We were lucky to catch up with Victoria Valentinas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Victoria , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
VLV Designs, is a full-service interior design and custom art company, specializing in specialty room design packages, custom bedding and window treatments, faux finish paint treatments, and custom art, whether it be on canvas or on walls. Above all, Victoria is passionate about providing her clients with the best quality and service. To do so, she prides herself on partnering with other local small businesses in North Carolina and recommending products that are of the best value, made in the USA. VLV Designs has an amazing library of resources, including over 1,000 samples in the VLV Designs studio, and Victoria brings those samples directly to her clients, so they don’t have to go from store to store.
Victoria , 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?
Victoria Valentinas is the President and Principal Designer of VLV Designs. As a graduate of High Point University’s Interior Design and Studio Art programs, Victoria celebrates the design in everything. With over a decade of experience in the home industry, including time spent with brands such as HGTV HOME, Bassett, Thomasville, Bernhardt & Christopher Guy to name a few, she is driven by her passion for all things design. From designing furniture, to bringing the perfect space together, to painting wall murals and canvases, Victoria’s passion for art and design is evident in all of her work; and her dedication to the customer experience is second to none!
After growing up in a small family business, Victoria always dreamed of carrying on the entrepreneurial example! After spending a decade in corporate America and learning from numerous experiences both good and bad, Victoria was ready to take the risk when COVID 19 arrived and put a pause on corporate retail! This awful time in our world provided a blessing for Victoria to begin VLV Designs, and to not only grow as a designer, but to really thrive as an artist! The corporate world didn’t provide the outlet for her passion for painting after studying both interior design and studio art but now, VLV Designs serves as both a full service interior design and custom art company!
Victoria is known to be a great listener when it comes to hearing her clients’ needs and it is always her goal to bring them ideas that are uniquely outside the box; something they hadn’t thought of themselves. After all, that is why they hire VLV Designs! If you are surfing Instagram, you will most likely find her standing on a ladder, doing a faux gold leafing paint treatment on a ceiling, installing a gallery wall for a fun family room, working with her install crew to hang custom draperies, or at the easel painting a golf or beach landscape in super speed!
The possibilities are endless at VLV Designs, and Victoria is known for bringing design dreams to life. That is what she loves most about her job; getting to know clients in their most personal space, their home. As a VLV Designs client, Victoria wants to get to know you and what is important to you. She wants to know how she can design a functional space to make your life less stressful and to create a beautiful environment that encourages you to live your best life.
We take ordinary spaces and make them specialty places!
We take ideas to the next level, creating functional beauty in the most unique form.
We believe in bringing your personal vision to life by gathering your favorite things while adding new pieces to create a beautiful harmonious design.
We are full service interior design to make your life easy!
Not sure what we do?
Behind all the creative designing we are on the road sourcing, picking up, delivering, painting, taping, negotiating, handling logistics, scheduling, quoting, installing, solving problems and doing whatever we can to make your life easier because our goal is to provide you with Livable Luxury Design! Located in North Carolina with year round access to the largest furniture market in the world, it is our goal to source and implement the best design solutions for your project needs.
Ready to get started?
Contact us today for a complimentary discovery call! The possibilities are endless here at VLV Designs!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media really gave legs for my business to get after new customers and let the world know who we were and that we had arrived being that we opened our doors when the world shut down due to COVID 19. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook became a great way to advertise on a budget and to start interacting with potential clients and referrals! As I began to expand the custom art and faux finishing part of my business, I started documenting the process through videos and time-lapse speedy videos. I highly recommend investing in a tripod so that you can produce videos with a steady hand without needing someone to film you as you work. I have begun to document everything behind the scenes in order to have a content library to pull from on a regular basis. Repetition is definitely key in getting noticed, it is important to constantly put content out there because although someone might not need your services now, they might need them in the future and they will remember your videos! That is actually how I got my first commercial project with the Humane Society of the Piedmont, as a previous professor had seen my videos and referred me for the job! One thing I have learned is that social media doesn’t have to be perfect, just put yourself out there on a regular basis and people will follow!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
It is never easy to leave a good paying job and to take the leap of faith in starting your dream business! For many of us COVID 19 gave us the push we needed. After working in the corporate world of home furnishings for a decade my world was turned upside down as the world shut down due to the pandemic. Prior to the shutdown, I had been traveling the majority of my time, and travel and retail had come to an immediate stop in the spring of 2020. It was at this time that I realized I needed to pivot, I needed to think about what I really wanted to do with my life and where my passions truly were. It became very clear to me how I was always going to wonder “what it” if I never started my own interior design business; after all, that is what I went to design school for in the first place. I started to paint more for therapy than anything else, and then it quickly started to evolve into faux finishing which I started documenting, which led to custom wall and ceiling treatment projects, as well as commissioned pieces of art. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and you have to follow your dreams.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vlvdesigns.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vlvdesign/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VLVDesigns.Events/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-valentinas-3655052a/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/vlvdesigns
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGdzzQVA4flZ9Ld912N6CJg?view_as=subscriber
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/VLVDesigns/
Image Credits
Catherine Nguyen Daria Amato Sam Gilbeaux Jay Sinclair