We recently connected with Heidi Gammarano and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Heidi, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I’ve been working in interior design, model homes, and real estate staging my entire adult life. So, I’ve had a couple different company names. In the late 90’s when I was in Orange County, I just called myself Interior Design by Heidi Ingersoll for several years. Then I had a string of years when I was landing tons of custom children’s rooms including painting murals as part of the design work, and I went by The Princess and the Pirate. Then I realized I was painting myself into a corner, literally, and preventing myself from getting jobs that were not children’s rooms, and changed the name to Posh Paint and Interior Design. When I decided to add real estate staging to my design services, I changed the name to Southern California Design & Staging, with the thought process being that I live in North County SD, I am from Orange County and have friends and family up there, and my mom lives in the desert, so I could offer my services in a large area, all the way to the border, plus going North and East. However, that’s not really what I want to do, and not the business model I want to support any longer. After working with a branding specialist to really drill down and figure out the type of business I want to run, and the type of client I want to attract, I re-branded and quite recently changed the name to Haus of Heidi. The name reflects what my business is, which is authentically me. I have decades of experience, I do all the work myself and bring my personal style and design influence to every project. Haus of Heidi is really the perfect name for my company, because I am not trying to pretend I am a big firm. I am a boutique staging and styling business, and I want the name to reflect just that.

Heidi, 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?

As a kid I always answered “interior designer” when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I redecorated my room constantly, helped the adults in my life with interior design projects. My dad was artsy and musical, my mom has the eye for interior design, my aunt was a graphic designer, my sister is a wardrobe stylist. I was not discouraged from getting into a creative industry. I decided to get my degree in Interior Design and I have always worked in the design industry in one capacity or another. I started my own business, sort of on accident (my side hustle turned into a full time job) in 1997. Over the years, depending what was going on in the economy and real estate industry, I kept my business going, under all of those different names, but also worked in corporate design in the window treatment industry (had to pay the bills!).

I provide home staging and interior styling services. I absolutely love transforming properties and helping agents and sellers get ahead in the real estate market. I am not here to help millionaires make a couple hundred thousand more on an already stunning property. I am here to help regular people like you and me, get ahead in the world using the power of real estate, and helping people love and appreciate the walls they live inside of.

Turning a dumpy looking cottage into a charming, comfortable and stylish home for sale thrills me. The before and after photos are impactful. Or working with a new homeowner who is stuck because they’re overwhelmed by tile and flooring choices and how to make their furniture from their old place, work in the new place. And, people who have been in their homes for years and years, but need to update and get current, or make it work for their current lifestyle.

I am not part of the “Beige Brigade”. I love to bring style and interest to a home, whether it be a staging or an interior styling project. Yes, my stagings are a bit more on the neutral side than some of my design projects, the point is to appeal to the masses. But I punch it up with some color. That color is typically woven throughout the home in small ways, so it all feels cohesive and pleasing to the eye. But I rarely do all beige or gray. I think a house that has some memorable staging stands out in the buyers minds as they are likely touring multiple houses, poring over the internet shopping for homes to check out in person, and if there’s some “wow factor” in the staging, I truly think it helps increase interest and move the house from sitting, to sold.

When it’s an interior styling project, I take the time to learn about the clients needs and wants, and tailor the design to them. Making so many decisions can be taxing on the client, so I help take things off their plate and we work through the options together til we find the perfect plan. I love to bring in color and texture, and then when we are wrapping things up, I like to use a lot of their own decor to stage the home for living.

I want to work with people that want that hands-on experience, and appreciate working with a small business that is working hard to create visual beauty in their home, whether they’re selling it or staying in it.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

When I was still trying to offer my services all over Southern California, and getting extremely burnt out doing that, I started to realize maybe I’d made a mistake in trying to paint with such a broad brush. I was getting calls from realtors in LA and Palm Springs to give a quote for staging, because that’s part of Southern California and the old name gave that impression. I did a lot of thinking on my own, and had the good fortune to meet a branding expert at a networking event that really impressed me with her straightforward tactics and approach. We had several deep conversations, really drilling down into my core. What type of work do I want to do? Who do I want to do it for?

For staging, the answer is I am not at all interested in helping the 1% widen the gap between them and middle class. I want to help middle class people get ahead. I want to help your mom downsize into a manageable condo and make money off her old house so she can live comfortably. I want to help a young couple get their foot (literally) in the door and buy their first place so they can raise their family and build equity and level up in life.

For interior styling, the answer is I want to help you love your place. I am always amazed by the feedback when I meet with people who have been living in a home for years and dislike pretty much everything about how it looks. There are so many ways to intensify the good qualities of a home and personalize it with the homeowners style, without breaking the bank. Pretty much, if the job requires pulling permits, I am out. I do not want to tear down houses to the studs and do that type of design work. I really enjoy working with what you have and making it fabulous. That can be accomplished with furnishings, wallpaper, window coverings, accessories, lighting…things that are accessible and (for me) easy fixes.

I want you to make money off your house, or I want you to love living in your house.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I have a decent following on Instagram, and I’ve noticed it growing at a faster pace lately, since the re-brand went into effect. When I was still operating as Southern California Design & Staging, I really was trying to put forth a very polished look, for a small business. Then I posted one time a photo of myself when I’d just landed the biggest design job I’d ever had, with a fun caption about the interaction between myself and the client telling me I’d won the project, and the picture of me was a mirror selfie and I look like I’m a fun, relatable person. Which I am.

And that photo got more likes and attention than any of my more thought-out, curated posts (which got likes but not landslides). I realized then that I needed to put more ME into my social media posts for the business. Looking back, that’s probably a key moment when somewhere deep down I realized that I needed to shift the way I was marketing my business. People hire me for staging and styling jobs when they get to know me, because I bring my personality with me to work, and they like it. I like to say, I am certainly not for everyone, but I might be for you!

After rolling out the re-brand I have focused on not worrying about how many followers I have, it doesn’t really matter. I am a local Coastal North County stager and stylist. I am not trying to sell a physical product so having thousands of followers doesn’t mean anything. I want to show my local followers my work, and how I operate. I do like to keep a curated page, even though social media experts tell me it’s not important and possibly even keeps me from getting more followers because Instagram puts a lot of importance on Reels now. But, I don’t care, I like the curated look of my page and I think it gives interested people a good idea of what I do and how I work.

I’m also really trying to work on collaborating with my clients so that they share my content (for their own purposes, for instance realtors get to have more visibility if we double our audience), or my home styling projects, those clients are able to show off their new room to their friends.

As a small, local business, I am aiming to grow the quality of my content and followers, not the volume of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.haus-of-heidi.com
• Instagram: @haus.of.heidi
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-ingersoll-gammarano/

Image Credits

Marcy Browe Photography