In 2016, I was thinking about inspiration and wrote this post.  It’s now 2020, and I looked back to see if I am still moved by the same things, and what inspires me now. 

What gets you going in the morning? What makes you who you are? What inspired me to create a home staging and design business, and why does it matter?

Some people call this your “brand”. Why should your customers pick you over someone else? What is it about you they “connect” with? It is probably that invisible thing that inspires you, that gets you going, that resonates with them in a way that they connect and trust you so they want to do business with you. Most people will tell you about the product or service they offer and why it is so wonderful. But it really comes down to you.  What makes you different?

For me it is all about beauty. I love beauty. I want to surround myself with it and surround others with it, like a warm, cozy, colorful blanket. I like to see it when I wake up, as I go through my day and when I fall asleep at night.  It makes me happy. I love to create beautiful rooms, jewelry and art.

What inspires my sense of what beauty is? Looking back I think it all relates to the colors, patterns, light and texture in nature. Mother nature is the best designer, there is magic everywhere you look!

Having worked as a wildlife biologist in my “other career” for close to 25 years, I have spent a lot of time examining things on a large scale and down to the microscopic detail in nature. I see a beautiful wildflower or bird with its colors and patterns and envision a room using that color scheme. I look at a plant under a microscope and think, wow that would make an amazing fabric pattern or piece of art or the perfect accent pillow.  I look at the color of a glacial lake and want to design a piece of stained glass that with the light shining through would capture that amazing color. I look at the gorgeous view outside your house and think of your windows as the art in your home that everything else should highlight. I see the unfolding of a fern in the spring and want to design earrings that show that beautiful shape.  I see the full moon rising over the mountains and want to capture the beauty of the light in a room. I see the magic of the northern lights and want to provide you with that feeling of amazement when your house is complete.

Once I see your house, I envision what it could be and can’t stop thinking about it until it happens.

Now, in 2020,  I am still inspired by the same things, and I see how they have shaped my business over the last 4 years in numerous ways. My inspiration to create beauty from what I see in nature has shaped my designs to help connect others with nature with Biophilia and to create eco-friendly and sustainable designs whenever possible. My fascination with the beauty of color inspired me to become a certified color strategist, using both the art and science of color to create beauty through color harmony. Most of my designs use color palettes from nature and are meant to bring the outside in or connect homes with their landscapes. I often do this by measuring colors of plants in the homes landscape to find paint colors. I have specialized more in global design styles, which bring all these inspirations together in a variety of ways. I started working with fractal art, which reminds me of the beauty I would see when looking at plants under a microscope, and created a whole line of home decor at my artist studio on Society 6!

It will be interesting to see how things evolve over the next 10 years!

What is your inspiration for your business and your life?