Hello and welcome to episode 51 of Design Curious Podcast.
I'm your host and mentor, Rebecca Ward.
Today on the podcast, I have a great interview with Selena
Lewis. And before I get into her bio, I
want to remind you that if you're new to this podcast and
you're trying to figure out if you want to do interior design,
well, there are a lot of different design types that you
can do out there. I talked a lot about residential
here on the podcast, but we also talked a lot about hospitality
and commercial design. And I would love to talk a
little bit more about the spatial experience design.
And so you can learn what type you should be doing with my quiz
that you can find in the show note links.
You're going to take that and discover which type of design
you should be doing. And that will get you at least
on the first step of understanding a career in
interior design. So go take that quiz.
And now let me tell you a little bit more about Selena.
As a professional interior designer based in Atlanta, GA,
Selena Lewis prides herself on her thriving business that is
built on client testimonials. Her outstanding work has
recently been recognized in Atlanta's My Home Improvement
magazine as a top 10 rising star in the home improvement
industry. Selena's design style is best
described as eclectic with a penchant for incorporating
playful Wallpapers, rich textures and bowl patterns to
elevate spaces. She is skilled in blending
different styles to create unique and personalized
interiors for her clients. So I really enjoyed my
conversation with Selena and just understanding how she got
started and talk a little bit more about what she specializes
in. So let's hear from Selena.
You're now listening to Design. Curious, a place where you,
Creative One, are here to learn about what it really is like to
be an interior designer. And I'm your host and mentor,
Rebecca Ward. If you're worried about how to
succeed in a creative career, if you're ready to learn your next
steps to become an interior designer, and if you want the
satisfaction of doing something you love every day you are in
the right place, Grab a coffee, a notebook, and let's dig into
today's episode. Hi Selena, Welcome to Design
Curious Podcast. Hi.
Thanks for having me. Yeah, so glad you're here.
And I'd love to learn a little more about you and for our
audience. I know that you're based in
Atlanta. Tell us a little more about the
design that you do in your business.
So. My design business kind of
started off of wallpaper, which is kind of funny story.
I've just always been into it for years and years and it kind
of started that way and has just channeled itself into full
design renovations, new builds, all the things.
But I still specialize in color and pattern and I think that is
what. Draws a lot of people to me is
bringing that element in that I actually, when I first started
to, I started working with a lot of designers in the area,
because a lot of designers are really good at furnishings or
the Chotsky stuff, the little decorative accents and staging.
But I think in today's world, we are seeing more and more of
color. And pattern and mixing the two.
And I think that's where a lot of designers struggle.
You know, I would help designers kind of pull those elements in
and help them with that. So yeah.
So it's been a. Wild ride.
So how did you get into wallpaper then?
So, so weird. I've always done it.
I've always had it in my houses for years and years before
wallpaper was trendy, obviously when our parents were.
Younger and our grandparents wallpaper is like this big
thing. And every now and then you
still. Yeah, yeah, it's the borders.
Every now and then you still see you get a lot of pushback from
people when you do introduce a wallpaper.
And they're like, Oh my gosh. Like, I remember stripping that
down with my mom when I was 12. Or I remember.
This gaudy border, like fruit border, you know, pears across
the top of your kitchen. And so I try to tell people all
the time like that's not what today's wallpaper is.
Now, yes, there's still a lot of very traditional Wallpapers out
there and they work beautifully in homes, but now we have just
so many more things and so much more that we bring to the table
with it. So I've always just done it.
I've always had it in my homes. A lot of people would say, like,
oh, when you go to sell your house, like you have this bold,
crazy wallpaper accent wall. And I'm like, I got to live in
my home. And honestly, what I found is
that it didn't like, nobody cared, like we would sell a
house, we would redo it, we would put wallpaper in, we would
make it bold and people loved it.
And I think people will have a hard time.
Doing that in their own space so that when they see it done,
they're like, oh, I like it. And so I just kind of got into
it. I've always just kind of watched
it and followed it. And then when I started doing
design, I kind of started that way.
Like I started helping people pick wallpaper and I got into
actually installing it, which was crazy.
Yes, I used to do the installs for my clients only like you
know you. Order paper through me like I
put it up and it was good. I'm so glad that I had that
experience. One, just helps me understand
like that process. But two, it was a good stepping
stone into the world. We do live in a very competitive
market in Atlanta for designers. I think that a lot of people,
they know the look and a lot of people can become a designer,
right? But it's more of.
