Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elizabeth Eansor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Elizabeth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Interior design is a creative field that combines artistry, technical knowledge, and business skills. It involves designing functional and aesthetic spaces within a building envelope. One of the main reasons I chose interior design as my career path was because of the creative freedom it provided as a profession. However, Learning the craft of interior design was quite a journey. A lot of what I learned about the skills required of an interior designer was learned in a BID (Bachelors of Interior Design) degree program at Sheridan College. In that specific program, we learned all the technical skills that were required of us to work in a corporate architectural office or a corporate interior design firm. From a practical perspective, that’s where we learned to use AutoCAD, Photoshop, SketchUp, 3D Max, you name it we were learning it. In addition to learning those technical skills, we got to have the freedom to be creative in a way that you can’t be creative in the real world. Interior design programs tend to be quite difficult on the students. There are a lot of sleepless nights and large assignments. Therefore, the program ends up teaching you how to persevere not only through a looming deadline but through difficult situations which end up formulating your problem-solving skills. It also teaches you how to better work with your peers and build a balanced team.

However, the degree program is just the basics of learning interior design. You learn very little about business practices, budgeting a project, vendor partnerships, and valuable sourcing in school. Becoming a good designer and business owner was learnt by shadowing my superiors and learning from my peers. Although I have continued to use the important universal standards that are continuous throughout the industry, the new business practices that I use at EANSOR Luxury Interiors Inc. were created from scratch. I started with a minimum structure through lots of research, but most of what I have done to build the base of the firm was learned through trial and error. In addition to this, I often go back and edit what I previously implemented as a standard until I’m satisfied with the outcome. This is how I fine-tune the business practices, training, and my branding.

I think everyone often looks back and wishes that they could have done something differently that would have sped up the process of getting to their end goal. But sometimes you must go through the journey to understand what your intention is. For me personally, I was always a creative mind, especially from a young age. I also really loved veterinarian sciences and animals. I think when I was growing up (especially in those teenage years) I leaned more into the sciences because I thought that’s what other people wanted for me. Long story short, the universe had its own way of telling me that I wasn’t going to be a veterinarian and that I could really excel with a more creative career path. Another thing that I feel like I could have been more attentive to was building my firm while I was getting the experience I needed to own my own business. I always had the intention of having my own design firm after I graduated from my BID, but that really got put on the side burner because I got too involved in an existing firm that I was working for. If I had trusted myself both in choosing my career path and leaving the security of my job, I could have sped up the story. But I really believe that everything happens for a reason and at the right time.
Gaining the experience you need to start a firm is always valuable. It teaches you the most essential skills that you need to execute a project and to create good business practices. The most essential skill for an interior designer is the ability to micromanage relationships at site and to execute the project with very clear and detailed communication between those different parties.

Being creative and talented is the easy part. You must be very organized and clear with your client’s vision and make sure that the client understands every detail of the project prior to breaking ground. There should be no unclear elements for any person or trade working on the project, and there should be excellent guidelines for the tradespeople on how to execute to meet the end goal. Of course, you will always need to communicate on top of this either through site visitation or review. But the general bulk of the vision and ideas would be executed through a project package. Everyone involved in the project should be privy to that project package. Therefore, IF there is a need for clarity or problem-solving, you can always fall back on that already-created package. This eliminates any need to “just figure it out” at site.

If I could change anything about learning the craft of interior design, it would be to have the courage and discipline to take the risk and start sooner. One of my main obstacles in life and in owning a business is overthinking and constant risk review, instead of just doing or trying something. It doesn’t matter how many times you assess the pros and cons of the situation. Once you finally decide to take the leap of faith, the main thing you learn after is that it wasn’t that intimidating, and/or you could have done it sooner. Or you realize that you need to shift gears or change the way you do things so that you can do things better the next time.

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.

