Is it highly recommended to include a hyphen in your business name? No, it’s definitely not. And every time I have to spell out my website URL over the phone, I know a different name would have been easier. But there’s a whole lot of heart in the name, and I get lots of questions about the origin story, so here goes…
My first love was writing, and my next big life goal is publishing a book. It’s been in the works since before I decided to start my design business, so it’s taken the passenger seat through a whole lot of stages of family development, career changes, and life stages. But the manuscript is called Self-ish. It’s a deep dive into the revelation that my darkest hours in life have always brewed from the wildly false narrative that a good woman aspires to selflessness.
I’ve got a whole lot more to say on the matter (hence the book) but for brevity’s sake, the last thing this world needs is a larger population of humans roaming around with no sense of who they are, what they need, and what gifts they bring. I’ve put my world on notice that this woman aspires to self-embodiment, which at its root without all the societal programming, is selfishness. I’m reclaiming selfish! Growth in life is about returning to self over and over again, despite all the things pulling us away or persuading us we’re not enough.
When I was dreaming up my business and thinking about what I bring to home design, I realized that all the same tenets apply. A good, welcoming home is rooted in a strong reflection of its inhabitants.
I don’t believe in designing based on trends or styles. I believe deeply in designing for the people bringing life to a space. If that isn’t the goal, it’s just a house, no matter the price tag or designer labels.
A house starts out as a blank canvas. The people in it bring the mixed media to apply – the color and texture. They are the artists. So the ways we fill the canvas – where we designate the rooms, the tools we need in each space, and the colors we apply to feel a certain way – are all about the vision of the artist and the goals they have set for this piece of artwork.
A home is an extension of the artists inside. My job is to uncover what kind of artistry lives in a house and deliver a design that sets each artist up to live, rest, create, and play at home, where they are who they want to be and feel how they want to feel. Self-ish Living is about designs that elevate the people that inhabit spaces.
Of course, who we are is fluid, so it’s ok that our houses should flex as we do and that they might not quite feel like home yet. That’s where the hyphen comes in. It’s worth the trouble. It’s never too late to move closer to who we are and how we want to feel, and I’d be happy to help you come home.