Finding somebody who can incorporate everything.
So we have furnishing companies out there now.
A lot of people there's like Trifecta and there's all these
different like furnishing companies out there and they're
wonderful and they're great resources for designers to use.
However, they try to become a designer to sell their
furnishings. So where those designers are
mainly like? We're here to sell your
furnishing. Yeah, we'll help you kind of do
a vision board, but our goal is to sell furnishings.
I think it's important to differentiate yourself as a
designer from someone who's just kind of doing your one track
mind. Sure, I'm going to pick out
furnishings for you, but I'm all and I'll throw like some curtain
selections in there for you. But your primary objective is to
sell furniture. Where you know a designer is,
you don't have an objective. Your objective is to complete
the space and make the space for what your client wants it to be.
And there's no like agenda per se.
So I think in this market, separating yourselves and having
something that you are really good at, it's important.
And I get a lot of clients strictly just our wallpaper.
They just call me to help them pick out their wallpaper and we.
Take them through that process and we bring the books to them
and bring the samples to them and put them up in their space.
And some of those end up becoming more than that.
Yeah. And I think it's important when
people start to kind of see that visual coming together and just
bringing that all to life. Yeah.
So did you work out of a store or how did you get your
wallpaper sources? So I just started doing a lot of
research. I would spend a lot of time like
at night, I would just go on Google and I would just start
looking up different papers and different brands and I would
contact the reps and I just started getting accounts.
I would then take those accounts and I would actually go through
their online samples and I would just order samples.
And then I started ordering a lot of paper and then a few of
my accounts had come to me and said, hey, you know, you're
doing a lot of volume, we want to send you books.
And so then they would send me books.
And then from there, and I'm still like to this day, I
actually just got a new company that reached out to me and said,
hey, can we send you some books of our stuff?
And two books showed up last week and I.
Peek through them a little bit, but they're so good.
So I'm like, now I'm going to research that vendor, but I'm
really particular to like. I try to help clients
differentiate between Wallpapers because there are some great
wallpaper sources out there, and wallpaper is if you've ever done
it in your house. It's actually not a cheap
endeavor. I don't think people understand
like how expensive it actually can be.
And even a, I carry a couple pretty affordable brands and
then I have everything up to like you know, super high end
expensive and I try to you know, show people the differences.
I'm very particular about quality on the paper too.
So like, I'm very particular about that.
And so I'll do a lot of research on those brands.
Yeah. And I think it helps that you
also know how to install it so you understand what to look for
out of a paper. Like you're not just looking at
how how pretty it is. You're like making sure it's the
right application for the space and for that client, right?
Yes. And I tell people all the time,
like, there's a brand out there. I don't want to mention names,
but a lot of people go to it. They have cool paper, it's fun,
it's funky, and people actually think it's pretty affordable.
But when you start the way that they do their measurements,
clients always say, oh, what about this and?
I'll look at it and go okay, but you don't understand.
It looks like it's $24.00 A roll, but that's not, that's a
sheet and you need like 40 sheets to get you around the
room. And also the quality.
Like I tell them like, listen, you can buy this, I'm not going
to order this for you. You're welcome to order it on
your own. And I'm not going to have my
installer put it in either because.
You're not going to be happy with it.
And that's a reflection on me. And I understand like you fall
in love with the print and I get that.
I totally understand that. And I don't ever tell clients
not to do it. I just, I can't back it because
it doesn't turn out right. And it's an investment.
Like, wallpaper is an investment.
Yeah. And I do think, going back to
what you said earlier, that it's interesting that people still,
to this day, even though they've had some cool Wallpapers out for
10 plus years, they still think of it as their grandma's
wallpaper. They just can't get past that
stigma of like, wallpaper being stuffy, old thing, you know?
And every time I introduce it to a client, they're like, Oh no, I
don't want wallpaper. And then we'll show them what it
looks like, like, Oh yeah, I could handle that, but not like
some little, you know, many floral things.
Yes, yes. So it's it's come such a long
way. There's so many different
textures, styles, vinyls, really cool stuff.
I mean we even have like wallpaper that's like fabric
that's so fun and it does it. Paint is flat.
