Emilia Decor grew out of a deep love and fascination of interior design, a longing to return to international development work and overwhelming dissatisfaction with the 9am to 5pm grind. My love for design started as young as I can remember. As a child I constantly decorated and redecorated my room,repurposed magazines to create exciting outfits for my dreary paper dolls, and after kids I was babysit fell asleep sketched floor plans of their homes. These were private pleasures I did not fully allow to blossom. I never took an art class in high school or college because I believed I would resent my passion if I pursued it as a career. Actually, the complete opposite held true. The 9-5 grind made me resent my career making my creative pursuits my lone solace. One evening, I brainstormed my dream description and it included things like: interior decorating, designing textiles and products with artisan co-ops in Latin American and blogging about design trends from a socially-conscience and anthropological bent. In that moment I realized my dream job didn’t really exist. This made me super bummed and depressed but as if out of nowhere there was a tiny voice of hope, my “entrepreneurial guardian angel”! Her voice, small but clear, refuted my long-held idea that my happiness was dependent upon someone else’s defined job role and choice to plug me into it. She whispered to me, “ Emmy, you can create your dream job. Take the risk! I’ve got you.” So here I am today! I’m an interior decorator creating beautifully curated and globally inspired homes with socially-minded creative clients on a budget and bringing you unique fair trade finds from around the world. I partner with two fair trade organizations: Threads of Peru for sustainably chic textiles and with Maya Traditions for sourcing vintage textiles from their gifted weavers. Shop my products on my online boutique. My global travels highly influence my personal style and fuel my design thinking. I’m always looking for ways to juxtapose the old with the new and to create unconventional friends among patterns and objects. It is my goal to bring style, beauty and function to your home, while being mindful of your budget, personality and lifestyle. I hold a BA in Spanish and Sociology from the University of Oregon and a Masters degree in Public Administration from Portland State University. I have traveled to almost every country in Latin America, am fluent in Spanish, and have lived and worked in Mexico, India and Peru working with women in micro-finance and education. I currently live in a 1920s craftsman home in the Arbor Lodge neighborhood of Portland with my UH-mazing husband Jake, and our big ‘ol enthusiastic dog Sol. We bought our forever home in February of 2016 and, knowing me, it’s gonna be a project that keeps on giving. Never a dull moment around here! Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to collaborating with you!