We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Johnson Julie Lawrence a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amy Johnson, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

For years we talked about starting a business in home decor. We settled on lighting. Made drawings. And then, panicked. We didn’t have a clue about metalwork, wiring or appropriate UL listings. It was unnerving and we felt like fish out of water cold calling metal manufacturers and foundries trying to convey our idea for a high end, hand crafted piece of lighting.

Intimated by our lack of knowledge and anxious to get started, we said yes to a few, small metal workers who promised they could produce a sconce from our drawings. The results were awful and expensive. None of them looked like our drawings and not one was wired for light.

It took us two years of searching to find a manufacturer able to execute both the form and function of our lights. As it turns out, we discovered that many of the smaller, artisan lighting workshops had either gone out of business or had been swallowed up by larger companies.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Being in jobs related to the design industry for years, we always knew we wanted to start some sort of home line. We noticed a void in lighting, in particular, hand crafted lighting. With our backgrounds in fine and decorative arts and a passion for antiques we looked to the past for inspiration and settled on tôle or painted metal lighting. Tôle lighting had been popular in 19th Century. While we were inspired by the forms and patina of these antiques, we wanted to reimagine them in a more modern and pared down way.

Julie is a decorative painter by trade. With the knowledge of what it takes to create a truly bespoke finish, we are able to offer each client, primarily interior designers, an original piece of lighting.

All of our sconces are bench made to order and then finished by hand in our studio. Designers send us ideas of colors they would like to use for the lights and we then custom blend a color and add gilding as well as other decorative elements to each piece before sending them off. From start to finish it is a personalized experience. The ability to collaborate directly with our clients and give them exactly what they want brings us the most joy.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

As a start up, we didn’t have the budget to advertise in magazines, sell our sconces through showrooms or participate in large trade shows. Instagram was fine to get the word out, but designers really wanted to see our lighting line in person. This past year we discovered The Design Social Pop-Up. This pop-up is a boutique, day long show that travels quarterly to different cities and connects smaller vendors with local interior designers. We were finally able to show our lighting and share our process.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We met when we were 11 years old at summer camp and have been friends ever since :)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.paredonline.com
• Instagram: @paredlighting

Image Credits
All personal photos