I always tell people like, yes, there are times where we want to
do paint and we want to accent with paint, but paint is a very
flat. We're wallpaper.
Even if it doesn't have a design on it, it is very dimensional
and it really can pull a lot of different colors, tones,
dimensions, textures, and it just adds life to the space.
But believe it or not, florals are coming back.
I live in an area outside of Atlanta in kind of a suburb area
of Atlanta and we're very traditional houses.
And so when we're doing design in these types of houses, we're
competing with the modern. But unless you're going to
completely gut and rebuild from scratch, you are still stuck
with a lot of very traditional elements in these homes.
And so we try to bring a very transitional environment.
And so we might still have some like modernist styles, but we
might pop a floral. For instance, in my house I live
in a very traditional home. In my dining room I have this
very like geometric wallpaper. But then if you go into my
kitchen I have a floral. So we really try to balance
different Wallpapers and really try to make it fun and edgy and
give because every client wants that modern look, but it just
doesn't always work in every client's house because you have
traditional trim. You have.
Elements and unless you're going to just once again got it all
out and start over, got to make it blend.
Yeah. But it works, you know?
It works really well and it just gives people, Someone once told
me it's just there's something to look at something When you
walk into this house, there's so many things for your eyes to
look at and it's really cool, you know?
Yeah, so definitely, yeah. So wallpaper is kind of your
niche to get into the industry. And now are you doing full
service design? Yes, I do full service design.
I work with a builder and I do new builds with them.
And then I have a general contractor that works just with
me as a designer, and we have. Oh gosh, so many renovation
projects going on right now. I thought that the renovation
world would maybe slow down a little bit just because of the
housing, you know, market kind of has slowed down.
But people honestly, my husband says this, he's like your
business is kind of recession proof.
Like I hate saying that, but if someone is buying a new house
then they are typically. Looking to hire a designer to
decorate or furnish or whatever and vice versa.
If you're not in the house buying like realm, you're
probably investing in the current house that you have.
So we haven't slowed down at all when it comes to any of that.
I think when COVID hit, we all saw this, but your house became
your haven, your house became your haven, and everybody wanted
to invest in their homes. And make their homes what they
wanted it have that space and I think people really started to
look around and go oh maybe I want to if.
I'm going to be stuck in. My house maybe I wanted to be
what I want you know so I think we saw a lot of that and then
the housing market kind of boomed right after that.
So then we saw the effects of that.
So it's I love all of it. The renovation process is it's
harder because you're. Working with a lot of elements
and trying to change a lot of elements.
But once again, you're having to still stick with the basics of
the home. But I think the beautiful thing
with my design too is whether you're renovating or you're just
trying to create a space based off of what you have, it's like
a joke. A designer friend of mine, like
she has to take down walls, like she just just come in and it has
to be what she wants to do. Yeah, like okay, this room is.
I can't, I can't visualize this room because it's not what I
want. But for me, it's like the
ongoing joke. You can put lipstick on a pig.
So you know, I can come, I can take your room and make it what
we want it to look like because I can visualize that.
And that's all really what design is.
I mean, design is the vision that you have and what you can
visualize and what you can't. And that doesn't make you a good
designer or a bad designer. It just makes you unique and
there are things that I am not great at, like the chochky
stuff, like the little decorating stuff.
I mean I can do it. It's not my favorite thing to
do. There are some designers that
that is what they're really good at.
They're gonna taking 3 vases and putting them on a shelf and
making them look beautiful. I am a very like in person
person. I like to be hands on with my
clients so. I would really struggle.
I do have some virtual clients and I do virtual a lot and it
works really great. I've had no issues with it.
But once again there are designers that that's all they
do is build virtual boards and that works me.
I'd like to be handson. I like to show my clients, even
my virtual clients, I send them samples.
It's not like I'm going to build them a board and then hey, here
you go, this is it. It's going to be a very handson
experience, but just through. The mail or through a zoom call
where they can see the samples and they can touch them and feel
them, because I do think that's very important.
I think it's really hard to understand what a product looks
like or how a product is without being able to see it or touch
it. So they're designers for
everything and some designers, like I said, are wonderful.
They can build a vision board and send that out and that
works. Yeah, we all have different
strengths. Exactly.
So for me, it's more I'm more personal, more hands on with my
clients. I just like it that way, yeah.
