Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Nolan-Sellers.
Lauren, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Lauren Nolan Sellers is a world-class interior decorating expert, co-founder of the award-winning 7-figure decorating firm Trust the Vision Decor, a mission-driven mentor through her Aspiring Designers Academy coaching program, and the visionary behind her latest venture, a design-based technology initiative called H.O.U.S.E.D. Inn Blaque. For the last 15 years, Sellers has been hailed as a powerhouse and mentor serving hundreds of clients and students alike. As co-founder of the interior design firm Trust the Vision Decor, her work has been featured by numerous industry giants including Architectural Digest, Behr Paint, and Apartment Therapy, and she has been sought after by celebrities and CEOs for personal renovations. Lauren has appeared in multiple major media outlets, including Fox and the NBC Today Show, and work is revered by clients across North America.
The above paragraph paints a phenomenal picture, and it’s all true, but this isn’t where my story begins.
My love affair with interior design started in 2010 when we bought our first home, and Wendy, my partner, then working in the medical field, gave me carte blanche to do whatever I wanted. And I, an elementary school teacher with no experience beyond thousands of hours logged on HGTV, set off on an adventure that would change our lives. Prior to that time I’d had a long love affair with soccer, playing all over country, receiving a Division 1 Full Scholarship, setting records in high school and college, and captaining my team at Villanova University. I thought my love for soccer would be unmatched, but interior design changed all that.
They say a journey of 10,000 miles starts with a single step; our little house on Powell Street, was mine. We went full throttle renovating the kitchen, knocking down a wall, puttting in a breakfast bar, and refinishing the floors. We even landscaped the front, and put in a paver patio in the back! It was long 6 months, but that was all it took! I was in for life. We did the work ourselves after full days of work we jumped into long nights of sanding, painting, and tiling with lots of mistakes but amazing memories. Armed with borrowed tools from neighbors and living in our own kind of blissful ignorance, we endeavored on that little house. It proved to be a labor of love peppered with lots of trial and error—heavy on the error, lol!
After we finished that house, we threw a huge housewarming party where friends, colleagues, and neighbors asked who we hired to design our space. I laughed it off, and said that I designed it. Soon inquiries came in for help, but with no business experience and no design degree, I never took it seriously. I thought it was impossible for me because I didn’t want to start over, and we wanted to starting building our family. What I didn’t fully realize is that Powell St had planted a seed that was quietly taking root, and somewhere in the back of my mind, having my own design business became my secret dream.
Fast forward 2 years, and after a medical emergency where I almost died giving birth to my daughter, I had an epiphany. A brush with your mortality is clarifying. So Wendy and I made a decision. I would quit teaching, and go all in. Trust the Vision Decor was born. Growth was slow at first, but over the next 7 years, that small spark would grow to a roaring fire, and by 2019, we were designing for celebrities and featured in numerous media outlets. We even offered a coaching program aimed at career-switching would-be designers who had the same fire I did but lacked the business design fundamentals…and we thrived!
By the start of 2020, I had more than 10x’ed my teaching salary, and while I thought I was preparing to soar, life was squaring her proverbial fist at my unsuspecting and ill-equipped jaw. A series of 1-2 punches leveled me and changed everything. As you well know, by March of 2020, we were all in the madness of COVID; we now had 2 young kids at home, and life came to a halt along with the rest of the world. Thankfully, the Academy was thriving and sustained us.
However, by that summer, after being glued to the TV hearing about hundreds of thousands of people dying regularly, and then enduring the tragic murder of George Floyd, my mental health took a hit. Pair that with the early 2021 return of my mom’s cancer, and the downward spiral was in full swing. By July of that year, she was gone, the matriarch of my family and one of 2 closest people I had on earth; devastating doesn’t begin to touch it. And as if that wasn’t enough, I was still deeply grieving when, only 7 months later, I was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer and would be in the battle for my own life.
Two surgeries later, a series of synchronistic, and dare I say miraculous, encounters ended up with me receiving life-saving treatment in Norway in the summer of 2022. I have been sustained and in good health since then. During this dark time, Wendy was my rock, but design continued to be my lifeline. I would imagine our future; future projects, future memories with my family, but focus was on my future—and simply having one. After running at an unrelenting pace for more than a decade, life forced me to slow down and re-evaluate my time here on Earth. It was time again, to stop re-evaluate ,and make some decisions, about my life, my family, and design.
You see, I see design as my art. Every space I touch becomes my canvas.
But what was I saying with my art? What would I say if given the chance? I would say “thank you” to all the people who made my life possible. The names we’ll never read in the history books but whose drops in the collective bucket of humanity made all the difference for me.
In time, the answer to that question, in all that stillness, birthed an idea that eventually culminated in what we now simply refer to as “HOUSED.” H.O.U.S.E.D., standing for Honoring Our Unique Story with Excellence thru Design, Inn Blaque, my latest venture, is a fresh take on a hidden history. It’s a mission-driven initiative celebrating black excellence by combining technology, black history, and interior design. Design becomes a tool to tell stories and sing the songs of unsung heroes. It’s positioned to reimagine what design can be.
That lead us to today. Currently, we are actively growing HOUSED, working with multiple clients with Trust the Vision Decor, and we are set to re-launch Aspiring Designers Academy in late 2026. Life looks busy, but beautiful. My children are beautiful thoughtful loving souls and partner has the purest heart I’ve ever known. I am an absolute working in progress. I’m taking the lessons from the last 5 years and integrating them into all aspects of my life. I promise myself to live fully but with more ease, trust, joy, and peace. It has been a wild ride, but I now know I am exactly where I am meant to be. Blessed.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I am lit up by good conversation. I’m an ‘ideas’ person and love thinking and dreaming big. I love my family and friends and love design. It makes me happy to be creating ideas and bringing them to fruition.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.trustthevisiondecor.com www.hibhq.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064486908664
