Heather Osmond is living proof that you don’t necessarily need formal training to be successful in a particular industry.
What you need is grit and determination.
The Utah native fell into interior design sort of by accident. Truthfully, she always liked decorating her own home. As a hobby. But do it professionally? The thought didn’t cross her mind.
And yet, now she’s 20+ years into Osmond Designs, including two furniture outlet stores and a team of designers.
“Don’t underestimate yourself,” she says. “What we have planned for ourselves is not even close to the possibilities. Every day I wake up grateful that I get to do my dream job.”
The thing is, when you’re good at what you do, and there’s a need for it, people will find you.
An Unusual Beginning
Osmond was working at ZCMI when she met her husband. The two scrimped and saved and were able to purchase a small home—getting her real estate license helped, too. They lived in the unfinished basement and rented out the upstairs to pay the mortgage.
As newlyweds, they tackled finishing the basement, then sold the house. They did this many times over the years, coming into homes and reinventing them.
Meanwhile, as a realtor, Osmond was required to step into home after home. A judgmental eye is actually a positive trait in this job. Sometimes, the homes she was showing were less than stellar. Some were downright horrifying.
“I would redesign them in my head,” she says.
She took a few classes on interior design at Brigham Young University, purely out of hobby-level interest. But a little seed was planted.
Realtors know from experience that staging a home—placing aesthetically pleasing furnishings in a home for sale—helps increase buyer interest and even increase the sales price. So that’s what Osmond did with the homes she was selling.
“Buying a home is such an emotional experience,” she explains. “There’s a reason why builders spend so much on a model home.”
Other agents took notice of Osmond’s staging prowess. They wanted in.
“They asked, ‘Hey, can you do that for me?’ Pretty soon, I was busy staging for other agents,” Osmond says.
Staging grew to the point where she needed a semi-truck to haul it all around. A semi-truck costs money. So what did Osmond do? She went door-to-door selling furniture. Whatever it took to take that next step, she was doing it.
Meanwhile, Osmond and her husband were raising four children, who became her little helpers over the years.
“They moved furniture. They would vacuum and make beds. There’s always an opportunity to learn and grow in this business.”
Creating Beautiful Spaces
While Osmond never set out to throw her hat into the interior design ring, people wanted her services. They liked her design style and her approach to business.
Then the time came to really root her business firmly into the ground. She opened her first brick and mortar retail outlet, Osmond Designs, in Pleasant Grove in 2003.
“We opened with a bookshelf, a chair, and a desk. That was it,” Osmond recalls.
Soon the store was filled with high-end brands, entry-level options, and everything in between. Osmond loves a bargain, and she’s basically her own target market.
“I have this philosophy: never pay retail. So we try to help people stay in budget. No one beats our prices.”
Later, she opened a second location in Lehi. Besides loving home design and everything that comes along with it—such as developing the space’s style and function through furniture, texture, and color—there’s another side to the business. A very human side.
Osmond is personable, and she lives and breathes what she does.
“I have a passion for helping people,” she explains.
Helping people stage and sell their homes may have been where she originally built her business, but now she gets to help people look at the homes they are living in differently.
“There’s no reason people shouldn’t love their space. No matter the budget,” she says.
Eventually, the Pleasant Grove location closed and she opened a store in Orem. They serve a mixture of retail customers who want to take home furniture right then, and people who want a more custom look.
“We can help people make something unique,” Osmond says. “And we can help them get a good quality, durable fabric to withstand kids.”
Much More to Come
The looks to expect in 2024 for interior design? Casual and cozy. Which Osmond absolutely loves.
Many design clients come into Osmond Designs with Pinterest boards or TikTok videos or other online inspirations that they want help replicating in their own homes.
“People want to feel less stressed at home. They want to feel relaxed,” she says. The key, Osmond adds, is finding what you love. And mixing styles is totally fine.
Osmond Designs is also taking the next step. They’ll be selling their Lehi location and building a brand-new location in Alpine, just off the freeway near the Outlets at Traverse Mountain.
Osmond is excited at the prospect of building it from the ground up, with a “mountain modern” vibe. It’s caused her to pause for a minute and look back at just how far she’s come.
“Experience has taught me a lot over the years,” she says. But there’s still much more to come.
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