Jumping From the Corporate World
A Childhood Interest Becomes a Career
Lieve Saether’s artistic parents embraced her aesthetic talents as a child and even encouraged her to often rearrange the furniture in her room. So we are not surprised that years later that she has found success as an interior designer.
Her path to entrepreneurship began early and out of necessity as a way to pay for college. Endowed with a strong work ethic thanks to her mother, Lieve started working at 14 years old. She spent summers working for an antiques restorer in Belgium, and soon started her own business on the side – restoring, painting, and selling small decorative pieces.
Like many of us, Lieve set aside her artistic abilities to work for management consulting firms – focusing on creative marketing and PR roles. The years passed, and though Lieve did not yet have her own, she was passionate about spaces for children. She began styling rooms for friends, and when her clients became friends of friends, she decided to start charging for her services.
The seeds of a business
It was an organic start to her business, but she hadn’t yet leapt from the corporate world. A move to California spurred her to enroll in night classes to pursue a professional designation in interior design. She dreamed about what her business would be – she wanted to specialize in the niche market of distinctive child-related spaces. Lieve still enthuses about children’s rooms, “A child’s place should be a fantastic place to grow up, with cozy places to hide, fun to be had, and a refuge for expression. It should help them develop whom they want to become.”
But she still didn’t feel ready.
Lieve says women often feel the need to cross every t, and dot every i – a fantastic quality for an entrepreneur…but not one for those who have yet to start the business.
Then a friend in her program told her, “You just jump and do it”. This advice landed right where it needed to. Lieve reduced her hours at work and launched her business. She credits supportive women in her life for encouraging her talents as well as connecting her with clientele which have helped her business grow.
Lieve owns Turnstyle Design, a full service residential interior design firm, where she spreads her philosophy that people are molded by their spaces. She fits work and family life together, and you know her kids are really lucky to have such a cool, creative mom creating great rooms for them to blossom – just like she did.
Learn more about Lieve and see her portfolio at www.turnstyleid.com.
Lieve and her team. From left: Erica Brown, Catherine DiPersico, Claire Gorenflo, Ashley Gierke, Lieve Saether.