An Interior Design Firm Stole A Black Artist’s Work. She Responded By Opening Her Own Studio On The South Side

ARMOUR Square — There are handful of Black interior designers — but Marissa Nelums hopes to make the sector additional accessible and encourage other people by opening her studio, Glasshouse Interior Design.

Nelums celebrated the showroom’s opening Saturday at 2910 S. Wentworth Ave. The area of her shop — the to start with brick-and-mortar showroom she’s experienced — is intentional: It is proper off the expressway and on the South Aspect, the area she fell in love with as a university student at the Global Academy of Style. It’ll let her to stimulate a lot more Black Chicagoans to get into interior design, and she’ll supply expert services for purchasers who might not imagine they can pay for a designer.

“I constantly preferred to preserve my group at the forefront of how we structure factors,” Nelums reported. “I started out this mainly because there was not a ton of illustration for individuals who glance like me in structure. We’re extremely proud to reach far more than just the persons who can afford style expert services.”

But Nelums’ aspiration studio nearly didn’t take place.

Nelums was interested in inside structure for a prolonged time, but the previous visual merchandiser didn’t go after that enthusiasm right up until she bought a force from the universe — in the type of a different studio thieving images of an condominium she’d adorned.

“I imagined, ‘If I’m good more than enough to steal from, possibly there’s some thing to this. It’s possible this is anything I can do longterm,’” explained Nelums, whose perform can be observed in Architectural Digest and Coming Dwelling journals.

Now, what begun as a passion to keep Nelums active soon after her father’s demise has become a occupation, forever transforming the trajectory of her existence.