Ready, Set, Launch with Kelly Elmore
Episode 67: Welcome to the She Builds Show, I’m your host, Stefanie Olson. Today, I am so excited to introduce you to Kelley Elmore. Kelly recently started a company doing small room renovations and accent walls, and she’s always had a love for DIY and started a blog to show projects that she’s working on, and that’s how Fixing Up the Place, LLC. was born. Her motto is “Inspiring others to make small changes to love the home they’re in!”
Ready? Let’s go…
SHOWNOTES:
• So when we bought this house, I posted everything that I did and I got a lot of pretty positive feedback and a lot of people who were interested in it. It started with friends and family that wanted me to come do these projects, which I never really even considered as any type of career. But the first person reached out and said, Hey, can you redo my laundry room? And I was very intrigued and I was like, sure, I’ll try it. And it turned out pretty darn good. So it really was, it started on social media and then the blog I started years ago started to finally get some traction and interest and people really finding images on Pinterest that they really liked and had no idea of how to make their room look like that. So they kind of asked me if I would be able to, I guess, implement it and make it make their room look the same. (06:07)
• Well, OK. My dad growing up was a contractor and he had a contracting company and he did a lot of commercial, mostly restaurants in the beginning, remodeling, and then he did residential towards the end. And as a child, very young, I used to go to his job sites with him. And I think that’s when I fell in love with the process because he would bring me to whether it be just usually homes before he started. So, I got to see how it looked beforehand. He would kind of tell me the plan. He’d bring me in in the very middle of the mess when it’s just a disaster and you can’t possibly imagine what it’s going to look like at the end. And then when the project was finished, he would bring me back later and say, like, see, this is where I told you I was going to move this here and do that there. And so seeing it from like, trying to imagine the beginning, the chaos in the middle, and then how beautiful it is in the end, I think that made a big impact on me too. (11:17)
• We have a front, I call it a sitting room. It’s just like one of those bonus rooms. I’m not real sure exactly what it was supposed to be. Probably just a sitting room. And we moved in. I told my husband, I’m going to paint that wall black. And he’s like, Oh, God, that’ll look terrible. And I’m like, No, no, I’m going to do, I’m actually going to do the whole room. It’s going to look great. He did not think it would be great. Lots of people on Instagram told me do not paint a room black. That’s going to look terrible. It’s going to be terrible. I finished it. And it is the most sophisticated, classy, dare I say sexy room in our house. And it is beautiful. It’s so pretty. And so watching people come in and go, Oh, my God, like I’ve had people reach out to me and go, Hey, what color paint did you use? What sheen paint? What this? Because it turned out so good. And that was one of those times I like trusted myself and like, I’m just going to take a chance. It’s just paint. You can paint over it. It’s not a big deal. Right? So that’s my favorite in our house. (14:05)
• Don’t be afraid to try. Like I have people all the time that write to me on Instagram and say, like that room that’s black. I could never. It’s beautiful, but I can never. Why could you never? Why? Like it’s just paint. Paint over it if you don’t like it, like just try it. I understand people not wanting to buy a whole garage full of tools to do things, but the last accent wall that I did, I used trim cutters. It’s a little handheld trim cutters. And it was screen trim, super thin screen trim that, I mean, it took me a while to get the measurements quite right to have them all equally spaced, but it took no time at all. And if you don’t have a nail gun, you could use liquid nail. I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but you could use finishing nails on a hammer. Right? Yeah. There’s ways around it. For sure. I would just, in your home, it’s your home, it should be your safe space. Your home is where you can try things. You can. You don’t have to worry about what other people think because it’s your own home. So if you have a space that is just boring and you just want to liven it up some, like just try it. Just try new things. That’s all. Try new things. You’re probably going to love it. (29:42)
ABOUT KELLEY ELMORE:
Kelley Elmore works full time as a practice manager for a busy anesthesia group in Florida but recently started a company doing small room renovations and accent walls. She’s always had a love for DIY and started a blog to show projects that she was working on. People seemed to really like what she was doing and started asking her to make over rooms in their own homes. Fixin’ Up The Place, LLC was born and it has been nonstop projects ever since! She continues to use her Instagram and blog to teach simple home improvement projects anyone can do and to inspire others to make small changes to love their home.
CONNECT WITH KELLEY:
• Website: http://www.fixinuptheplace.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fixinuptheplace
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fixin_up_the_place
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Fixinuptheplace/_created
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow