We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heather Van Ravenswaay Womac. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heather below.
Heather , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?
I never realized how important building a personal and professional network was until starting my own business. I was wrestling with how to define what I wanted to do next, and my friends and family were influential in helping me rediscover what I was passionate about. There were multiple conversations, many of which included strategic questions. One of the best questions/comments was “out of your last 16 years what do you love the most? – only do that”. It was then I started to see that I could design my own career. My passion/career did not need to look like a defined role or another company’s job description. I could narrow the focus on only what I am passionate about. It is hard to explain, but I began receiving calls from friends and their friends saying they needed my help. This all lead to –
– 2 small commercial design projects
– 1 residential programming project
– 1 art commission for a friend’s home
– 2 art commissions for commercial offices
– 1 residential design project
– 1 furniture consulting project
Heather , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am the owner of HVR.W Studio an Interior Design and Art Studio, which I started in January of 2020. I decided to pursue my love for creating art along with continuing to guide clients through the Interior Design process.
My Interior Design Philosophy –
I define success as enabling my clients’ to clearly define and visualize how their spaces will function and feel.I intentionally design modern yet timeless environments that integrate furniture, technology, and artifacts. My expansive knowledge of products, materials, and construction methods has allowed me to maintain loyal, established relationships with clients and to continuously meet their budget and scheduling expectations.
My Artwork Philosophy –
My passion is seeing and finding beauty in everything God has created. My purpose is to share my interpretation and perspective of beauty in this world through design and art.
My artwork is driven by process and research. A process that clearly defines concepts and parameters and research that inspires continual learning and discovery.
Grateful – Creative – Authentic – Curious – Compassionate
My Education and Licenses –
Bachelor of Science in Design – University of Nebraska, 2004
Glassell School of Art – MFAH, started 2021 – ongoing student
Rice Advanced Management Program, Rice Business-Jones Graduate School of Business, 2018
Registered Interior Designer – State of Texas
Interior Design Qualification – Certified by the National Council for Interior Design Qualification
My Interior Design Services –
Programming + Visioning
Schematic Design
Design Development
Interior Design Documentation
Construction Coordination
Furniture and Artifact (accessories + artwork) Selection and Coordination
My Artwork Collections-
Collection: Blurring Boundaries, 2021
Medium – Watercolor Paintings Discovering the beauty and unknown that comes from blurring boundaries.
I have been reflecting on my own boundaries in life – wife, mother, daughter, colleague, & friend over the past few months. Have I been focusing the right amount of time in each area or prioritizing one over all the others. I think we all have times in our lives where we need to re-evaluate where we spend our time and 2020 has definitely helped me to slow down and reflect on this.
Color has always been an inspiration in my life. I remember from a very young age going to the store with my mom and getting so excited to walk down the aisle with all the crayons, markers, and paints. I would stare up at all the colors and seem to be paralyzed – I wanted to pull all of them out of their packages and see what I could create.
As I reflected on my own boundaries I wanted to experiment with colors and observe how they interacted on paper. I chose watercolor as the medium and explored a range of different color palettes.
Collection: Joy and Curiosity, 2022
Medium – Watercolor Paintings
A journey of moments layered together to celebrate adventures. Instill joy and curiosity.
This collection is a celebration and reflection on moments in time during travel over the past 10 years. 2020 was a big year of change in my life and it is important for me to slow down and remember some of the things that I have taken for granted and reflect on all the amazing moments in the past.
I was interested in exploring the concept of over-lay, light reflection, patterns and capturing two moments into one.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Over the years I have learned that all strengths have their pros and cons. One of my strengths is a high sense of responsibility. In my past I have taken that sense of responsibility to extremes. I did not build good professional boundaries in terms of my time and would always priorities work activities over everything else. I realized that at different phases in life the ability to not build healthy boundaries applied more pressure to myself and communicated a lack of respect to others around me. As I shift my career, I still found ways to over commit/schedule myself. It took me almost 1 year to reset boundaries around my schedule and response time. I have learned to put 30min to 1 hour between scheduled actives versus 5-10min. and I allow myself 1-2 days for a response time versus 1-2 hours.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The last 2 years of my career have been about reinventing and discovering. In September of 2020 I decided to step away from my 16-year commercial interior design career to reevaluate a few things in my life. I realized it is important to take time to define your personal WHY and align your career with it.
I asked myself a few questions:
1. How do I define creativity and how am I practicing that?
a. Defining creativity for myself is being inspired and actively responding to the beauty that I find surrounding me. The practicing part had not been happening for a very long time. This needed to change!
2. What was my top priority in life right now?
a. Family – my husband and 3-year-old daughter, I wanted more flexibility with my career to allow me time on a daily basis with my family.
3. What have I learned in the past that will help me move forward?
a. My leadership role as a commercial interior designer is so full and rich in lessons and tools that I can apply to other roles.
All three of these questions have helped me to define when to say yes and when to say no in my new business.
We can never plan for what challenges lie ahead and now is the moment to prioritize how you spend your time – do what you love most and pursue your passions.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hvrwstudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hvr.w_studio/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-van-ravenswaay-womac-79271629/
Image Credits
A Oxford Studio & Lauren Holub Photography