Daily Inspiration: Meet Tracy Tutson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Tutson.

Hi Tracy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Tracy Tutson, I am the owner of the bespoke firm, Next Chapter Interior Design. Approximately 4 years ago, I left my career as a Corporate Leader and for the past 2 years I have been following my passion and love of all things home. Beautiful things have always been a significant part of my life and my love of beautiful homes was rooted in my childhood. Growing up with divorced parents, I had the benefit of a mother who was always decorating our apartment with beautiful vintage finds and setting the table with a different tablescape every week, but when I would go to my father’s, the beauty continued, where I got to live in a home that was professionally decorated.

While I only started my firm a few years ago, my own home was always my own work of art and after helping several friends and family members with their spaces, this is now my full-time employment, where I get to help clients create spaces that best reflect them and their stage of life.

I named my business Next Chapter, because this is the Next Chapter of my life and that also reflects how I feel design should be approached. I want my client’s homes to reflect their current stage of life: young people making their first home, a family with children, new empty nesters… Your home should reflect and support where you are in life. I also like to incorporate vintage pieces into my projects, giving that furniture another chapter.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
While Interior Design is my passion, this is still a business. This means you have to make sure that you or someone in your firm is ensuring that all of the “business” things get done and, when you are a new boutique firm, that can be a challenge. To mitigate that, I am trying to adhere to specific schedules and to outsource those administrative tasks like billing and social media posting. Baby steps….

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in residential and, as you can see from my photos, I like color, repurposing pieces and creating a soulful home. However, my job is to create homes that reflect my clients. I love this work because it allows me to be creative and to still tap into those skills that allowed me to be successful in my past life, leading large scale technology projects. My organizational skills and love of a spreadsheet mean that I know what still needs to be ordered, when furniture will be delivered and that we still need to get a vase for the entryway table.

I am finishing a project now that is allowing me to blend my love of the game Mahjong with interior design. My client came to me, requesting that I create a Mahjong Parlor in her home and it is all going to be all the things!!! Hanging mats, Chinoiserie chairs, a bar, tiles displayed like candy…. This is what I mean when I say your home should reflect your chapter in life. She has fallen head over heels with the game and is preparing to start a home-based mahjong teaching business. I help my clients celebrate whatever chapter of life they are in. Our home should be the place that does this for us.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My clients know they can trust me. They know I am honest. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you are not trustworthy and honest, you shouldn’t be in a business where you are going to be in someone’s sacred place, their home. Working as an interior designer is intimate. You are in people’s home, many times, when they are not, you are a steward of their finances, you get to see their idiosyncrasies. While my eye, sense of style, and vendor list are important to my work, it is equally important to me that my clients know that they can trust me and that I am dependable.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nextchapterinterior.design/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextchapterid1/