And they'll be clients that are attracted to that style of
working with the designer as opposed some others want to just
be a little more independent. So they like that more hands off
approach. So exactly.
So it's really the client finding the designer that
matches how they want to work with a designer, yeah.
Exactly, Yeah. So market is this week, but
yeah, is really hard for me. Good.
So you're in Atlanta. So do you go to the market there
all the time I imagine? My kids are home from school.
It's kind of a weird time because we never really know
when our travel, like when we will travel in the summer and
even with camps with my kids, I try to keep it open because you
know, we just, I don't know, sometimes I'm just like, hey,
let's go here, let's do that. So summer is a little hard.
Because I'm not a buyer, I have accounts with a lot of big
market names and stuff for furnishings, decor and all of
that. But because I don't have a
storefront, market is not as important for me.
Where if you have a storefront and you're having to constantly
keep updated inventory or get ready for Christmas, typically
market becomes more important for you to go to.
In Atlanta, we have a winter market that's in January.
And I always go to that one. And I feel like that's a good
time of year because it's like you get to kind of get a fresh
start. It's like right after the
holidays, you're kind of getting into that realm.
That's a busy time after Christmas when everybody's house
is empty and they're like, maybe I want to decorate.
So I'll go out for the day and spend the day and just kind of
like see what's out there. I still have not made it to in
North Carolina. I just it always lands on like
our spring. Break Yeah, yeah.
I am determined to go because I know that market that's the
biggest one like in the Southeast.
And so I do want to make it out there, but I do go because I do
like to see what's going on and you know look at all the new
vendors and samples and. I learned this like years ago.
But like, I feel like at those types of places, if you could
just pick up like 1 little Pearl, you know, one little idea
or thought or, you know, inspiration.
I call it a Pearl. Then you can, yeah, And it's
worth it. Yeah, I often feel like when I
go to market, it's it's like I'm storing these ideas and then I
never know when they'll pop back up later on I'll be like, oh, I
actually saw the perfect thing for that when I was at market,
you know? And when I'm at Mark, I don't
know what I'm going to use it for.
It's just like getting some inspiration.
Yeah, I had that last night actually on I was perusing
Wayfair, looking for some vanities just for some basement
bathrooms we're doing. And I saw just this cool like
little Insto and I just screenshot it and I'm like, oh,
I'm going. To use this at some point, I
don't know where but. Yeah, it's back up in my mind,
but I think we're inspiration. It's like, of course everybody
likes to take credit and think that they're the founder of
their own ideas. But we all use inspiration and
come up with things, and I we do, and I think as designers
we're always looking at other designers and we use them as
inspiration. I have a few of my favorites in
Atlanta that I just follow and just.
Love their looks. I think that's just such a
compliment. I've seen things of mine that
I've done that have popped up and other designers, like the
people will text me like, Oh my gosh, are you so upset?
They kind of stole your idea and they're like, no, I think that's
great. Like, I think that's like the
biggest compliment. If someone takes a design that I
did and recreates it in their own realm, I'm not offended by
that. This industry can be very else.
Talking with the client this morning, they're just, we went
and picked out countertops and we rode together and we're just
chit chatting. And it's one of the things I
don't love about this industry is I feel like it's competitive,
but it doesn't have to be competitive.
I think if everybody can appreciate kind of what each
person's world is and what they're good at and focus on
that versus focusing on this competitive nature, oh, she
didn't do this right or they didn't do this right and just
appreciate each designer, each person in the industry for what
they bring to the table. But it's just one of the things
like, I've just never been, I've never cared.
Like I don't care if my neighbor's a designer.
Like I would think that's cool. You know, I think there's enough
business out there for everybody to do well and be successful.
And I don't know, I just think that's important to just kind of
And I think that, you know, you don't want to create enemies
because you never know when you're going to need somebody or
you're going to need help or you're stuck and you're like, Oh
my gosh, like I just don't even know what to do.
Yeah, because there are times where that happens.
There are times where you get into a space and you're like,
what do I do? Like, I'm stumped.
I mean, if you do get stumped, I mean, it is not.
I don't think if any designer tells you that they've never had
a space that has just completely, like, blown their
mind and they can't figure it out.
They're lying. Yeah, because we've all walked
into a space and we've gone. What do I do?
What am I doing? Yeah.
