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

Nicole, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

When I thought about naming House of Petalis (pronounced pet-a-lease), I thought about my floral influences. This includes the major fashion houses, museums, nature, architecture, color, and frankly anything that houses art, recognizing art as a whole is subjective to the viewer. Petalis is latin for petals. Yes, I added a little flair to the pronunciation, which is also very true to who I am. I feel our own petals are what makes us who we are. This “house” was built to put on display the unique petals of each vision. A play on words if you will, I site my poetic influences for that *smile*. Like all flowers, each vision will have its’ own personal touch and it’s my job to nourish the idea’s soil to help it grow and display it like art. That is the inner workings of House Of Petalis’ name.

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 am a floral loving color snob with an affinity for poetry. I am a Latina, born and raised in the Bay Area. Colorado family roots planted me officially here 3 years ago. My influences come from various cultures, all types of natural landscapes and of course art- street to museums. Being a wanderer at heart, my gravitational pulls were a balance of tech and creativity. I still try to ensure both sides of the brain stay active. Florals became a therapy and my visual memory seemed to translate shapes, colors, textures seen out in the world into arrangements that caught attention. On the business side, I love adventure and keeping myself challenged, and this is not lacking in those spaces (ha!). I think anyone who owns a business can agree that with the flows come the ebbs and I’m grateful for my internal tools and external tribe of people in my life that help me move forward. It never hurts to try and like I tell a little group of softball players I help coach- “ stay ready so you don’t have to get ready”.
On the client side of things, what I pride myself the most in is the fluidity in conversation. Majority of the time chats begin with “this one picture from this one thing” or “ I don’t even know where to start” and to be honest I LOVE BOTH. What is does is provides a starting point for conversation or just gives a blank canvas. The connection process begins by asking questions and listening. Together, we are now able to really hone in on true likes and dislikes. This also provides a little ease with the more difficult topics such as budget. I may not be able to give you Palace of Versailles on a $2k budget but I promise I will ask enough questions to still provide you the same vibe.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I read once that our source of income does not define our career. That stuck with me. We as a society have somehow given it that power, but we shouldn’t. Our careers should be defined by our life’s mission. Mine is to live transparent, creative, and empower not just myself, but those around me. House Of Petalis fosters that mission. I get to collaborate/connect with so many people. I see/feel the joy when the ideas come into fruition. I look at my nieces and nephews and anytime they show an interest in anything I’m doing, I do my best to incorporate them into a project and the look of pride they get after completion is priceless. There will always be wins and losses, that is a part of every journey after all, but the losses don’t hurt as bad with those drivers on my side.

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

I will defer back to my comments about my mission and drivers. Transparency is a part of my life’s mission statement and that is very applicable to this question. With every client, I am very transparent. Recognizing that sometimes that transparency may lose business but at least I kept to my baseline of honesty about the scope needed, product availability etc. In the same spirit of things, I do also stand by individuals I promote on my page etc., and to be fair, I look to partner with diverse styles to help balance the competitive promotion aspect that can come with that. I look to align with those that carry the same values and I think those factors have supported positive reputation.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @houseofpetalis

Image Credits
Photography credits: IG : @Spicywaterphoto @epic.productions @kellyadrianaphoto