We recently connected with Elizabeth Medina Ross and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I am a type A personality person and as such love order, dependability and being in control. At the beginning of Covid after much deliberation I made the difficult decision to get a divorce. I was married to a great person, but we no longer made each other happy or whole. It was so very difficult to make and to share with my grown children. During the same time, I decided to pursue completely my love and dream for interior design. I have been designing my whole life. First as a systems designer which was my degree and now interiors. Even as a young girl I designed and redesigned my spaces constantly. Luckily my mother didn’t have a problem with it. I even designed my high school prom dress on paper, purchased the materials and had a seamstress make it for me. I knew what I wanted; it was all in my head. As an adult I designed my homes and the homes of my friends and family as it was natural for me to do so and I loved it. They loved the results which kept on encouraging me to continue to. I kept busy during the years with projects here and there, but it wasn’t a full-time job. I was scared to leave my full=time IT consultant job. As I mentioned before I need order and dependability and control and with this job there was no risk, I was great at it. But as they say with no risk comes little rewards. I was not happy with that job and with my life in general. Once I took the leap and decided ‘if not now when?’ I haven’t looked back. I love designing spaces for my clients. It brings me so much joy and satisfaction to get their projects, ideas, concerns etc. and implement a design. My clients keep growing and this year I was approached by HGTV to stage a home for them for one of their shows (My Lottery Dream Home). OMG! I have been watching and reading HGTV for years and being asked by them was one of the biggest honors in my life. I can now say that my work was featured on HGTV forever! This is only the beginning. I love what I do, I am so happy doing it and that means I made the right decisions getting here!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am an interior designer. I am a Cuban American native of the South Florida area. Went to college at the University of Miami and am still here. I love South Florida; it is paradise after all! I am always designed my whole life. As a young girl I was always designing and redesigning my spaces. I even designed my high school dress from scratch on paper, bought the materials and had a seamstress make it for me. I was an IT systems designer, my UM degree. At the beginning of COVID I made a very difficult and very deliberated decision to get a divorce. I was married to a great person, but we no longer made each other happy or whole. I also made the decision to pursue my love of design full-time. I have been designing for friends and family and referrals for many years before this but never left my IT job, I couldn’t risk leaving what I knew and what I depended on. I started by own design firm and haven’t looked back. We are a full-service interior design firm that offers many different design services from turnkey (where we do all from concept to completion and the customer doesn’t have to lift a finger) to edesign (where we provide a design concept and the customer takes it from there) to furniture curation to remodeling of any room or rooms, to new-built design, and the list goes on. If our customer has a design need, we can help, no job is too small. We love helping our customers attain their design goals. One of the things that sets us apart from others is that we are born and raised and still living in South Florida. We love it here. We know the weather, the challenges to the homes, landscape etc and we make a great partner with any client. We are not elitist and love and cherish all our clients alike. Those that have six figures design projects or the edesign ones that are the diy’ers. We appreciate them all. I am so very proud of our service and how happy our customers are with us. We have developed great partnerships with local and national vendors, contractors etc and we cherish as well. We strive to exceed everyone’s expectations each and every time. I want all potential clients to know that we are here to partner with them in their design needs. We are not here to dictate to them or impose on them our style or desires, but we are here to help make theirs come true and come to life.

We also are very excited that we have started a home shop where all our customers and friends and potential customers can shop from an exclusive to-trade curation of furnishings and accessories. We can also curate a room or a home for a client and then they can shop at their convenience, as their budget allows or all at once if they wish and with our design and floor plan they know exactly where everything goes and how it will look. This is great for those that want to do this themselves. And for those that want us to do all the work for them, we are here as well! We love curating beautiful pieces, rooms and homes for all our clients or as we call them family. Because they are clients in the beginning but then they are family.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

AT CAME Designs, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the connection I make with my clients. I love meeting them, hearing their issues, desires or needs when designing their space. I love then partnering with them and fostering that relationship throughout the entire design process from beginning to end. That people connection is everything to me. I value it and cherish it and am grateful to it each and every day. I do not take it for granted that I am in a service industry and that my job is to provide a service to my clients and foster a relationship that can last a lifetime and these relationships generate referrals which are so immeasurably valuable.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Our goal at CAME Designs is to bring livable luxury to all our clients. Luxury is different for every person but we want to bring each of our client’s definition of luxury to life. We feel strongly that beautiful design should be accessible to all! Not just an elite few. We want our clients’ spaces to be a beautiful, functional reflection of their life, lifestyle and loves.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.camedesigns.com
• Instagram: @camedesigns
• Facebook: CAME Designs
• Linkedin: CAME Designs
• Yelp: CAME Designs
• Other: Houzz; CAME Designs

Image Credits
Sasha de Almagro Photography L Medina