I was the teenage girl who saved her Dairy Queen checks to buy the MALM bedroom line from Ikea and paint for a checkerboard mural to replace the Tweety bird motif in my "grown up" bedroom. I completely remodeled that bedroom in a weekend just like the folks on TLC. Ditching the included hex key for a bit in my Dad's drill and assembling the entire set in a day still remains one of my proudest achievements.

 

My acceptance letter from Xavier University in Louisiana runs a close second in proud moments. I went to college in New Orleans and majored in Biology with dreams of becoming a physician. At the beginning of my sophomore year, Hurricane Katrina ripped through Louisiana and surrounding areas, displacing thousands of people, and devastating many lives. I transferred to Stevenson University located in the suburbs of Baltimore and started Mission: I'm Home with a group of students and staff who dedicated our spring breaks to rebuilding homes demolished by the storm. Participating in these builds helped me to heal pieces of my broken heart left by the hurricane and exposed the true value in turning houses into homes.

 

After obtaining my BS in Biology, I focused on a career as a neuroscience research analyst and explored sex differences in the developing brain. I purchased my first home in Baltimore and with a fresh canvas, in the real estate sense, I began imagining space plans and furniture designs that required skills above my tinkering level. In 2017, I met the founder of A Workshop of Our Own, a professional woodshop and educational space for women and gender-nonconforming craftspeople, and began volunteering with the organization to burn some creative energy and develop a better understanding of furniture design and fabrication. What began as angle grinding steel railings for a spiral staircase evolved into a teaching a monthly Intro to Woodworking/ Shop Safety Cutting Board class and a seat on the Board of Directors as Vice President. 

 

The pandemic provided me ample time for introspection about where things were in my house and also where I was in life. I realized that transforming spaces and furniture has always excited me and decided to lean into that joy. Beginning with my own house, I made over rooms and furniture pieces that didn't quite suite my personal style anymore and documented the progress on Instagram. Soon friends and friends of friends were soliciting my advice about what they should do in their homes so I started doing space planning consultation to create spaces that "just flowed better." In 2022, I was given the opportunity to attend Penland School of Craft for spring concentration in the Wood Studio. This two month immersive experience provided unlimited resources and support to explore my creativity in a way I'd never done before and solidified my desire to pursue holistic interior design as a career option.

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