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𝙳𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝 | 𝚂𝚝𝚢𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝

@laurelt.living

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Fall in love with your home again.
Interiors • Styling • Custom Drapery
Vintage soul, fresh perspective.
Nelson + Vancouver
↓ Let’s refresh your space

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Just furnished this condo at Red Mountain ✨
Set up as a seasonal vacation rental, but we wanted it to feel set apart from all the other condos in that building. Somewhere you actually want to be, not just stay.
I worked with @lys.creativestudio @marshallshomeliving in Kelowna for the big pieces, and found the perfect little accent cushions from @maison.decor right here in Nelson. Local first, always. Original art print on the shelf by @stephaniegauvinartist
I'm mobile + come to you. Fall mini-makeovers booking now, DM to book, link in bio
#NelsonBC #RedMountain #RosslandBC #VacationRentalDesign #KootenayLiving

📷: @stephanmalette by @laurelt.living

"A seasoned woman is spicy. She has been marinated in life experience." - Gail Sheehy
I found this book at a thrift store and I cannot put it down.
Because she's describing you. The woman who has lived through enough to know what she wants, who has held everything together for everyone else for so long, and is now,finally, quietly, starting to ask what she actually wants.
And I think about this a lot in my work.
Because I walk into homes all the time that don't match the woman living in them. Beautiful, complex, layered women living in spaces that are still set up for the life they used to have. The kids who moved out. The marriage that changed shape. The version of herself she was performing for everyone else.
Your home should know who you are now.
That's really what a mini makeover is. A few hours together, working with what you already have, maybe sourcing a few pieces that actually feel like you, and by the end your space exhales the same way you do when you finally get to be yourself.
Spots for fall are open. DM me if you're ready. 🍑
Sex and the Seasoned Woman by Gail Sheehy - highly recommend.

#seasonedwoman #homesforwomen #minimakeover #interiorrefresh #gailsheehy by @laurelt.living

There's something about being somewhere new that makes you breathe differently.
The light hits differently. The colours feel richer. You notice things. You slow down a little.
And then you come home and somehow it all disappears.
Here's what I know after years of doing this work: you don't have to book a flight to feel that way. That sense of being somewhere that actually suits you , warm, beautiful, a little bit alive , we can create that right where you are, with what you already have.
Maybe a few new pieces if you want them. I love a good sourcing hunt. But mostly it's about finally letting your space reflect you instead of the version of you that was just trying to make everyone else comfortable.
That's exactly what we do in a fall mini makeover session.
A few hours together, your home, your stuff, and by the end it feels like somewhere you actually want to be.
DM me to book yours before the season fills up.

#fallmakeover #roomreset #homestylist #usewhatyouhave #interiorrefresh by @laurelt.living

For years, I said yes to everything.
That's what the film industry teaches you. There is no "I can't do that." There's just figure it out, make it work, show up, and keep moving. I carried that into my business and honestly thought it was the only way to operate.
Then I was sitting across from an architect over coffee in Nelson. He'd asked me to assist him on a project , which I was completely flattered by , and somewhere in that conversation I found myself confiding in him. About the imposter syndrome. About feeling like I needed to know absolutely everything before I could call myself anything.
About not being sure what to even call myself, being more of a school-of-life decorator than a formally trained one.

He just looked at me and said, "You don't have to know everything. It's OK to say I don't do that."

Something shifted.
Not long after that conversation, I finally put up the sign I'd been sitting on. A custom decal applied to the glass of my little pink door at 422 , Laurel T. Colins, Interior Decorator.
Inspired by Rachel Ashwell's store in Santa Monica, and just... waiting for me to add my title. Because who was I to say that out loud?
Turns out, I was exactly who I said I was.
(The door is still pink, by the way. It's a barbershop now.) 🩷
I still catch myself slipping. The yes reflex doesn't disappear overnight, especially when you've spent decades being the person who figures it out no matter what. But that conversation gave me permission to stop trying to be everything to everyone, and instead show up as the specific thing I actually am.
Someone who walks into a room and sees what it's quietly trying to say.
That's what I bring to my room makeover and styling sessions. I'm not coming in with a formula. I'm coming in to see your space, with your life in it, and help you figure out what it's actually asking for.
If something feels off but you can't put your finger on what, that's exactly where we start.
Send me a DM and let's talk about your room. 🌿

Mural by @rg.rufis in Oaxaca
Dress from @espritdelafemme in Nelson
Sign by @speedpro_nelson

#interiorstylist #roomrefresh #homemakeover #decoratorlife #designboundaries by @laurelt.living

Even my daughter said it.
We were driving through Midway yesterday and she just looked at me and said, "Mom, you're living in chaos. You deserve some peace."
And I didn't argue with her.
Midway.
I love that we stopped there.
Because honestly? That's exactly where I am.
Past the midpoint of my life, somewhere between Nelson and Vancouver, somewhere between who I've been for everyone else and who I'm actually becoming for myself.
I've gotten so good at tolerating things that I stopped noticing they were limiting me. The slow background hum of compromise you stop hearing because it's just always there. You don't even know what you want anymore, you've been making do for so long it starts to feel normal.
Standing under that ridiculous red maple, throwing leaves like an absolute maniac, that was me deciding, even just for a moment, to stop tolerating and actually feel something.
Small things.
That's how it starts.
What's one thing you've been tolerating that you just keep walking past?

also, for some reason, The Stranglers song Golden Brown was playing in my head yesterday, so I love that it popped up as an option.
#midway #beyondmidlife #reclaiming #fengshuiathome selfreclamation by @laurelt.living

Morning coffee thougnts!

