The process IS the product.
Created as ModHomeEc, HomeRoom is the grown-up older sister which has evolved along with students. We started online back in the days when the internet was just getting started. Having upholstery and DIY skills in my toolbag, I jumped on the chance to share how to plan, design, sew, upcycle, recycle, create, construct, build, repurpose, transform, tinker, fix or repair objects and materials and flip furniture with your own two hands. Content was scarce back then. Big websites were just getting started and were looking for content creators. That’s how I started my online business.
In 2008, I opened a brick and mortar shop for all of my teaching and maker space events. In December of 2022, I closed my brick and mortar space in order to return to my roots and use my online foundation to build my group teaching and coaching businesses. Due to the popularity and requests to restart my 3 Day Upholstery Bootcamps, a live, hands on 3 day workshop, I occasionally offer that signature workshop.
I help women feel supported and empowered to move beyond major life transitions, with all the accompanying fear and uncertainty, by teaching them, through hands on experiences how to use powerful tools and materials to design, repair, problem solve, rebuild, transform, reuse and create useful and meaningful objects for themselves, friends, family and community. Furniture flipping was the process I used to get beyond my own years-long struggles navigating life’s sudden unexpected changes.
MISSION:
The HomeRoom mission facilitates a creative learning philosophy where participants have the freedom and opportunity to use hand tools, power tools, and all types of materials to design and create tangible items from their ideas. Handcraft, skills, projects, and materials, as well as support, space, conversation, and encouragement form a creative community in which students work through fears they may have and begin to regain agency as they build confidence in their empowered ability to see their unique ideas come to life. We support the philosophy that experiential learning is one of the most effective ways to bake beneficial lessons into our brain.
We support and facilitate the Process Art theory that self discovery and expression happen at all stages of the process, not merely with an outcome.
SUSTAINABILITY:
I’m a firm believer in utilizing existing materials when possible. Not only do we honor well made pieces, but we also honor our environment by recreating functional, usable, and clever furnishings for the future. We support responsible reuse, upcycling, repurposing, mending and fixing. Well made materials deserve a second life.
ABOUT ME:
A life long creative, I owned my own custom upholstery business for more than twenty-five years. It was a good fit for a Design and Textiles Education major with a passion for creating unique furniture and furnishings for my own home. It took off from there.
Teaching upholstery became my focus and I soon moved from my home workshops to an inviting, roomy, educational space in a creative area on the north side of Indianapolis. In 2014, well before Covid, I created four online courses that reached hundreds of women around the world. Fifteen years later, I closed my brick and mortar shop to focus on building my online business to increase reach and impact beyond technical skills.
As the internet was born, I took my experience online and began writing for a number of well-known blogs. I started a weekly DIY column for my local newspaper and subsequently wrote my first book, The Little Upholstery Book: A Beginner’s Guide to Artisan Upholstery, published by Schiffer Publishing. I’ve been fortunate to have ongoing opportunities to share what I know. I’ve been a paid contributor to Apartmenttherapy.com, Houzz.com, Goodwill International. I was a monthly DIY expert on WISH TV 8. I’ve appeared in Real Simple Magazine, Bob Vila online, Country Living Magazine, among others. I’ve taught all ages of kids from 3 year olds to adults, including sewing classes for teens at The Indianapolis Art Center, as well as having the privilege of being the director of a sewing program at a local shelter for abused women and their children.
I’m a firm believer that creating and making useful things for others, your home, yourself, is a therapeutic practice that builds resilience, self confidence and personal satisfaction. I welcome and allow trial and error, problem solving, and self discovery through the satisfying process of creating and making.