By far one of the most frequently asked questions I get in regards to Styled Out West is, How did you get into Interior Design? I think it’s a popular topic for many reasons. One being that people are realizing that they can work for themselves and actually do something they love. Say what!? And while I think it’s wonderful when aspiring designers come to me for support, I am by no means an expert in this field (yet) and I don’t want to give the impression that becoming a designer is easy. I’ve certainly been hit with my fair share of challenges and I’m learning new things every single day. My best piece of advice? You just have to start! You’ll never truly know the ins and outs of this business until you go for it. But let’s go back to 2018, where it all began.

how I got into interior design

If you’re new here, 2018 was the year we decided to remodel our first home. You can read all about why we decided to remodel here. I shared the entire experience start to finish on Instagram and this little ole’ blog here and it quickly made me realize, not only did you all love the content, but I had no idea I was capable of creating and designing an entire home on my own. I hand selected every finish (flooring, tile, lighting, accessories, etc) and even contributed in designing the entire floor plan, along with the help of our space planner. I was so empowered after it was done that I decided this was something that I needed to pursue further.

During the entire remodel process, I was working with a childhood friend of mine who did Real Estate Development. He had a few new houses that he needed help designing and I took on the challenge of finding a new showroom to source our finishes and selected things like tile, flooring and plumbing for some of his projects. This only led me to want to learn more about Interior Design and the possibility of making it a career. At each phase of our remodel, I soaked in every bit of information I could. I was on the job site every single week with the superintendent, asking questions, confirming selections, and so much more. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it was a full time job. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it all. I was also home part-time with our 2 year old (who’s now almost 7!!) and living in a shoebox of an Air BNB for 6 months. But when it was done, it was 10000% worth it and I would do it a million times over again if I could (although I’d do a lot of things differently now that I do this for a living).

As we were selecting finishes and custom elements for the house, I would always run design ideas by Wes. He had a really hard time visualizing things in his head and understanding how they would go together. I remember him always saying to me “How do you know that will flow with the rest of the house?” I just knew. I still remember the day we had the final walk through, when all the construction paper was ripped off the floor, the debris cleaned away and the house was finally finished. I’ll never forget Wes saying to me “Wow, you really did it. You are really talented. Maybe you should think about doing this for a living”. And turns out, you all thought the same. I started to get message after message on Instagram or email asking if I’d help you with design challenges you were having. And so, I decided to GO FOR IT.

just go for it

I started to tease the potential of interior design services on Instagram and had people send over their email to get on a wait list of sorts. I didn’t want to jump into it too quickly before I knew what I was really getting myself into. But as I said before, you also just have to start, so I did just that. I started offering small design jobs for free just to get the experience. I also listened to as many podcasts about interior design as my brain could handle, my absolute favorite being A Well Designed Business, by Luann Nigara. I joined Facebook groups and asked questions (by the way, no question is too dumb and turns out people really are willing to help each other in this business). And as fate would have it, right around this same time, I received an email from a PR firm asking if I’d attend an event for a new Interior Design school that was opening in Seattle (honestly, what are the odds??). Of course I jumped on the opportunity to learn more about the school and their offerings. You can read more about my experience with Heritage School of Interior Design here.

After attending a few courses at Heritage, I decided I was ready to start taking on paying jobs. Through my courses, I learned how to create a contract and service offerings and decided on an hourly rate (that was grossly under valued for the work I was doing, but hey, you have to start somewhere). And in March of 2020, right before the world shut down, I was referred my first client who was building a new home in Seattle (also known as the Seward Park New Build - coming to a Project Spotlight soon). They already had the home drawn up by an architect and selected a builder so they were most interested in me selecting finishes for the entire house. The pandemic pushed the job out almost a year, but what I didn’t realize was how much interest I’d receive in that first year of business considering the world was on lockdown for the first few months. Turns out, people have a lot they want to change about their homes when they’re forced to be in them 24-7. I received more inquires than I could handle alone so I brought on Mariah (our Lead Organizer and Project Coordinator) to the team in August of 2020. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ll go more into business learnings and processes in another blog post down the line.

So here we are, almost 3 years later and I’ve been lucky enough to work in some amazing homes and most importantly, meet the most incredible families. From a new build home from scratch, to furnishing and styling a 4,000 sq ft home, to organizing a playroom, office, pantry, bathroom, kitchen, closet (and so much more), I still have pinch me moments that this is my reality.

And because I always keep it real with you guys, I want to be very clear - it’s not always as glamorous as it looks from the outside. Running an Interior Design business is 90% business, and 10% design. Definitely not something I realized when I started this journey. There are bookkeepers, program fees, contractors who draw CAD and more technical things I don’t do (or like to do for that matter), social media help, client management systems (thank goodness for Mariah who helps manage all that for us), business coaches (I’ve paid for two already since I’ve started), website developers and graphic designers and quite honestly the list goes on. Oh, and then there’s this blog and website maintenance and content creation (all me) that’s a huge part of keeping the brand relevant and top of mind and helping us to bring in new business. It’s an expensive (and busy) business to run, but I also know the return is so worth it for me because at the end of the day, I get to help people. That has always been the core of my passion with interior design. Helping others to experience the joy and serenity that I feel in my own home, and knowing that I’m alleviating the stress that’s involved with making a house a home.

Okay, I know that was a lot of information I just threw at you, but I feel like I barley touched the surface with what the past three years have looked like. But looking back, I am so proud of how far Styled Out West has come and I can’t wait to come back here in 3 more years and reflect on our success. To close this out, I also want to say THANK YOU to all of you who have supported us. Whether you shared our account on social media, told a friend about us, have been a paying client or even just read the blog. Every single bit of engagement with our brand counts. I am so grateful for this community and after writing this post, so thankful to have a platform to share this on.