Ellwood | The Design Story

April 19th, 2023

My design story goes all the way back to a log cabin tucked behind 12 acres in Evergreen, Colorado. There wasn’t a project in its renovation we didn’t do ourselves. We built-in bookshelves, tiled, demolished, and even set the jacuzzi tub in the master bath, jackhammering a driveway curb in the dead of winter and creating a levy system to get the granite in the kitchen. It was everything from the plumbing to the polyurethane – the work of my dad’s life and the start to mine.

Since our time in Evergreen, my imagination went wild dreaming of home improvements, finishes and furnishings until I finally had the space to exercise my own design freedom – a one bedroom in Chicago’s Gold Coast, where my unique aesthetic was discovered in my first design ‘A Cloud of Dreams’.

My work on ‘A Cloud of Dreams’ was not only recognized by friends, but my landlord, Deanna Luzzo, FF&E custom manufacturing rep for the design of major hotels. Her enthusiasm pushed me over the edge to start forming the idea I could actually go after my dream and start my journey in becoming an interior designer.

That fall, I enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's interior design program and started calling myself an interior designer. Before I knew it, the opportunities came flooding my way. So much so, there was no way I could work on all of them, continue my classes and my career in insurance all at the same time, so I ditched design school and decided to focus my efforts on 2 portfolio pieces that quickly then turned into 4. and then 6. Diving into this journey the past 2 years has been one of the toughest challenges and the biggest learning curves of my life, but I’m proud to say with these 6 projects under my belt and many underway, I am prepared to formally offer my expertise on all commercial and residential spaces.

Forming Ellwood:

Thinking about what I wanted my business to look like, I first came up with the name Ellwood, as I wanted my name’s legacy to live on without the company being named after me. I have much bigger plans for this company than just myself, so it just didn’t feel authentic backing myself into the corner of ‘L Wood Interiors’ or ‘Lauren Wood Interior Design’, and as I started building my inspiration for the company, I also realized I had so much more to offer than just interior design.

The stockpile of my photography, inspiration and ultimately my design portfolio created a very clear brand that was coastal and colorful and made me think of this vision as my ‘life in color’. It’s what I find to be beautiful, and I realized I wanted my business to ultimately be more than interiors, but to also be able to share all of the color of my life, all of the beauty I’ve found and created over the years, and expanding on it with the stories and the research that went into these experiences and beauty, like my travel guides or marathon training plan.

Maybe it’s my background in finance and underwriting, or maybe it’s because I am a perfectionist, but everything I do is backed by way too much research and analysis. Everything has a spreadsheet, including the trips I take, the sectionals I’m deciding between, the goals I set, and even the skincare routine I invest in… and what I would love more than the process of making these would be sharing them with everyone. All of this work and crazy has to go somewhere right? So why not just lump it into my design business and see how that evolves.

The Evolution:

In the evolution of Ellwood, I determined my ultimate goal to be specializing in hospitality, airbnbs and secondary homes. Every designer’s dream is that blank canvas, and I believe my best work is when I am given those initial set guidelines and then the creative freedom in developing a custom design. While I love working on such an intimate level with clients and anticipate a huge portion of my business to be focused on residential, I see my coastal, comfort-forward aesthetic and expertise thriving within the hospitality industry and the creation of a family’s coastal secondary home.

Given this evolved identity in discovering Ellwood’s target market, I plan to market my travel guides as a free resource and value-add to Airbnb hosts looking to capitalize on their investment and provide guests with the hospitality that sets their stay apart. Investors have flooded the space with projections of $30k-$60k in profit / year, but most will not capitalize on such investment unless their properties are designed to stand out and offer a comparable experience to a boutique hotel. That’s where Ellwood comes in. If you can accomplish an affordable, yet durable stand-out design that encompasses the personal touch of a thoughtful guest experience, it’s my belief your Airbnb will be positioned to capitalize on that projected profit margin for years to come.

My Mission:

My design’s mission is based on 4 key principles and is applied to all projects, no matter its size or scale. My key principles are my commitment to all of my clients in that our process is entirely centered around bringing our client's dreams to life, and no design is approved until they are happy. Our renovations are deeply thoughtful and our product selections have the depth that comes with mixing old with new. We prioritize long-lasting, quality materials, building relationships with artisans and sourcing hand-crafted pieces. My approach in design is creating spaces that emphasize a feeling, a mood and bring the soul of the space alive. When you walk into an Ellwood design, you immediately are transformed and can feel the deep understanding for the roots and inspiration for that design. That is the magic I aspire to create in each of my designs and the approach that brings our clients timeless interiors.

All of this, combined with my love for story-telling, is the culmination of Ellwood. Whether you’re here for my design, my stories or free resources found in ‘for my friends’, I hope you find authenticity and connection in this space, because life is beautiful, full of color, and the stories we tell through design and the lessons we learn along the way is the beauty I wish to create and share. This is what I have to offer – my design, my story and my life in color, I look forward to helping you navigate yours!

Dedication:

I would like to dedicate Ellwood to my late Grandma Wood. She is the reason I came to Chicago, showing me its magic so many summers ago. My grandma was my biggest supporter, planting the idea to start a design and organization business over 20 years ago and my favorite (and likely only) subscriber to ‘My Prague Blog’, finding all of my humor in each of the stories. She repeatedly told me how miraculously talented and special I was, and I unfortunately dismissed her praise as typical grandma gassing me up until she passed away last spring.

On April 19th, 2022, we put my grandma to rest as a family, singing ‘Amazing Grace’, and I was so blessed beyond belief to have had the honor to have been with her final moments. It was in this experience, her mark was left and I finally realized how truly miraculously talented and special she really was.

I look forward to sharing and paying tribute to her story in my designs to come but for now, I’ll share what she left me with was the greatest gift of all – my faith. My faith in being a part of something so much bigger than us and the faith in myself. This past year in working towards this launch, I’ve looked to her years of affirmation more than ever. I allowed this extremely humbling process take its own course, moving my target further and further out, but now that I’ve finally reached this long-awaited moment, I find it quite miraculous it’s led me to the anniversary of my grandma’s passing.

I share this special day with my grandma's youngest sister Lorri – my long-lost friend and role-model. I first met Aunt Lorri at a family wedding the summer going into 5th grade, and she had such an impact on me, I went into that school year calling myself Lorri instead of Lauren. I never forgot how much she impacted me, but my grandma's passing is brought us back together after all these years and reminded us of the special bond we have always had. Our deep connection blows me away every time and especially after learning she too is an interior designer, running her own design business for many years. I'm so grateful for the time I've spent with Aunt Lorri in our monthly visits, and I'm so grateful to share this day with her in memory of my grandma and miraculously what turns out to also be Ellwood's launch.

So here’s to taking this huge leap of faith and to all those that got me here. I’m so excited to share my design, the journey along the way, and all of the signs and humor in-between. Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoy following along!

Lauren