Check Out Heather Thompson’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Thompson.

Hi Heather, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Since childhood art and design have always gone hand in hand for me. With creative parents (my father was an art director and my mother was a home educator turned nurse) who allowed for experimentation and encouraged imagination, I began creating spaces plus drawing/painting early on.

Ten days after my 10th birthday my father passed away from a brain tumor and my life changed dramatically. My father was much like me in personality (I learned later on as an adult), and my mother struggled emotionally as a single parent. After my father’s death, I took upon myself the role of other parent and lost much of my childhood freedom and curiosity.

I felt the burden to parent my younger sister and help my mother through her depression and anxiety. By age 16, she had remarried and my stepfather was abusive. Our home life was fraught with fear, anxiety, depression, and neglect. I wanted to be a helpful/good daughter but also wanted to escape. My escape became art… I spent long hours in my room teaching myself how to draw.

During my senior year in high school/homeschool, I finally applied and was accepted to the Texas Tech University art program. It was my ticket out of my painful, dysfunctional family. At college, I poured myself into my studies and created paintings, sculptures, drawings, and ceramics. After 2 years, however, I wanted a change, so I moved with my family to Nashville, TN in 1998.

It was in Nashville that I finally found a support group, therapy for childhood victims of abuse, and moved out of my family home (with my younger sister) for good. We moved in with two other sisters from our support group and finally felt safe and free. (We deemed it the Betty Crocker house). By 2002, I met my husband and he promised to help me finish my art degree.

We married in May 2003 and by the fall I was enrolled in Watkins College of Art. It was there that I finally felt the freedom to express myself through my medium. I was encouraged to use my art as cathartic self-expression and a way to process my trauma via performance art, video experimentation, installations, and other new media. In 2005, I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Watkins College of Art and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

At the time of graduation, I had been working self-employed as a free lance decorative painter since 2003. During the early 2000s, I worked in tandem with contractors and builders to create unique decorative paint finishes for luxury residential clients.

By 2011, I had a team of three painting assistants and we were painting all surfaces of homes from children’s room murals, Venetian plaster walls, refinishing cabinetry/trim, and multi-layer ceiling finishes. My work won Best in Show awards at the 2014 Williamson County Parade of Homes. However, after my son was born, I realized what a toll the physical work was doing on my body.

With a colicky baby and working on little sleep, I decided to transition my business into color consulting (selecting residential paint colors for interiors and exteriors). It was a natural transition because many of my painting clientele already utilized me for this service and I had established relationships with paint contractors in the area who needed someone to assist their clients with large-scale paint decisions.

Then by 2018, I began offering my consulting clients interior design services as well. By 2020, when my work slowed significantly, I transitioned to virtual color and design consulting. The pandemic afforded me the time to learn drafting programs in order to provide renderings, digital color mock-ups, and space planning as optional services.

In 2021, I started doing my first remodels and now I offer a much broader range of services including residential remodels, and whole-home interior solutions.

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?
To me, life is a journey on a variety of terrain. I’ve been in the residential interiors industry since 2003 and have traversed smooth roads and narrow rocky precipices. I think the greatest lesson I’ve learned personally and professionally is surrender and adaptation.

As I gained confidence and healing from my painful past I was able to translate what I had learned into my business. It made me less afraid of potential problems or obstacles. So when the housing market took a dive in 2008, the demand for luxury wall finishes diminished, and I transitioned into cabinet painting and refinishing.

I learned everything I could about painting and staining wood. Then when my son was born, I also sought ways to adapt to my new lifestyle and transitioned my business from decorative painting into color consulting. Once a college professor told me that the only tool I needed as an artist was problem-solving.

So when the world entered into a global pandemic I wasn’t that terrified. I knew as I had learned before that I would be able to adapt and transition with creative solutions. The only thing certain in life is change. So I continue to surrender, take one day at a time, and look for possibilities in the midst of change, chaos, or challenges.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I spoke a lot about my work in the previous section. But today, I specialize in creative home solutions. My goal with my clients is to: first -listen carefully, second -be attentive, and third- Offer beautiful spaces and solutions to meet their needs.

Being an empath has helped me as a designer to tune into my clients’ lives in a more intimate way and provide solutions that are customized rather than one size fits all.

I also still love to paint. For the past two years, I have been researching pattern making and look forward to launching my own line of hand-painted fabrics and wallpapers.

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I have learned is to hold on to hope.

“There is always hope” Barbara Yontz (one of my Watkins professors) used to say to me. In the midst of trial, tragedy, pain, disappointment, and abuse, there is still room for hope. Even on rocky soil or terrain flowers can still bloom.

I have a painting on my studio wall of Alpine Buttercups (Ranunculus Acraeus,) a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family. This rare and native species strictly grows in rocky alpine habitats at 8-10,000 ft. above sea level.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.heathersthompson.com/
• Instagram: @Hstinteriors
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hstinteriors

Image Credits:
Heather S. Thompson and Tracy Castro