Thursday, September 23, 2010

Welcome to my Blog!

I am an Interior Designer in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I started English Green Interiors in 1997 with another designer, Traci English. We worked together and were not happy in our place of employment. I'll never forget the day she looked at me said "I'm leaving and if you want to come with me we'll start a business."
We sealed the deal over Chinese and never looked back. So began English Green Interiors (our last names).
At the time, I was 7 months pregnant, we were remodeling our house and my husband was between jobs.Talk about a leap of faith!  I remember driving by the lake on my way to work-(I live in a beautiful place and have a very scenic drive) and praying..... OK God, if you want me to do this, open the doors and I'll walk through them. I never had a moment of doubt. My clients followed me, opportunities came from everywhere and we never missed a beat. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! God put me exactly where I needed to be to succeed and I am truly blessed to have a job I love!

Now 13 years later I can't believe the journey I've been on. I'm still walking through those doors! I continue to own English Green Interiors, and although Traci moved about an hour away 7 years ago and now has her own business, we are still the best of friends. I'm divorced, my 3 girls are 24,21 and 12 and time has flown by!

The downturn of the economy has brought changes to our area- our second home community has been hit hard by the slowdown in real estate sales. I have seen an increase in remodeling and  have several small jobs going on also. I made the decision to close my retail shop and focus entirely on Interior Design. My mother and I recently opened a site on ETSY called The Appointed Home where we sell pillows that I design and she creates. I'm also working on adding a retail store to my website and doing some online Interior Design consultation. I have a wealth of resources, know where to find just about anything wonderful for the home and love to help people achieve just the right look. I feel, in this new market  we need to expand our scope and the internet is a great way to branch out and reach potential clients. It's the way of the future for sure!

I decided to start this blog to give exposure to and promote my ETSY  and English Green Interiors websites, help people connect with all the great resources I find in my research, and give me an outlet to talk about my love of decorating and Interior Design!

I hope you'll follow me as I begin my journey of blogging.  (blogging- seriously....are you sure GOD?????)     I plan to post some before and after articles, portfolio shots, (Maybe that will encourage me to take those pictures!)  fabulous finds and trends that are on my radar. I'd also like to post your design questions so ask and I will answer!

Yours in design,
Debra

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