I’ve had a love for decorating since I was a little girl. When I was 7 years old, I would spend hours playing with Barbie dolls. But it wasn’t the dolls that enthralled me, it was the furniture and tiny home accessories. I loved arranging all the furniture and creating little vignettes in my six-room Barbie dollhouse. I would then take my pink 35mm film camera and capture photos of the scenes I had created. I loved creating visual displays!
In fact, I have always loved creating lovely spaces and sharing budget-friendly decorating and entertaining tips, DIY projects, tutorials, party decor and holiday decor ideas. (Holidays are my jam!)
In college, I received a bachelor’s degree in marketing communications and a minor in visual arts from Brigham Young University, and an associate degree in fine art from Brigham Young University-Idaho (formerly named Ricks College).
When my husband and I moved to Dallas, I used my painting skills and started freelancing painting murals for homes and local businesses. I also started doing interior decorating. Painting murals took so many hours, and while I enjoyed it, it took away too much time from my children. So, I packed up my paintbrushes and turned to just focusing on interior decorating. Thus, in 2012, Nissa-Lynn Interiors was born!
I started my company based on the idea that everyone can have a beautiful home or business, no matter the size, budget or age. This is important because your surroundings affect your life — especially in the areas of productivity, disposition and confidence.
I started by doing consultations for everything from choosing paint colors and picking out furniture to placement of kitchen cabinets and selecting flooring. I also enjoyed doing room makeovers, shopping, ordering products and installations — always keeping the client’s taste in mind, while sticking to their budget. I encouraged people to be bold and take their favorite styles and put their own spin on things.
I absolutely believe that surrounding yourself with timeless pieces you love is extremely important. But the best part about interior decorating was seeing the client’s joy over the changes made to their space — because you need to love the space you’re in!
I worked hard to promote my business through social media, referrals and local advertising. Little by little, my business grew, and I was blessed with more clients and opportunities.
In 2015, I promoted my business online by creating a blog and utilizing Instagram to showcase before-and-after photos of my clients’ homes, as well as my own home interior photos. I posted every day. Within six months I grew to several thousand followers, and I landed my first paid partnership with Frigidaire. They sent me a photo to post on Instagram and paid me $100.
I decided this was a great avenue to generate more income, so I continued to work on social media, posting multiple times a week on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. I also posted once a month on a blog about interior decorating tips and tricks.
My social media following grew, and more and more companies reached out to me about collaborating. I was able to get free products for my own home and make additional income for my family.
As my social media presence grew, I decided to expand my business by offering E-Design. E-Design is a great way to work with clients from all over the country — and for people who want to update their surroundings without an in-home/in-person consultation. With E-Design, the client sends me photos of their home or business, and I send them back a mood board with images of suggested items and changes. I also send them a detailed write-up with links to all the products I suggest purchasing, as well as instructions on how to arrange them for their space.
Around the same time my E-Design services were launched, I also started doing home staging for realtors in preparation for sellers to get their homes market-ready.
During 2020, businesses on social media started booming — and mine was no exception. My decorating business shifted from mainly interior decorating with private clients to working more with companies and promoting their products on my social media channels (Instagram, website/blog, Pinterest, Facebook and TikTok). Companies started reaching out to me and would send me their products, which I would style, photograph or film and edit, and then feature the items on my social media platforms. Brand influencing became the forefront of my business, as I fell in love with working on ad campaigns — tapping into the marketing communications degree I earned in college.
Social media gave me an extraordinary opportunity to share my decorating with people from around the world. On Instagram alone, I have over 103K followers and I enjoy connecting with them through blog articles and social media posts. When I’m not working directly with clients or on social media, I try to stay up to date with current design trends by reading, researching and attending influencer events and design conferences.
Decorating for holidays gives me joy — especially when I can share it on social media and help to inspire others! One of my favorite things to do is create fun and festive seasonal tablescapes. It is my way to welcome family and friends into my home and help make the holidays feel special. So, I started incorporating more holiday decor and entertaining-related content online.
When I did that, I had new opportunities open up. For example, I was contacted by Oriental Trading Company to create holiday tablescapes and birthday parties. I have always loved creating birthday parties for my own children, so partnering with them was like a dream come true!
I have been blessed to have so many extraordinary experiences in this business venture. I have worked with companies such as Costco, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, Overstock, KitchenAid, Lowes and Floor & Decor, to name a few. I love using creative and innovative ways to promote products using my skills and creativity, but I only accept product work from companies/ brands that align with my family values, and that I personally admire and approve of.
I have also had amazing opportunities to share decorating insights with people all over the country through magazine features, design panels and conferences. One of my most memorable moments was being flown to New York City, all expenses paid, for the product launch of The Tile Shop’s collaboration with Annie Selke. It was wonderful to get to know some of the top designers in the industry.
I also have to pinch myself every time I see my photos in print. My photos have graced the pages of several magazines, and one of my greatest dreams came true when I landed the cover of The Cottage Journal magazine’s 2021 Holiday Home issue.
Starting my business from the ground up has not been a smooth journey, but definitely has been a wonderful learning experience! With every business comes growth and learning. It took, and still takes, hours of behind-the-scenes work.
Being a social media influencer means your mind is always going, and you’re constantly having to create new content to post and keep your followers engaged. In 2020, Instagram came out with Reels and most companies I work with require Reels for their ad campaigns. Making Reels is significantly more challenging and time-consuming than taking still photos — which I had done for years! But in order to stay up to date and get your work promoted on social media, and receive paid partnerships, you need to adjust to the current trends. (It does pay off when your Reels go viral, reaching millions of people!)
There are disappointments in this business as well. For example, I’ve worked for days researching and scouring the internet for the right pieces for a client’s home, only for them to say that they decided to go in a different direction — which means starting over again. It can also be discouraging to spend hours creating a pitch for a company only to be turned down. There are definitely days when I want to stop, but I believe that if you’re passionate about something then you will keep going! Our family motto is, “You can do hard things!” I believe those words wholeheartedly!
Owning my own business has been a huge blessing because it allows me to primarily work from home and work around my children’s schedules. Plus, I absolutely love what I do! I am grateful for all the amazing growth and knowledge I have experienced.
Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and tell that 7-year-old girl that decorating her Barbie house would one day lead to accomplishing dreams beyond her imagination!