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

Audra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of our brand is Yet Lovely, with a mission that simply states, “there is still lovely to be found”.

Yet Lovely is from a scripture in the Bible, Song of Solomon 1:5, “Dark am I, yet lovely.” The speaker of this verse is King Solomon’s bride. She is not of royal descent. In fact, far from it. She grew up tending + working the fields with her brothers. A Shulamite bride- just an ordinary farm girl- yet chosen to be the wife of a king.

And yet.

Her circumstances didn’t derail her. Her plainness didn’t overwhelm her. The truth of where she came from + all that she’d been through didn’t cause her to run away. She believed that despite all of it, she was still lovely + she was going to marry the king.

And that’s what we believe. Even in the dark places- even despite my sister ending her life in 2018- there is still lovely to be found. Our team offers this in a practical way through design + curating found pieces in our shoppe. Beyond design, our mission is to provide hope that there’s still lovely to be found.

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’m a wife, mom, daughter, sister, textbook introvert, writer, interior designer, ex-perfectionist, public speaker, curator, garbage picker, + laugh addict. I have always had a love for rescuing + repurposing items. At 20 years old I furnished my first apartment by garbage picking everything. And let me tell you… the feeling I felt as each treasure was rescued, uncovered something that was planted deeply within my heart. Over the next 25 years, this feeling grew + I knew that it was more than a hobby, but a calling.

Yet Lovely started in 2011 when my family needed some extra income. For 7 years we worked with residential + commercial clients, acquiring projects mainly through word of mouth. We had no website, no social media, no brick + mortar. Fast forward to 2018 where the longing to quit my job + pursue design full-time was stronger than ever. And then, in June of that year, my younger sister tragically passed away from suicide + my whole world crumbled. As I (barely) made it through that devastating season, my perspective shifted. What once looked hard, wasn’t hard anymore. Losing my sister was hard. Quitting my job? Not so hard. And so I did it. I jumped in with a full send attitude + the Yet Lovely you see today was born. We started with design services + then realized pretty quickly that the storage unit we had full of *found* items was meant to be shared with our community. And so, our brick + mortar became a reality in 2022.

Yet Lovely is a family-run company, with many of us wearing many hats. My husband, Chris, of 22 years manages our design projects, is a sand-blaster extraordinaire (hello 100 year old armoires coming to LIFE) + travels around our state picking up found pieces. My mom, Susan, quit her full-time job 3 years ago to manage our retail shoppe + offers every shopper with the best customer service. My 19 year old son, Justus, curates the best vintage clothing (he’s seriously cooler than I ever was) + then I pick up the rest. We love what we do + the people we do it for.

Serving the eastern WA area, working with both commercial and residential properties, Yet Lovely exists to discover the lovely where you live + in who you are. With a love for rescuing + repurposing found items, there is a craving for this kind of curated design alongside ​furniture + decor selection, space planning + helping clients find their style. Introducing layers of texture + scale, using new, vintage + found pieces, Yet Lovely’s touch goes beyond a beautifully designed + finished space. It has the ability to bring our clients a sense of peace + it can cancel out the stress of an unfinished room.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I didn’t go to school to become an interior designer nor have I taken any courses or completed any certifications. I’ve been told (by many), that I am not qualified to do what I do.

But thankfully, I didn’t listen.

I started decorating my house before blogs or instagram or facebook were famous. I trash picked furniture before thrift stores were all the rage. Back in 2011, when we decided to sell our house, our realtor saw that I loved design + asked if I could help select paint for a new build that she was working on. And that’s where my career in design (officially) started.

While working a full-time job (+ being a mother to three little ones) I worked with design clients anywhere I could fit them in. Evenings + late nights were for design renderings, weekends were for appointments. I was definitely burning the candle at both ends. And for 7 years I did just that.

I always wanted to launch out to pursue design full-time, but the timing was never right. To be honest, I’m sure I sabotaged taking the risk because of my fear of failure. I feared quitting my job + losing my safety net to jump into a scary unknown. But in 2018, after my sister passed away, there was a statement that I adopted pretty quick.

“Do it Scared” became the foundation that filtered my decisions. The reality was that fear might never leave. And if that was the truth, then I had a choice. To stay comfortable + wait for the fear to leave or to do it anyway, despite the fear.

And so I did it + haven’t looked back. A 6 year journey.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I have been on this road of design for almost 15 years. There have been so many bumps, potholes, detours, pivots, closed roads + times when the GPS was just flat out wrong. Sometimes I look back + can’t believe I’m still here. In contrast, I’m so grateful for the good + the ugly; both the miraculous + the dark seasons. Very similar to grapes being pressed to make wine, every experience, every client, every mistake has produced who I am today.

The key to a genuine reputation that is true to who you are is that you can’t get sucked into what everyone else is doing. With so much content at our fingertips, *inspiration* can be a double-edged sword. On one hand there are experts who have trudged forward, making the mistakes so we don’t have to. Their content is priceless + I’m truly grateful for it. But if you’re not careful, it’s slippery slope + before you know it, your reputation, your work, your brand looks like someone else’s.

Being yourself for the right reasons in this crazy world, with so many people shouting in your face with who you SHOULD BE, is one tough assignment. To be honest, I don’t follow a lot of design rules or trends. My goal isn’t to copy + paste someone else’s business. My goal has simply been to be true to who I am + to help other’s do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.audrathurman.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yetlovely