And so it's like you, you get into that realm and and you end
up figuring it out, of course. But, you know, it's not instant.
Like, you don't. Sometimes you walk into a space.
You're like, Oh my gosh, I know exactly what I'm going to do
right now through this space. Like this is what we're doing.
We don't even need to go any further.
This is what it is. But then you walk into some
spaces and you're like, you know, what am I going to do with
this? Yeah.
I am not inspired yet, no. I have no vision all drained
from my body. But I do think if the industry
is very small, and I do believe that if we all just appreciated
everybody, then you don't. You don't have that.
You know, like I might not win the the deal down the street,
but someone else does and that's Okay.
Yeah, that's, you know. Yeah, I.
Went something. Outlook.
Yeah, yeah. Community over competition for
sure. Do you have anyone else working
with you than in your company or so?
I have an assistant who is amazing.
She doesn't do design with me but she is like my right hand
like everything. I can send her all the things
and she will put them in boards and she'll put them in list
books and coordinates all the admin stuff for me.
And she's actually getting into organizing, which is really
cool. It's kind of a new thing we just
started taking on. I hired A organizer to do my
house, and we love her and she's wonderful, but I learned a lot
watching her. And then we were trying to come
up with some just more creative ideas to kind of help her make
more money. She's kind of taken that under
her wing. And so we've been offering that
kind of service up with clients and stuff and she'll go in and
like for renovation clients, she'll go in and pack their
kitchen up for them. That's so helpful.
Yeah, we always recommend professional to do that.
Yeah, like pack your kitchen up for you, purge, do whatever
needs to be done and then going in and doing that.
And so it's been great. She's done a great job with this
and she does a lot of that. She's just wonderful.
And then I work with a general contractor.
It is a partnership, but it's not like a true, like
partnership. Yeah, Yeah.
Yeah. So it just kind of fell into
place. I had a few clients that had
reached out for renovation projects.
And so I kind of knew him through just the industry.
And he was working with another designer team in the area.
I had asked him if you want to do a couple projects with me and
he was like sure, wonderful. So we did a few projects and
they went really well. And then he ended up deciding
that he wanted to part ways with that other partnership and it
just kind of organically happened.
We ended up I got busier and just kept like piling more onto
him and piling more onto him to finally one day he just came to
me and said, I mean you're so busy that I can't take work from
anybody else. And so he's like I'm not going
to like basically work with any other designers.
And since then, So the way it works, if I have a renovation
like a client that needs a renovation or has a renovation
project, I will bring him to quote the job.
I always tell clients you do not have to use him.
Sure. I will not bring another
contractor to the table personally, but if you have a
contractor that you want to use, like I'm happy to work with
them. But nine times out of 10, I
mean, he's such a great guy and just such a good communicator.
And you know, I always tell people when it comes to like
renovations, listen, we all have had bad experiences in a
renovation project, whether it's timeline or whether it's
anything like that. You know, something didn't
happen, right? What you can't change as
somebody's core personality and and their moral compass, you
know he's really good at taking care of clients and addressing
those things and communication is key.
So that's kind of how it works. So I work with him and then we
have kind of teams of people too that come in during that.
But it it works and it's great and clients tend to like that.
I think they enjoy that. I think they enjoy having
someone like me to bounce. To they can share their
frustrations like, hey, I'm not really happy with this that's
going on and you know with the tile or whatever and I'll jump
in so it works. Great.
So where do you see your business going?
I know, Home Improvement Magazine said.
You're one of the top 10 rising stars.
I know that was crazy. I know that was such an honor to
be nominated and voted into that.
I honestly, you know, longterm goals like dreams for me.
I guess a dream for me would be to like Collab and like have my
own little wallpaper line or something like that.
Something fun. Yeah.
And I think just keep pushing my vendor.
Yeah. So I would love that.
Like, that would be so cool to like do the little collab and
like design a couple papers. So that would be something that
a dream of mine. I don't know.
I mean, every year I learn new things.
Every year I learn what I like more and what I don't like more.
And I've passed up so many great opportunities.
And I think my husband sometimes just says, why did you, Why are
you, why do you not want to do that?
I think you Start learning really what you like, really
what your, you know, niche is and you know what's worth it.
