Our Story...

It is said that everyone has a story, and my story has a couple of different chapters.

Teaching and design have been parallel paths that I have walked my entire life. I knew that in order to be truly happy and fulfill my purpose and passion, I couldn’t choose just one. 

While spending my days as an elementary school teacher, my husband (Dean) and I created a company called Upwards Life, with the mission and goal to positively impact the world. This company was so much fun because it provided us the freedom to work on custom projects in many different areas, both big and small. We focused on all kinds of things with creativity, colors, patterns, balance, and the art of design everywhere.

The three best parts of Upwards Life have always been clients reaching out with new design challenges, the process of creating and surpassing their expectations, and the joy we all would experience when the projects were complete. This was the perfect side hustle while I was teaching because it allowed me opportunities to feed my need for artistic creativity and design.

More people continued to reach out to us, and the challenges and projects kept growing. One of those unexpected projects came about when my mother in law, who is a realtor, had a newly remodeled vacant home that was just about to hit the market. The lovely sellers left it up to her to make it “showing ready”. I was so excited when she asked if I wanted to go take a look with her and brainstorm. Dean and I jumped in the car, and little did we know that standing in that living room, planning what to do with that space, would grow to become our first meeting of the design and staging company that was about to become official.

After spending over twenty years in the elementary classroom, and with the new projects that kept coming our way, I knew it was time for a new chapter. I finished my last year of lesson plans, closed my classroom door for the last time, and carried home with me the lessons, love, and memories from hundreds of students. As much as I love teaching (which is A LOT), my heart was satisfied with the job that I did and the impact that I had, and was pulling me toward the other path - the path of design.

With learning being such a part of my core, I was so excited to reach out to the experts to help me grow my knowledge and foundation of home design and the first steps in starting a staging and design business. I am so grateful for those willing to teach and share and help me grow, and with time, celebrating with me as I could officially change my title to certified home stager. When it was time to name this new company, Dean and I put our heads together, and it didn’t take long to come up with the name Upwards Lifestyle, a branch of Upwards Life, that keeps true to our mission of positively impacting the world.

As I work through the design process on all of our projects, I know I’m done when both my eyes and my heart are happy. And that is our mission and vision for all of our projects: To bring our clients “happy eyes and happy hearts”, creating spaces that look incredible and feel  just right.

We would love the opportunity to positively impact your world and your space, knowing that your home is one of the most special places you will ever be.