able to go on a beautiful walk in the sun with the autumn crisp in the morning air and say hi to passing strangers. I walked into a gorgeous plant-filled store with stems falling under a large square counter in the back. I was home.
It smelled like a rose garden, I could have died at that moment and that would have been fine with me. I was led to a small office in the back, a gorgeous lady greeted me with bohemian decor surrounding us. The interview was amazing, we connected, laughed, talked and talked. I got the call later on that day that I got the job. I couldn’t believe I was finally going to become a florist, it had been a little dream in the back of my mind since I can remember. This position even came with the opportunity to decorate for weddings and events, I couldn’t imagine a more suitable job for me. It finally happened. To top it all off, I would be able to run my business on the side.
My affirmations, gratitude, reading self-empowerment books each day and even going back to praying to help me through this hard time, finally paid off. I sat at my desk, cried and thanked the universe. I didn’t even mind if I was going to start at the bottom again, making minimum wage. I just wanted to be happy, I knew the money would come. Having 3 side hustles on top of the new job, there would be some cash flow. I was ready to fall in love with life again. Yesterday when I was raking the red fallen leaves in my front yard, while my cat was doing parkour off the nearby trees, I was in heaven. The sun was falling behind the mountains and there was so much beauty around me. This is where my inspiration for interior design comes from, doing simple little things each day. How the colours dance throughout the light of day, the seasons slowly changing, watering my plants and watching them grow.
Anyways, I wanted to share a couple of mood boards I made for my second client today, we are getting her spaces repainted, switching some furniture around and of course, decorating. We are focusing on her living and huge sunroom that has a million windows (I’m so jealous!) I had originally created a Pinterest board with a couple of different styles for her to pull some inspiration from, I wanted to see what stuck out to her, maybe a console table, a rug, a trim design or even some dining chairs. Her response was “I love everything you picked!” She’s truly the cutest human!
I decided to go ahead and pull some ideas together and create a mood board for her, this makes it easier for clients to visualize what the space will look like. This also gives them the freedom to tell you what they love and what they don’t love, it is so easy to switch out a rug, change the hardware on the cabinets or just leave out that extra pouf if it’s not needed. There is no reason to spend extra money on things clients are not going to use. It is very important that clients are open and honest because designers are not mind-readers, we just want what's best for you.
Go ahead and check these out, let me know what you think!
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November 21st
About a week ago I get an email from a potential client, she said: “I have recently moved into a new home and am really struggling with decor, is this something that you can help with?” I had no idea where she had found me but I was so excited to get started with my next client when I was just wrapping up with the last. We set a date and I went to her gorgeous new home to do a free consultation, it was a new build and they had moved in a couple of months prior. It was like stepping into my dream home, light hardwood floors, whites, blacks and wood tones. Very modern minimalist with bohemian accents, just my style! They were a young, hip family and very sweet!
She mentioned she had so much space now and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, keeping it minimalistic was definitely a must but she wanted to make it homey! That’s a tough one, some tips to do this are adding in textures and layers with throws, pillows, rugs, baskets and curtains. Not going over the top, make sure you keep it nice and simple while adding some warmth and coziness to the space.
This space was so gorgeous, to begin with, as well she had so much great decor to style with, I pulled some wallpaper for the mudroom, and we are doing a floating bench and baskets underneath for more storage. For the Kitchen I didn’t have to source many items since there is not too much space to style, it is mostly some corner shelving and the large island. We are doing a full reorganization of the pantry which will be so satisfying once all is completed! I will add before and after photos. As for the Living room, I did source quite a few items since we have 6 large open shelves around the TV as well as a mantel which we are still waiting on. At the moment they are a little empty, which is a blessing since it is so much easier to start with than clutter!
Here are the design boards I have made up for these three spaces so far - but don’t worry we are organizing and decorating her whole house so there is a lot more coming!! I am looking forward to pulling everything together and making these spaces flow into one another easily and the warmth of the home shines through in the design.
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