So I think for me long term, for my business, I don't know, I I
just, I really don't open. To the possibility, I'm just
open to all the possibilities and constantly being innovative
and trying to grow. I also do believe in that
customer service experience with people.
I just think clients deserve that.
They deserve to have that person and the time that you give with
them is very important. I'm not like a one stop shopper,
you know. I'm not going to just put the
product in your house. It's going to make me the most
funny. It's going to be.
Who knows, you know, it may come from Target, it may come from
Wayfair, it may come from a big name brand.
We really do a lot of that. We source a lot.
My job is hard. I always tell my husband.
I feel like my job is harder than most of the designers out
there because I am sourcing from everywhere.
A lot of designers will only source from vendors that they do
the most business. With or they make the most money
or it's just sometimes doesn't even have anything to do with
that. It's just the easiest.
There's a designer in the area and every single paper that she
puts in like a house, it's the same vendor and it's just easy.
So for me, I think it's more of just taking the time to find
unique things for people and something different.
Of course there's always going to be that person that's like, I
saw this on your Instagram. I want this exact look for my
household, this exact paper, this exact everything.
And that's totally fine. And we do, because at the end of
the day, it's the client's decision what they want to do.
But we try to constantly bring fresh things to a home.
Like, I know you really like this paper, but maybe you should
look at this one because we've done this one like 12 times.
But you know, it's just because we want to bring, you know, we
want to bring. But I get it.
And when I first started this business, I thought, nobody is
going to ever pay me to design their house.
Like I really thought that I was my, my friends, a real estate
agent was like, Selena, you are missing, you're calling.
And I'm like nobody. But what I learned is that
people really don't. A lot of people don't.
They know what they want. They just don't know how to put
it together or they know what they want.
But they're so scared. They need someone to hold their
hand and say, no, you're you're right.
Like you, you've got it, you've got this.
And so that's where I think designers are very important and
a lot of people have a problem spending the money.
They don't want to spend the money on a designer, and I get
that, I totally understand that. But a designer will save you
money in the long because we have all been that person that
has gone to HomeGoods and bought 400 pillows and we have 400
pillows in a closet because we could not find the right one and
we just never returned them. You know, we've all been that
person that goes out and we buy things and we impulse shop.
You know, we go out and we impulse shop.
I have a client. I love her to those.
She's super sweet girl. She has so many chairs in her
house. She would impulse shop and buy
chairs and more chairs and more chairs.
And so it's like she finally hired me and I'm like, we don't
impulse shop anymore. Like they're very selective
about the. Plan what chairs are by.
So I think it is hard to swallow that pill of like, Oh my gosh,
I'm paying someone money. To do this, but the value is.
There, as you do save money, you make the right decisions.
The first time. You want to pick the right paint
color for your house because you're paying $10,000 to have
your house painted. You don't want that to be wrong.
I don't want that to be wrong either.
But yeah, let's be honest. One of the scariest things ever,
especially an exterior. Someone's like, hey, I'm gonna
paint the exterior of my house what color?
And I'm like, yeah, you know, you're pretty.
Sure, this is gonna be good, but then you're still holding your
breath until you see it. You're like, what day are they
painting? I'm going to show up right when
they put that first stroke on, you know, no going back.
So yeah, I don't know. I don't know where I I don't
know. That's such a tough question
because I feel like every year I grow, I know more about who I
am, what I want to be when I grow up, who I want to be when I
grow up. And I just think all I can do is
just look forward to whatever it brings, you know, whatever this
industry. But I do say the hardest thing
and one of the things that's totally unrelated to really
interior design is just trying to find that balance for
yourself. I think you can understand, and
I think anybody that is either selfemployed or even if you're
not selfemployed, but I always joke, I'm like running my own
business. It's been the hardest thing I've
ever done in my life, you know, it's been the hardest thing I've
ever done. And my boss, she's such a slave
driver, she never gets any time off and I don't ever get raises.
It's just so, so unfair. I think that's been the hardest
thing. I think for me it's just finding
some balance to like, hey, hey, like, this is important.
And I know you give your all to everybody, but you got to rein
it in and give it all to you sometimes.
Maybe give yourself a raise. So yeah, exactly.
I need to give myself a raise and I need to give myself some
time. But I think that's important.