Ultimately, I started working in the interior design industry shortly after I graduated from the BID program at Sheridan College. I knew I wanted my own business in the future, so I geared my job search towards applying for a smaller residential firm. Normally people tend to switch their jobs over their working career, but I knew I enjoyed the residential firm that I was at and therefore I ended up staying there for 6 1/2 years. In that experience, I really learned how to run and manage my own firm. In 2021, I left that design job and created my own luxury residential design firm called EANSOR Luxury Interiors Inc. Starting my own firm only took a leap of faith for me. I just needed to trust myself and that I knew what I was doing was right for me. Of course, when you are starting your own firm there are a lot of ups and downs. I started ELI with just one client, and it snowballed from there.

EANSOR Luxury Interiors Inc. is a full-service luxury design firm. We offer a plethora of interior design services but mostly we specialize in modern residential building and interior design that tells our clients story. We offer high quality design packages and a client-centric design experience that is organized and easy to implement. We customize each and every design project to match our clients’ preferences. Also, we are unique amongst design firms and provide presentation tools that allow our clients to distinctly understand and visualize design concepts. As a full-service firm, our purpose is to prepare and deliver design solutions that focus on our client’s wants and needs.

What makes me most proud about ELI is that the firm is literally still a baby. We have grown and we have flourished in such a short amount of time. As the CEO, I really can’t wait to see where this firm is in the future. Every client that we work with, every vendor that we partner with, and every trade that we meet with is ultimately a stepping stone for EANSOR Luxury Interiors Inc. getting to the next step in business.

However, ELI isn’t just a design firm that creates beautiful interiors for its clients. My hope for ELI is that it becomes a platform and educational firm for interior designers and individuals to gain the valuable tools & guidance needed to help them own their own design businesses. It’s easier said than done, but in the future when we have a larger team, I want to allow that team to have the freedom to make employment choices that will benefit them. If that means teaching and guiding them into owning their own business, then that means we’ll be creating the next leaders in the interior design industry. When you’re starting a business, you must have a vision for that business. If you invest in your employees beyond their job description, then you’ll be investing in their current and future lives.

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

I think one of the most rewarding aspects of being a designer and business owner in the interior design industry is obviously the creative freedom. It is truly something special to be able to express your artistry through the medium of using different materials that are essentially going to make up the space of somebody’s home. Creating and executing your client’s vision is always very gratifying especially when the client fully trusts your direction and process. That trust ultimately makes the project run smoother and gives you free rein to propose valuable sourcing that maybe you wouldn’t have otherwise proposed. Another very rewarding aspect of interior design is obviously seeing your and your client’s vision come to life. Building residential homes and interior design implementation is a very complicated and long process. When the project is finally completed, it’s always amazing to know that you were part of the process of creating the final product. On another note, it always amazes me to meet like-minded people in the industry. Those peers ultimately end up being the people that you rely on for support. It’s not just networking, you’re really participating in a community of creative individuals who want to see you grow and thrive.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think you don’t understand somebody’s journey unless you’re the person who is experiencing it. One of the reasons why I didn’t ultimately choose interior design as a career path in the beginning, was that I didn’t even know that it was an option. I think today’s society is much better than the one that I grew up in. The society that I grew up in looked down on artists or creative career paths. Ultimately, if you don’t encourage a person to explore different pathways for careers (creative or not), how will they ever know what is the right path for them? I always had the support of my parents, and they were constantly influencing me to get into creative extracurriculars. But even though they were supportive, the weight of societal influence pushed me in the wrong direction. However, once I knew that I was going in the wrong direction, I was quickly able to identify which career I wanted to pursue. I also think that there is a lot of stigma around the profession of interior design. It’s often thought of as a female-only role, when it is absolutely not. Interior design is a professional career where you can work in a corporate atmosphere helping to create and build some of the most desired spaces in the world. But because there is so much stereotyping around the profession, anyone might think interior design is just about shopping for furniture and picking paint color palettes. Perhaps if we could reduce the stigma surrounding the profession, then more creatives would have the opportunity to choose interior design as their first career path.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eansorluxuryinteriors.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eansorluxuryinteriors
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eansorluxuryinteriors

Image Credits
Michelle Batts