Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea de Lancellotti.
Hi Andrea, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
To say the least, It has been a long and winding road. I’ve always been independent, probably to my detriment. Growing up, we constantly moved. I was young when my parents divorced, and I opted to live with my mother. She was also an interior designer and an artist; A wild and fun woman my friends jovially refer to as “The legend”. And I would reluctantly have to agree.
Without the support of a second income, my mother gave up her interior design business to take quick-money jobs like bartending and catering to support me and my siblings. Like I previously mentioned, we moved around a lot due to this, but to make the chaos seem less chaotic, she always let us decorate our new rooms. It was a trick she used to help us adapt to the ever-changing living situation in a creative way and to figure out how to make a home wherever we ended up in this life.
The skillset that she unintentionally bestowed upon me has been an immeasurably valuable quality in my life. It has won me business, opened doors, and gotten me into rooms I’d never thought I’d get the opportunity to be in, with people I never thought I would have the experience of meeting.
Fast forward 18 years… I am now an Interior Designer and Real Estate agent with my own thriving company in Santa Monica, California. My business and life partner is a General Contractor. We have done amazing commercial and residential projects and are now moving into doing our own signature designed, renovated, and custom-furnished flips.
A lot of hard, terrible, and amazing things have happened in between then and now. But I wouldn’t change anything or take back the losses and heartbreaks as it has gotten me to exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been about as smooth as the maiden voyage of the Titanic.
Look, in the past ten years, I’ve been married, abused, divorced, bankrupt, lived out of my car, lost a pregnancy, went back to school, started a company, built (and continue to build) a business, moved to LA and finally found the love of my life.
All of this to say, IT IS NEVER A SMOOTH ROAD. Every person reading this has suffered some variation of the same afflictions of life. The hardest part of everything I just listed off wasn’t in the tragedy of the events themselves, but the internalization of them and how it affected my own self-esteem and self-worth. I couldn’t move forward in my life for a very long time because I believed the things I would say to myself, wretched things that don’t bear repeating, but I’m sure a few could relate.
When I met my partner in business and in life, I was in school, sleeping at my father’s house (thank God for my family!), and using public transit to get from South Orange County to DTLA FIDM three days a week because I had gotten into a terrible car accident. I felt like I was working so hard and trying to overcome so much. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
My now partner told me every day how talented I am and what a powerhouse he believed me to be. He has always hyped me up so much! He told me to believe in him if I couldn’t believe in myself and one day, I would see it too.
Since then, we started a company together, we’ve been through some insane ups and downs, incredible growing pains, wins and losses. Finally, after all of that, I can confidently say I now see what he sees.
In conclusion, please never give up! At the risk of sounding inelegant and slightly cliche, sometimes, the darkest moments are just preparation for the life you always dreamed of.
As you know, we’re big fans of Ardor. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Ardor is an Interior Design and Build company based out of Santa Monica California. With my education/experience in Interior Design and my licensing as both a Mortgage Loan Officer and a Real Estate Agent, we have developed an ROI (return on investment) based renovation system that optimizes equity in homes for resale and general investment. We are moving into our own version of ready-to-live in-house flips, fully equipped with custom furniture pieces (designed by yours truly) to the silverware in the drawer and the sheets on the bed. This has been a vision of ours for some time, and we cannot wait to launch this new model of flipping that will surely be a disrupter to the industry.
Secondarily I am developing a line of energy-based furniture pieces for healing and wellness. We are in the process of building out our new brand and website so be on the lookout! For now, just follow me on Instagram @hautegirlinhaus for updates.
I have a deep love for everything home-related. I’ve pushed myself to be an expert in the field. I deeply care about this career and my company because, as I learned very young in life, everything starts with home. It is where you start and end. It is the foundation from which you jump from. It is the place you fall back to when things don’t pan out as planned. It is your sacred space to recharge and heal. It is the temple where your traditions are created. Nothing is more valuable or important. That is the ethos from where we work from at Ardor. It is my heart and the company’s mission statement. I couldn’t be prouder of what it (and me) has evolved into. I hope I have the privilege of working with one of you someday.
I also have my real estate license with Agents of LA. We are a boutique Luxury brokerage in Westlake. We specialize in being on the pulse of technological advancement in the RE realm. I am always available via Instagram to answer any and all Real Estate or Design questions!
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Literally, I have googled “Best way to network as an interior designer”. But what has always actually worked for me is to just talk to people. You never know who you are going to meet. Many of my first opportunities in the industry were from random conversations with people who happened to be looking for someone to do design work, asked for my portfolio, and ended up getting the job. I now belong to several networking groups for young entrepreneurs and Real Estate professionals. You can find some of these groups with your city’s Chamber of Commerce, but I have found some groups through social media as well.
In regards to finding a mentor, I’ve been blessed to have had many in my life. But, growing up, I was lucky enough to have an uncle who hired me to assist him with a passion project (making wine). He also happens to be a very successful corporate type who taught me a lot about business. Now, at this stage in my career, I have invested in a business coach to help me develop my brand, organize the structure of my business, and connect me to the right places for publicity and social media management. If you aren’t quite there yet, I would recommend seeking out someone who you admire in the same industry you’d like to be in and simply ask if they would be willing to take you on as a mentee or if they could offer a referral to someone else that would be willing to take you on.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: hautegirlinhaus
Image Credits
Taylor Habig
