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

Alright, Noel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think everyone defines success differently and has a different perspective on what it takes, but I personally think it takes determination, resilience, flexibility, skills and experience to be successful. Life can throw a lot of curve balls so if I didn’t have the ability to adapt and move ahead, I’m not sure I’d be where I am today.

I honestly think life experiences have developed my perspective. Whether you own a business or work in corporate America, there will always be challenges and setbacks. There are also challenges in your personal and home life so I don’t think it is just one thing that taught me this, I think it is on-going experiences that have taught me thing.

For example, several years ago I was building a home I poured a lot of my time and energy into all for it to have severe foundation issues during construction, the lot was not the size the builder portrayed it was, it was overall a huge nightmare. However, if that had not happened, I would have settled in an ultimately wrong location and I would not have found the real estate attorneys that helped negotiate our commercial lease or the absolutely amazing contractor that we now have been working with long-term.

Noel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My journey is not a traditional one, I was interested in design from a very young age coming from a family of artists and designers. My grandmother was an artist and cultivated my interest in fashion and interior design. My parents are both in the design field, one being an architect and the other an interior designer so I was exposed to the world of design from a very early age. I originally majored in interior design in college but changed my major along the way to Political Science to pursue a career in Human Resources with a goal to go to law school, though I decided not to pursue it. I really enjoyed my career in HR working for a few Fortune 500 companies and learned so much including things I would not have learned otherwise that I believe are critical to starting and running a business. Eventually, we were faced with a job relocation for my husband, and I came to cross roads to decide if I should continue in HR or go back to my passion for Interior Design. After 15 years in HR, I went back to school for Interior Design. That was the best decision I ever made. I really love design and enjoy helping others realize their dreams for their homes. I also love owning a business so ultimately starting Noeka Home has allowed me to do what I love and utilize the skills and experience I’ve spent my lifetime building.

What really sets us apart is that we are more than a store, our showroom was designed to be a destination. We took vision very seriously, we really wanted to create a place that is more than somewhere you just walk in and out of. We want our customers to stay a while, which is why we focused so much on our Parisian style wine bar. We wanted a really posh, chic space for customers to come to and enjoy. We also focused on creating a store that looks like it’s out of a magazine or something you can see on Pinterest or Instagram. We want our customers to feel inspired, be excited about design and what their home could look like.

We created our own furniture collection that is inspired by antiques, especially those in the French Gustavian style. We love spaces that feel timeless, so we really strived to create classic, quality heirloom pieces. We also really love unexpected details such as color or hardware that was not traditionally used on antique pieces. It’s the little details that make an incredible impact.
In addition to our furniture line, we created a pillow line. We really love the little details; we believe those details make a huge impact. For our pillow line, we focused on using beautiful fabrics and including piping, trim, or using two or more fabrics on the pillow. To us, these little details really make a beautiful pillow which are the details that really elevate a space and create interest.
In regard to our interior design style, we really focus on timeliness design that encompasses whimsy and color. We appreciate so many styles of design, but we just don’t want to do what everyone else is doing or what is trendy at the moment. We want our designs to last and be able to be built up over time.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After years of planning, sleepless nights, stress, hard work, and determination we are finally opening our doors. While it has not been easy and there have been a lot of setbacks, most recently the ongoing city-wide power outages across Houston that have caused significant delays in almost every area of our business, we have not let it deter us or impact our outlook negatively.
What I have learned throughout my career is to always expect the unexpected and always be adaptable and flexible as possible because it is unlikely that everything will go as planned. As they say, the best laid plans often go awry, I cannot express how true that is.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

As mentioned, we created our own furniture and pillow lines. We designed our own lines, but we had to find vendors to manufacture the products. As with everything, finding a vendor to do these things has been a challenging journey.
We originally went with one vendor that showed lovely, quality pieces on social media, but when our pillow designs were produced, they were not done well. The end product was very poor quality and done incorrectly – none of them were usable in the state they were in. It was very costly on our end, but we had to accept what happened and quickly find a solution. Through that experience, we were very fortunate to find a new outstanding vendor that is able to produce a quality and beautiful product.
With our furniture line, we were able to find a great vendor to manufacture many of our furniture pieces. It was important for us to find a vendor that focused on producing heirloom pieces. They delivered in spades.
We selected another vendor to manufacture the remaining pieces and that had been a more challenging process. However, we do realize that this vendor was working on the more complex pieces, and are not located in our local market, so there have been challenges to finalize the design in production. However, we are proud of the final outcome of these pieces.
Through this experience, we most certainly learned how to spot potential issues for the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://noekahome.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noekahome/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553700291930
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/noeka-home/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/noekahome/