Yesterday I hung my winter art.

Every year when the light starts to drop I pull out the little jars of lights and start brightening the dark corners. The winter painting goes up. The crystal lamp goes on. The Buddha sits in his usual stillness and watches it all.

And apparently so does she.

He's been up there all year. Yesterday his family finally came home.

I see deer outside my window all summer. Having them on my wall through the cold months feels like keeping something I love close when the world goes quiet.

This corner says one thing to me right now: resilience. The light in the darkness. The beauty that's possible even in the coldest season.

What do you pull out when the season turns? 🖤

#winterdecor #morningcoffeethoughts #cozyhome #resilience #fengshuiathome by @laurelt.living

I knew it was holding me back.
I could feel it every time I walked into my room. The cramped closet with a curtain in front of it, stuff on the floor, beautiful things I loved completely buried. I knew. And I kept walking past it anyway.
Not because I didn't care. Because I had stopped making myself a priority. There was always something else, someone else, something more urgent than my own space, my own comfort, my own joy.
I wasn't thriving and I knew that too. I just kept telling myself I'd be ok.
This is my Gene Keys shadow. Entropy. The slow slide into disorder that happens when I stop tending to myself first. It shows up in my physical space, in my thoughts, in my energy, in my business. All of it connected.
Getting this wardrobe from Facebook marketplace, putting up the art by @bretonart I almost sold off, the perfect plant and pot from @bellaflorastudio ,the fairy lights, the little chair I actually sit in now, it sounds so small. But it wasn't small. It was me finally saying: I matter enough to have a space that feels like me.
This has been my Thanksgiving weekend and I'm so grateful for the time to reset.
What have you been walking past and telling yourself you'd be ok?

#homeorganization #fengshuiathome #entropytoflow #selfpriority sacredspac by @laurelt.living

This woman works hard! She made the majority of these garments on these mannequins for a Window display in 1 week!
Congratulations Lillea. This looks awesome.

I'm a proud momma ❤️🫶
@lilleagoian by @laurelt.living

I was sitting at my campsite when a stranger called. ChatGPT sent them to me. I couldn't help them, but I did anyway.

They'd been directed to me for something completely outside what I do, and the easy answer would have been to say sorry, wrong person, and move on. But I asked them to send me a picture of what they were trying to accomplish, and we figured out together who could actually help them.

That's just how I work.

If you call me with your problem I will do what I can to help you find the right person, even if that person isn't going to be me. I'd rather you find your way to the right solution than leave you more confused than when you started.

Peace of mind matters. Yours and mine.

Try me, let's see if we can work together or if I can direct you to who can.

#interiordesign #interiorstylist #womeninbusiness #fengshuidesign #authenticliving by @laurelt.living

I thought I was going to be a beautiful business coach with flowers in my hair. I was not.

In 2021, I joined a high-level business coaching group and knew immediately I was different. The very first group activity was everyone going around sharing what they were binge watching on Netflix and what their favourite thing on Amazon was. It was still Covid, people were mostly still indoors, and I had nothing to say. I sat there on that Zoom call feeling what I'd felt in a lot of online spaces by then: like a misfit, politely invisible.

The program itself was wonderful though. There were segments on branding, graphic design, and a virtual portrait session, and I fell completely in love with Canva. I started making collages of myself with flowers on my head and posting them like that was just a completely normal thing to do, which at the time felt completely right, or at least like the version of me I was trying to become.

That virtual portrait session led me somewhere I didn't expect. Straight into a self portrait program with @thegoldenbrand that I'd end up returning to for years.

But here's the thing about 2021. I was taking all the chances, showing up every day, trying every version of myself online. Confident. Inspired. Completely lost.

I genuinely thought I needed to make myself look like someone that people would want to be.

I had no idea yet that the answer was already in the photographs.

2022 is next.

#florallaurel #canvagraphicdesigns #antibrand #humandesign #reflector by @laurelt.living

Two days short of six years ago, I did this photo shoot.

The woman I was going to be ran through fields of flowers. I had the dress, the hat, the incredible coach, and a very clear vision of who I was becoming.

The photos are beautiful. The coach was brilliant.

And I still couldn't figure out why I couldn't follow the directions and the plan laid out for me.

I had the best business coaching. I was doing everything I was told. I just couldn't repeat the model of success, and I had no idea why.

So why wasn't it working?

The deeper truth was going to reveal itself about 8 months later with another expensive coaching investment, and send me on a whole trajectory into Human Design.

More next time 🌸

📷 @freshphoto

#laurelliving #humandesign #interiordesign #selfDiscovery #womenover50 by @laurelt.living