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

Alright, Maria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

This idea to elevate spaces began in the middle of the pandemic year, while everyone was at home literally looking to the ceiling and walls, I started offering remote advice on decoration and interior design, I launched a website and months later I formally registered Styly Home Design Studio as a full-service design firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and available for projects nationwide.

Contrary to what many people thought in that year 2020, I was able to help many people go through this difficult period by beautifying their spaces, changing that lamp that they no longer liked, perhaps including softer sheets or adding more color to the house and painting their walls, Opportunities appeared along the way and that’s how I started this business.

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

I was born and raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela. My studies there led me to work in the business and digital world, but designing and decorating my home brought me back to my first passion: interior design.

This began when I was just a girl when I completely changed my dolls houses, I loved that, I could spend hours there.

I studied something totally different, I studied public accounting and also to be a lactation counselor, two incredibly different worlds but which nurtured my curious spirit.

When I moved to this country, back in 2019 I was sure that I wanted to try in the design and interior decoration field, but I didn’t even know how to start in this area, the pandemic arrived and then spending all day at home made me revisit the idea and that’s how I first started offering Online services, from Chile to Canada, I advised friends and clients in various cities.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Definitely one of my greatest stories of resilience comes with migration to a new country, new traditions, a new language and even a new wheather! Adapting to a new environment, learning to sell yourself, showing your work and demonstrating your talent in a new land, being a mother and wanting to achieve my dreams, has been challenging but has been full of many learnings.

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

Starting an online business based on services today is much easier, three years ago showing someone that I can completely transform a space was totally new and above all challenging, not everyone was open, they did not understand the work, the processes. It wasn’t so easy to start from scratch, I remember that I had 2 more jobs in addition to the online design services and I was like that for 9 more months until I was finally able to make the decision to quit my other 2 jobs and try to get lucky with the decoration services, All this was paid with effort, credit cards, help from my husband, the capital not only of money but also of time must come from somewhere else if not there is no gas to start the business

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stylyhome.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stylyhome
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-parra-nava-409383282/
• Other: My personal brand instagran is https://www.instagram.com/mary.interiordesign/

Image Credits
Photos by @irinachepkophoto