Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Lindsey.
Hi Stephanie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Design started at home for me. My mom could upholster, sew drapes and plan a room, and I’d come home from school to find the whole living room rearranged. In high school I was hooked on Trading Spaces and wanted to be Ty Pennington.
I went to Interior Designers Institute in Newport Beach, lived in a few different cities and states, and turned internships into jobs. Eventually I landed at a high-end residential firm in Austin, which is where I met Jessica Nelson. We clicked right away. Where one of us is weak, the other is strong, and that’s still true today.
In 2015 we started Etch Design Group. Today our team designs high-end homes and boutique commercial spaces in and around Austin. Jessica spends most of her time now on our second company, AI for Interiors, and I focus on running the business and keeping our team and projects on track. We also host a podcast called 100 Lunches, which has been one of the most fun things we’ve done together.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not always smooth! A few of the big lessons:
Learning to lead. Design school teaches you how to design. Nobody teaches you how to set expectations, give feedback or have hard conversations that come with growing a team. We’ve had to learn how to talk about goals and accountability without losing the culture we started Etch to protect.
Balancing family and the business. Jessica and I both have young kids, and there have been seasons where family had to come first. Having a partner you trust completely is the only reason it works for us.
Protecting our process. Every time we’ve bent our process or scope to make a project fit, it’s caused problems later. We’re flexible where it helps a client, but we’ve learned to hold firm on the process because it’s what gets them a great result.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Etch is a full-service interior design firm. We do residential remodels, new construction and furnishings, plus select boutique commercial projects.
What I’m most proud of is how we take care of people. Building a home is a big investment and a lot of decisions, and we want our clients to always know where things stand.
We’re seeing more clients who don’t want a blank slate. They want a home that feels like them, and a lot of them want it to feel like a retreat, sometimes like a favorite hotel or a place they loved traveling. Our team loves getting to know the people first and then designing around how they actually live.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Communication. Good design gets you in the door, but how you communicate is what makes a client trust you through a long project.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://etchinteriordesign.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/etchdesigngroup/
