Instagram Stories: Amber Interiors
See how one California native went from blogging online shop owner to the #bosslady of an on-the-rise design firm in the blink of an eye.
Amber Lewis is on the fast track to success. Last month, on her 34th birthday, just five years after founding her full-service design firm, the West Coast native expanded her wildly successful online shop to a brick-and-mortar location in Calabasas—proving that a lot can happen in half a decade if you're willing to work hard at what you love. Much of the designer, shop owner, wife, and mother's success is due in part to the inspiring visuals and laugh-out-loud captions that are on display on her Instagram feed, @amberinteriors, which has garnered more than 100,000 followers, all eager to see what cool, bohemian spaces she'll come up with next. We checked in with the design mogul to learn more about her rise to interiors stardom, and see what it looks like to be a modern-day social media phenom.
The background
"I’m a California native. I grew up by the beach. I started doing window displays at 19, then worked for another interior designer before branching out on my own. It’s been a natural progression. When I first started blogging about designing my own home, at that time, four years ago, that wasn’t really done. I got inquiries about where I got everything. So, on the side, I started selling home goods online–I sourced everything myself. Then my husband and I decided to go into business together."
the business
"Bedrooms are the most fun to decorate and style, but kitchens are the most fun to design. The client’s personality is always a huge factor in how we design a home. I can’t always do every single thing I want; however, I do try. I had no aspirations to open this store, but I’m so happy I did. It's where I let my style shine as opposed to a client’s home. Our online store seemed to grow to a point where a brick and mortar was just the next step. Now we’re a month in and it’s going great—we even got some buzz from the LA Times."
The instagram
"I got started with Instagram as a 'check out my family and my kid' kind of thing, then it slowly turned into an extension of my blog. I totally just wing it and try to be as much myself as possible when I write my captions. I love to do a little shoe selfie or, as I like to call it, a 'shoe-fie.' We have no strategy for using Instagram for our business—we just post pretty pictures. A lot of people who come into the store follow us on Instagram."
the future
"We’re always evolving and changing. We are constantly learning and growing and doing other things; nothing will be the same as the last thing. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep that momentum. Five years ago, it was me and one employee, and we maybe had two jobs going on at once. Now there are eight of us on the design team, and we have 11 clients spanning from California to New York. It's been a wild ride."