I think anybody that's going into this industry and working
on their own and trying to start their business and design or
anything, it's hard. I mean, it's a hustle and it's
it's a lot of work and there are a lot of nights where you're up
late and a lot of days and weekends, you know, and
evenings. It's not just the wife makes the
decisions anymore. I mean, yeah, ultimately happy
wife, happy life. You know, that's motto still is
said all the time in my industry.
But spouses want to be involved more and more.
I have. Too, Yeah, they are.
And more. And it's their money too.
And it's an investment and they do.
It's more times than not it is a spouse.
Both spouses are involved in the decision.
So you might you sometimes are like on a Sunday running over
and meeting a client or you are on a an evening taking a call
late because that's just how it is.
So I think you know, just anybody going into this just
knowing like it's hard, it's a lot of time, you know?
Yeah, So what would you say to an aspiring designer who is
being told, like, you're missing your calling, and then they're
thinking like, oh, no one's going to pay me for this, but
like, they're thinking about maybe becoming a designer?
What would you tell that person? Just do it.
I will never forget those conversations.
They still are very like, dear to me and just those people that
and I had thought about it and I had reached out to a few
designer friends of mine that had schooling backgrounds and
they were like I said, what school should I go to?
Like what if if I want to like, do this, where should I go to
school? And they're like, you don't need
it, you don't need it, you have it.
And I'll never forget the moment when I got that call from my
friend and she was like, hey, ready or not sending you your
first client. And I said, what do I do?
And she said, just be you, just be you.
She called me. And yeah, it just all was from
there and it just never slowed down.
You've got to have some faith in yourself and know that it's not
overnight. And it is a lot of work.
It's so rewarding when you make those clients happy and when you
see those finished products and when you go through that, it's
rewarding and it it just drives you even more to want to do it
more, You know, it's like you get that taste and you're like,
OK, I want to do more, but yeah, I mean, just go for it.
I get it where it's scary because I think that's with
anything design, anything new that you want to endeavor.
And I think that that is, it's scary.
Yeah, Because unknown territory, Yeah.
And I think you just have to
have confidence in yourself, which I know is hard.
Trust me, everybody has issues with that at times.
But having that confidence and understanding that you can do it
and you may you might fail. I failed a lot.
I'm sure at different things and there are sometimes where I
don't always get it right and sometimes things happen, but you
just have to just know that that's just part of growing.
So good. So where can everybody find you
if they wanted to reach out and see more about wallpaper or
about your business and keep track of, Yeah, I'm on
Instagram. I'm getting better.
You know, that's one of the things that's like I always
joke. I'm like I'm a creative, I don't
do the technical stuff. So I'm doing that for every now.
So we're getting there. But it grew so fast that that
was kind of like one of the my business has been all referral
and word of mouth, which is crazy.
Call me doing all the things and it's been fun.
I just started kind of getting into a little bit of marketing
and really pushing through my social media.
It's always been that way. But I am on Instagram.
It's just Selena Lewis designs. I have a website and then but
you can contact me, you know, same thing Selena Lewis designs
that you can reach me. I think my personal cells on
there so anybody can text. Yeah.
Thank you so much for sharing all of your insight and your
where you started and where you're going.
And it's going to be exciting to follow your journey there.
So thank you so much, Selena. Yes, and thank you so much for
having me. So I love that conversation with
Selena. I love always hearing how other
designers have started and built their businesses.
And I love. Also, talking with her a little
more about wallpaper because that is such a niche that a lot
of designers don't know a lot about or educate their clients
about or even incorporate into their designs.
And as you know, there are so many different types of
wallpaper and different types of applications that it's
definitely fun to meet someone so experienced in using that
product. So you can check out all of
Selena's information in the show notes.
We have links to her website. And her social media.
And if you'd like to know more about the three things I wish I
had known before I started a career in interior design, you
can get the download there on the website, as well as the
roadmap to interior design. So you can find all those links
in the Show Notes our wardesign.com podcast and that
will get you to all of the information as well as.
A summary of today's episode and all the other episodes that you
may have listened to or missed in the past.
You can find them all there on the website, so check that out.
Don't forget to also leave me a 5 star rating and review.
I love to hear from you and you can also reach out to me on
Instagram at our award design and let me know what you think
of the podcast. All right, Until next week, stay
creative. Thanks for listening.
If you love this episode, please leave a rating and a review.
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head over to my website rwardesign.com or e-mail me at
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