We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Samantha Leeds. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Samantha below.

Samantha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, let’s jump into one of the most exciting parts of starting a new venture – how did you get your first client who was not a friend or family?

Originally my business started as a small home organization company. I loved helping families living in small spaces make sense of their homes at an organizational level, helping them love the spaces they lived in a little bit more.

I got my first paid organizational job helping a woman who had been a long time hoarder sort through her apartment in Clinton Hill Brooklyn after which I put a small add in a local online community forum letting people know my business existed.

About a week after I posted I received a message from a woman who owned a Brownstone in Jersey City. She asked if I could come over and take a look at her space to see how she could make things more functional for her and her family.

The moment I stepped inside my brain lit on fire. The brownstone was beautiful but the inside had been painted a horrible teal blue and the whole space felt dark and devoid of light. I immediately started talking about ways we could bring more light into her home, allowing it to feel more airy and less dense. The words came out of my mouth almost without conscious permission from my brain. By the time I left I had talked myself and the client into doing a small kitchen make-over and home refresh. Nothing to do with organization. Only to do with design.

I called my Mom who has been an interior designer for almost 30 years. I told her what happened and asked her how the hell I was supposed to pull it off. She laughed and told me that I just needed to go one step at a time. And so I did, I went one step at a time and my unintended design career took off like wildfire. Within a year I was supporting myself full time with my business, then called “Spruce Apartment Therapy”. A name I later changed because I realized very quickly I didn’t want to be anyones therapist! Especially in relation to home design.

I recently completed a whole house restoration/renovation with that same client. It was amazing to work with her again almost an entire decade after she jump started my career. I will be forever grateful to her for trusting me to do something even I didn’t know I was capable of. It set my life on a whole new exciting trajectory I didn’t plan but absolutely love.

Samantha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started doing interior design for fun in my early 20’s while living in Seattle WA. I grew up in a family of designers. My Mother & Grandmother were designers and I have fond memories of visiting clients homes with my Mom, helping her hang photos and art.

I was deeply influenced and inspired by the spaces I grew up in. I still remember almost every nook of my Grandmothers home as if I had a photographic memory. She was WAY ahead of her time in terms of design. She mixed and matched modern pieces with antique ones, something I do consistently in my own work. My Grandmother died when I was ten years old so being able to walk through her home in my mind has obviously left a deep impact on me.

Interior Design wasn’t something I decided to go to school for or honestly even thought much about in terms of a career, rather it was something that came naturally and that I did simply because I loved it. I helped many of my friends with their apartments during and after college but it wasn’t until I moved back to NYC that I started thinking about starting my own business. I was an actor at the time and needed to create flexible income so that I could study and make it to my auditions on time. My interior design business was created by the necessity to have flexible hours and turned into something I would never have imagined.

I feel my company offers an intimate and hands on approach while focusing on the natural beauty of the world. We of course want to create good design, but above all we want our clients feel at home in the spaces we create. This means incorporating their favorite objects and understanding their lifestyles. It is important to me that the items we source for our clients homes are made of solid, non toxic materials that are built to last. This means sourcing from companies who use non toxic and hopefully more sustainable materials as well as sourcing vintage. The goal is to create a space that they can enjoy for many years to come. Another huge factor of our business is building relationships that last. I have clients I have been working with on a off for almost a decade now. I am really proud of the relationships we’ve built and the fact that theses clients trust us with their homes over and over again.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think ultimately my goal has been to create a life for myself that allows for creative freedom and connection but also TIME. I left the city in 2022 and bought a small farmhouse in Upstate New York. Nature has always been very important to me. Creating a life that allows me to work on large scale projects and have time to walk in the woods with my dog is a huge driving factor. I am always striving for the perfect work/life balance.

Creating time and space also allows me to explore and connect with local artisans and makers. Its less about the amount of furniture I can “sell” and more about the community I create while designing a home. I am always at my happiest when collaborating with other makers and builders, especially ones from my own community.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Not having gone to school for design, it took me a very long time to create relationships with other design creatives in my field. I didn’t have that automatic built-in network that many have after graduating from a program. I believe deeply in the importance of community and the power to create alongside others. While I learned to work alone out of necessity, working along side other creatives is so much more fun.

I now have a rich network of designer friends and local artists and makers who I am deeply inspired by. Even the simple act of meeting another designer for coffee or doing a studio visit with a local potter opens up worlds of creativity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.creaturesofplace.design/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creatures_of_place/

Image Credits
-The first 6 images were photographed by Tad Mask
-The 7th image was photographed by HIM Creative
-The 8th image was photographed by Natalia Moena