A look back at MMC
I’ll be honest, it hasn’t been smooth sailing. The path to where I am today has come with countless challenges, giant leaps, turns, risks, and forks in the road. But when I take a look back, I can honestly say I wouldn’t be where I am today without each and every one of them.
Always Look Up
My love for interiors really started from a very young age. Both of my parents are architects, so it was a very normal conversation during our family travels & outings for my parents to comment on the design and architecture all around us. They would say, “always look up”, encouraging my sister and me to take in every single little detail of the spaces around us. My parents took us with them everywhere they traveled, including multiple trips to Italy to visit my grandparents. I’ll never take for granted the wealth of culture & design knowledge my parents exposed us to as kids.
Like most young adults, when it came time to choose what “I wanted to be when I grew up” I thought I wanted to do something different from my parents and find my own path. But even still, during summer breaks from college I ended up working for my mom’s design firm, helping her residential clients with design selections for their custom home builds and renovations. Don’t get me wrong, I loved doing it and it came so naturally, but at the time I still thought I needed to try something different. So instead of going to school for architecture, I got my BFA in Graphic Design.
Looking at Landing My Dream Job
I’m still not entirely sure how I was fortunate enough to land a dream job straight out of school working for Scripps Networks (they owned HGTV, DIY, Food Networks.. etc), but that’s what happened! Over the course of 6 years, I worked my way up to being in a position where I was styling & art directing shoots for HGTV & DIY. I was regularly getting pulled into projects that had less & less to do with graphic design. I was on projects that had more to do with styling & designing the actual spaces and rooms. Ding-Ding – the light bulbs started to go off.
Over those 6 years, something else happened. Undoubtedly the BEST thing to ever happen to me… I fell in love with my best friend. After Josh and I got married I moved in with him in Chattanooga… which happened to be 90 miles away from where I worked. YEP, you read that right… 180-mile round trip to work. Being pre-covid days, working from home full time just wasn’t an option. I found myself driving back and forth to work several days a week, having to stay overnight away from my new hubby! NOT ideal, to say the least. But we made it work for just shy of 2 years!
Around that time I had also started this thing..l you may have heard of it before…
A Blog (lol)
This was waaaay before blogging was a thing, and I had no intentions of growing it into a business. It was just a creative outlet for me to share what I was wearing, the food I was cooking, and the projects I was doing around our newlywed house. But something happened.. it actually started picking up traction. I was collaborating with huge companies, getting invites to NYFW, and was recognized by E! Networks as a style contributor finalist. I was on cloud 9! Ding-Ding – another sign from the universe.
Look at the Fork in the Road
Now here is where I had my first fork in the road. As I mentioned above, I already had what many would consider a “dream job”, but something just wasn’t feeling right. I was being pulled in a different direction and at the time I couldn’t quite understand why. But together with Josh, we made the very hard decision that I was going to leave my job and go out on my own. And full transparency here, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have had the guts to do it if my job wasn’t 90 miles away from our home. The ultimate deciding factor was that Josh and I wanted to start a family, and there was no way I was going to be over an hour away from them every day. So just like that. I quit my job – and Maria Murphy Creative was born.
Scared Out of My Mind
If this stage of my life had a title it would be called, SCARED OUT OF MY MIND. I had just taken this giant leap of faith. Even though I believed in myself, I had no proof that it would all work out. On paper, I had taken every step necessary to start my business; but behind the scenes, I was pretty lost and didn’t have a clear direction where I wanted it to go. I knew I was most passionate about all the hands-on styling I was doing at work and what I was blogging about, but that wasn’t what was paying the bills. My graphic design work was.
For years I tried to figure out a way to morph those two worlds together. It never really came together in a way that felt right. I kept advertising myself as a design agency that “did it all” offering everything under the sun. I was hoping people would pick the interior design services over anything else, but it wasn’t working.
Look at Another Hard Decision
Then, I made another incredibly hard decision… I dropped all services except interior design. And when I tell you the darkness cleared and the light-filled my world, that is no exaggeration! When I take a look back, I see how everything in my past started to line up and make sense for where I was at that moment. I have no regrets about the path I took to get there.
It’s funny taking a look back over the years and seeing how everything seemed to have fallen into place. My graphic design background taught me design fundamentals: color theory, visual hierarchy, spacial composition, and of course creating design renders. The love I have for fashion and styling keeps me up to date on trends, and my blogging experience helps me create useful resources and content. Each piece of my past is somehow still in use with where I am today. To be honest, I don’t think my journey is done. I’m still evolving and morphing into the version of myself and my business that is meant to be. I have big ideas for the future of MMC and I can’t wait to share them all with you! One thing I know for sure, is nothing makes me happier or feel more fulfilled than helping other women and families find some joy in their everyday life, and that starts at home. The forefront of my business will ALWAYS be that. Helping you love your home is what excites me, it’s what I love most about what I do ❤️ Because home is everything. It’s where you should feel most comfortable, where you should feel inspired, at peace… where you create memories with your loved ones, host friends and never want to leave. If your home isn’t doing that for you, I’d absolutely love to help! My calendar is back open for full service consultations! Let’s talk through what you and your home desperately need and how I can help!
Ready to talk about your interior design needs? Let’s chat!
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