We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shelli Cottingham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shelli, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

My Mom is my hero and has influenced me greatly in my decorating business. I’m an only child of a single Mom, and in my elementary school years we were pretty strapped for money. We moved around a lot when I was a kid, but my Mom always put a positive spin on the moves. “We can redecorate” she’d say. Now that did not mean we would go buy new things, but she would always have a challenge of making our new home or apartment look a little different, and somehow better, by using what we already had. Instead of dreading packing up and moving again, she’d create an excitement from within about change, new opportunities, and the fun challenge of creating yet another home together.. My Mom worked several jobs while also attending dental hygiene school, and after the eighth grade she had a more steady income, and we eventually built a house and settled in a small North Carolina mountain town. While I loved the stability of staying in one place, I longed for change within our walls. So, we would just rearrange things pretty often to keep it exciting. To this day, I have a REARRANGE, REPURPOSE, REUSE philosophy with my clients. Step one for me is always trying to find a home for the special meaning items my clients have before ever purchasing something new.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As I said, decorating has been my passion since I was a child. I was a teacher, however, when we were raising a family, and my teaching work schedule worked well for us. But I always had a side decorating job going on, and I knew in my soul that I would regret it later in life if I didn’t take the leap at some point and try to start my own decorating business. When we became empty nesters, my incredible, supportive husband encouraged me to take that leap, so I closed my eyes and jumped!

If I had to say what makes my business unique, I would say the value I provide. I have taken many online courses and I do everything I can to stay up to date within my industry, but I do not have a degree in design.. I completely respect and admire interior designers, and I call myself a decorator, not a designer since I’m not formally trained. My abilities and talents are from the gut and the heart, and I truly believe in myself, my design eye, and my ability to understand the very specific and individual styles of my clients. My fees are affordable, and I truly just want to help people make their house a home without breaking the bank for my services.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I feel like I have come full circle these days. I think back to those days as a child where I got so excited about redecorating our new home. I think about my first college dorm when my best friend and I absolutely decked out our room and they asked if they could use a picture of our dorm room on the brochure. I think about all the side gigs I had while I was a teacher. And then I think about how grateful I am that now in mid life, I’m doing the job I know I was meant to do. But the most rewarding part is, that hero of mine…..my Mom, the dental hygienist….She has retired now and helps me with my decorating company. When I was 10 and she was 30, we jumped right in to every new house with eagerness and excitement about the power of transformations. And now I’m 55 and she’s 75, and somehow we’re even more excited now!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think the biggest goal I have is to make myself available for every budget. To be able to create soul spaces in any size home. To make my clients see that decorating can be a fun, collaborative project where I offer help and suggestions and make the process less stressful. To create homes and spaces that are full of beauty, memories, and inspired by THEM, not me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @decorgeous
• Facebook: Shelli Cottingham