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

Ginger, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

For decades the mainstream mindset regarding education, is one needs a college degree in a traditional field of study to land a good paying job and have a successful career. I think that mindset is starting change. Many people are learning to harness the power of the internet to monetize and propel their talents to new levels of exposure and revenue.

When I was in middle school, I took some sort of standardized test to assess what field of study I would excel in for a career. My friends were learning their career paths were in law, medicine, engineering or teaching. But there was apparently no career field that was a good fit for me. My test results said, the best fit for me was to work with my hands and gave me no suggestive career fields that might be a good fit for me. I was soo disappointed. As a kid, I thought that meant I had a future in factory doing manual labor.

I ended up going to college and graduation with a degree in journalism. But found myself drifting into careers in art and fashion. It was in those arenas, I began to discover my authentic self. I loved color, pattern and artful design. And I loved beautiful fabrics — and all their infinite creative potential. Fashion and home decor was my happy place, I was a creative but didn’t know it. Traditional education largely doesn’t encourage degrees in creative entrepreneurial arts. or the learning of creative skills and how to monetize them. It’s a real blind spot in higher education,

Long story short, I ended up combining all my passions, when I learned the art of upholstery design and launched Sitting Pretty Fab – creative custom upholstery for the bold & stylish!
But it was quite a journey before I discovered making a living with my hands, And it is the most rewarding and lucrative career I have ever pursued.

I think higher education needs to place more emphasis in creating majors focusing on creative entrepreneurial degrees that offer students chances to learn creative skills and then teaches them them how to market and monetize those skills for creative careers.

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

I am making upholstery design hip again! It;s become some what of a lost art — customizing furniture design with beautiful textiles. But

Sitting Pretty Fab is creative upholstery design for the bold and stylish! I take old chair frames and give them custom flamboyant makeovers. I specialize in custom painting of the frames and mixed print upholstery design. I also design benches and small settees and recently launched a line of custom lampshades in fun and colorful fabrics.

I am most proud of my ability to work with clients and come up with creative designs that are reflective of their personal style and their home’s design aesthetic. ”

Last Summer, I had a client in New Orleans who wanted a set of 6 flamboyant chairs for dinner party. She wanted each chair different and to showcase jungle prints. It was quite a design challenge and she needed then by a certain date. I was soo excited to start designing this order but not long after receiving it, my mother passed away and I was consumed with sadness. Trying to be creative, when you are feeling down is not easy. But these chairs became a form of therapy for me. I was able to work through my grief of losing my Mom by creating something beautiful for someone’s home.

While some days were difficult, I managed to design a super fun set of chairs for her and had then delivered in time for her dinner party. And she was over-the-moon happy with them. This past Thanksgiving, she sent me a little a picture of the chairs around her holiday table with a message about how much she and her family enjoy them. It made me cry — to see the joy those chair brought to her family and knowing how designing them forced me to press on during a personally challenging time in my own life.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I really had no money to start a business. I was working full-time as a personal stylist for Anthropologie but knew I wanted to move on to something new. But I just didn’t know what to move on to.

One day I saw a few chairs thrown to the side of the road and thought what a shame they were being thrown out. I could see they had lots of potential and could be beautiful again. Before I knew it, I slammed on the brakes, pulled over in the rain and loaded then into the back of my car.

I bought some fabric and taught myself how to upholster. It was such a rush! I had soo much fun transforming these chairs. I put one on Etsy to see if I could sell it and a lady in California bought it and then ordered 5 more of my crazy chair designs. And my business was born.

I slowly invested the money from my sales, into taking online upholstery and business classes. I began marketing myself on social media and slowly began to build a small following.

I’m still growing and still learning — that’s the key to creativity!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of my very first customers, suggested I expand my designs and offer something at a lower price point for shoppers who love my designs but may not can afford to invest in a custom chair,

I thought for long time as to what else I could offer that was creative, involved funky fabric design but could also be offered at a significantly lower price point.

I am not sure how, but the idea of custom lampshades designed with fun fabrics came to mind. I found a Youtube tutorial on how to design one and gave it try. My first lampshade was lots of fun to make. I kept making them to perfect my technique and eventually put one out on Etsy and someone bought it! More orders began to roll in and my lampshade designs are expanding for the New Year! I look forward to growing this part of my business!

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sittingprettyfab/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sittingprettyfab
• Yelp: [email protected]
• Other: Please include my Etsy link www.sittingprettyfab.etsy.com

Image Credits
were taken by family members. No image credits needed