Flow. Details. Impact. These are the hallmark words in Elin Walters' world. She is the owner and curator at Exactly Designs, an interior design firm she founded a little more than four years ago.
As Elin says on her website, "I was once asked, “how do you feel when you walk into a room? What do you notice?”I replied, “I just know visually and emotionally if it is exactly right, if the room has realized its full potential. I’m always finding ways in my mind to make a room better.”
The lane Elin has chosen is the midcentury modern and modern aesthetic. She loves to incorporate color and whimsy in spaces as well as move walls. When she approaches a design project she's looking for that hinge, a particular element on which to build a space her clients will love. As she explains in our conversation that one piece--a piece of furniture, a paint color on a wall, a section of flooring, a window that offers a certain light--can be the determining factor for everything that is built around it. And, despite what you might think you might know about what it is that interior designers do, Elin points out several instances where her work involves way more than picking out nice pillows or dropping a $20,000 rug on a floor and calling it good.
"Design is design, not decorating," she says. The projects she gets the most excited about are the ones where spaces are completely reimagined. She often works hand in hand with her clients' contractors to ensure design is incorporated into the renovation process. If it's not, well, I'll let Elin explain that part.
We dive into her approach as well as how her upbringing with artistic parents in Williamsburg, VA and Goshen, IN subconsciously influenced her eventual path to doing design for a living.
Elin reveals some challenges that have impacted her business and her personal life as well in this far ranging conversation that I hope if you are a solo entrepreneur might help you.
I applaud Elin for being willing to be my guest as she is also my wife. It took me a couple months to convince her to come onto the Interesting Humans podcast and she agreed if I promised to ask more about interior design and her work than about our lives together. And, truth be told, she and I have very similar conversations almost every day about both professional and personal topics so what you're going to hear is a lot like the two of us sitting down over coffee. I hope that warm vibe comes through.
I'm lucky to be married to such an articulate and engaging person as Elin. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Links:
Exactly Designs website: https://www.exactlydesigns.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exactlydesigns/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exactlydesigns/
Atomic Ranch feature, May 2020: https://exactlydesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AR-Argyle-Exterior-3.pdf
Seen Magazine, Interior Design accounts to follow on Instagram: https://seenthemagazine.com/instagram-accounts-for-home-design-and-decor-inspo/
Midcenturyhome.com: https://www.midcenturyhome.com/interior-designer-elin-walters-midcentury-home-renovation/
Elin's parents and their work in Goshen, Indiana:
Website: https://christianrward.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianrward/