When Heather Fujikawa was escalating up in Salt Lake Metropolis, she would normally be part of her mom for the duration of function. “You’re gonna aid type,” her mom, an interior designer, would tell Heather and her twin sister, Heidi Andrews. The ladies would slash and prepare bouquets and fluff pillows. Heather says this “apprenticeship from a young age” instilled a lifelong enthusiasm for interior design.
But at her mother’s urging, Heather, who now runs Dwelling Sprucing, a North Texas dwelling style support, majored in communications in its place of interior structure at Brigham Young University. Then she married her spouse, Tyson, and she started a vogue components company. Heather and Tyson moved to Italy in 2011 for a number of a long time ahead of returning to the U.S. and settling in Texas in 2013.
“That was a hard transfer,” Heather states, and she questioned what she was heading to do right here in Texas. She knew she necessary some thing that she was “stimulated and fascinated by.” She and Tyson had a baby in 2015 and built a house. Then, even though she was expecting with twins in 2016, Heather resolved it was time to formally dive into house style and design.
“I was like, ‘if I don’t launch this small business now, then I never ever will after the babies get out of my tummy,’” she suggests. “I’ll have all the excuses to say no.”
So, Heather hosted a dwelling décor market at her household with products from all in excess of the earth, officially launching Heather Fujikawa Structure. She’d assist folks strategy remodels and fashion their house. Heather describes her design as “new standard.” She likes a common search combined with modern-day, organic, and European elements. Almost everything has a “joyful residing-encouraged structure,” her mantra. Items are child-welcoming and livable. They can handle wine spills. They can deal with children jumping all above them.
“You can have equally matters,” she suggests. “You can have nice points and you can have a daily life as well.”
For a time, Heather’s business enterprise “was a just a one-female exhibit.” But then UPtv approached her with a proposition: How would Heather her sister Heidi, who’s also a designer and their households like to make a household-centered household-makeover reality Television display? They had been requested to make a show ahead of, but Heather states this a single felt ideal.
“It was so uncomplicated to hand in excess of our existence and the keys to our property,” Heather claims. Heidi’s whole spouse and children moved into Heather’s residence, and collectively they filmed for seven months. Layout Twins, which premiered in 2019, follows Heather and Heidi as they introduced Joyful Residing, an interior design and style organization.
Right after the display aired, Heather bought pregnant with her fourth kid and prepared to scale again on her design and style company. But then, her partner Tyson dropped his occupation, and requested Heather if they could go all in and scale up the business enterprise in its place.
“I place on my boots, and we went to do the job,” she suggests, building up their style company. It’s now called Habitat Studio. (The organization title transformed to Residence Sprucing in 2020 just after they merged with a community small business, already identified as Residence Sprucing, from Highland Village.)
“I’ve constantly needed to be a enterprise proprietor,” suggests Tyson. “I’ve generally needed to function with Heather.”
The business was the identical as what Heather did just before: aiding clientele design and style their areas, selecting furnishings and window treatment options, setting up remodels and new constructions. It is been a ton of work—“late evenings, early mornings, nonstop get the job done, never rely my hours”—especially with 4 smaller little ones, suggests Heather, but empowering.
The scale-up took place immediately, as well. They grew their team to 20, present products and services in 20-as well as states, and have worked on extra than 200 houses. Style Twins, which fizzled in the pandemic, aided. It designed demand from customers and gave them believability, Tyson claims, and allow men and women get to know Heather. “She’s this kind of a joyful, satisfied, energetic particular person that persons want to function with,” he says, and people today could see that on the show.
The couple, who were doing work out of a modest Frisco studio, in no way planned to open a storefront. But as the company grew and the pandemic approximately halted furniture offer chains, “we believed we can seriously get in advance of the video game and give a much much more elevated style practical experience,” suggests Tyson, “if we can have more stock on hand for our clientele.”
So, in June 2021 they started out on the lookout for a showroom. They preferred some thing central and quick for folks to get to from across D-FW. In October, they signed a lease on a 10,000-sq.-foot Carrollton place of work area, not significantly from the Dallas North Tollway. The making was “a fall-down-ceiling labyrinth” of cubicles, Tyson claims. It took months to renovate. The retailer, which is known as Residence Sprucing, eventually opened late past summertime.
The bright and airy place is a little bit of a maze, filled with dwelling area vignettes, carpet displays, and walls of aspect tables. The Fugikawas resource their items from markets throughout the nation and the world—in addition to their sojourn to Italy, Tyson also lived in Spain. “It’s truly essential for me to convey a distinct stage of see to Dallas,” Heather states.
Since they opened, Heather states Home Sprucing has been a “great area for purchasers to come” and check out out their inventory, but they’ve also gotten plenty of wander-ins. They’ll welcome anybody. “I want it to be approachable for persons to stroll in and really feel like they can shop here.”
Individuals can test out the furniture, run a hand above textiles, see how a chair pairs with other items. The retail outlet is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday via Friday, and the staff will also host pop-ups, holiday activities, and a person-on-one “shop & style” classes—private consultations with Heather—in retail outlet.
Their hope is to inspire “joyful living” for all their clientele in the keep and the relaxation of their company. And, natch, they’ll keep scaling it up, Heather says. “The sky’s the restrict.”
Writer
Catherine Wendlandt
Perspective Profile
Catherine Wendlandt is the online affiliate editor for D Magazine’s Dwelling and Property and Garden blogs, the place she covers all…