By Paul Miller

Interior Designer, IDS Professional Member

Read Time: 2 Minutes

An Open Letter :

This time of year fifteen years ago I decided to open my own design business. Looking back, that choice was a bold one. I was only about four years into my career and I had studied design in school and not business. At the time, it didn’t feel all that gutsy. It seemed like something inevitable was finally coming to pass. The years since have taught me many things, some of them humbling, all of them enriching.

At the time, it didn’t feel all that gutsy. It seemed like something inevitable was finally coming to pass.

What I learned along the way is that good planning and communication go hand in hand. For that reason, since 2015, we have had a committed in house marketing coordinator. Emily Kallick has grown with the position and helps to communicate our values and our work with grace and good sense.

With each challenge, my team and I have developed new systems and policies to make sure we serve our goal of making life better for our clients through good design. Whether through our scope of work process, which helps clients understand design costs before work is begun, or any of our many behind the scenes systems to assure trouble-free installations, we never stop striving to improve MakeNest every day.

I believe a local business should take an active role in the community it serves. MakeNest has taken part in show houses to raise funds for Shenandoah Summer Music Theater, Blue Ridge Hospice, and Blandy Experimental Farm. We have helped with events and fundraising for the Discovery Museum, Literacy Volunteers, and Habitat for Humanity, and WATTS.

The growth of MakeNest continues in 2020, as we expand our design team. Triana Griffith, who has been my project manager and designer apprentice for the last two years, will be stepping into a new role as interior designer. Just as opening MakeNest felt inevitable fifteen years ago, offering Triana this position seems like the next natural path forward.

Lastly and most importantly, it is important to give thanks to every client and colleague along the way who helped to make my dream survive and grow since 2004. This year our community voted MakeNest the best interior design firm in a Winchester Star reader poll. Without the loyalty and support of our clients, we could not have achieved this milestone.

Thank You

By Paul Miller

At the time, it didn’t feel all that gutsy. It seemed like something inevitable was finally coming to pass.

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