How I Went From Working In Healthcare To Interior Design

This was me at the beginning of my interior design journey.

Welcome to my official blog! My name is Christie Fleming and I assume that if you have stumbled upon my website and landed on this page, that you have some level of love or obsession with interior design.

I wanted to dive in an give a little background on how I began my interior design career. I get questions about how I made the leap into interior design all of the time, so I thought that this blog could be helpful for those of you who want to know.

We all know how the college whirlwind goes. You’re forced to pick a career path and stick to it. Then what? What if you change your mind and realize that you really just don’t love what you’re doing? You have this niche that feels like you’re stuck in and that’s what you have to do for the rest of your life. Well, not for this lady! But, we will get to that part soon.

Bringing it back to my initial clinical career... I went to Penn State for my undergraduate degree and then went on to get my Masters Degree in Occupational Therapy. It was a long almost seven years to get there! (OY). To be honest, I loved my occupational therapy career, but when I got to certain milestones in my life (having babies) the lack of flexibility just wasn’t working for me. I wanted to be home with my quickly growing new babies, so I began my stay at-home mom career. I loved every second of it and I do not take it for granted. Watching my babies grow right before my eyes and to be able to be a part of it all along the way was an absolute blessing. Once my second little girl was born, I was just ready to get back to work. I was craving to have something for me. Some time to really get my brain active and socializing with ADULTS again (haha). BUT, I just knew that going back to a clinical career just wasn’t lighting my soul on fire anymore. Luckily, I have a supportive husband and he encouraged me to go do what my heart desires: cue INTERIOR DESIGN DAYDREAMS. I have always been in love with interior design, fashion and being creative, not to mention all things pretty.

Oh baby, well, off I went. I worked everyday to try to figure out how to get my interior design career started, get the education, practice and experience that I needed to succeed. I went back to school, took an apprenticeship with a local interior designer at the time to learn all of the ropes and be hands on. This is what lit my soul on fire. This is what allowed me to be creative and excited about what I do everyday outside of being a mom. I knew this was my intended path and new career beginning.

Fast forward to present day, I now own my own interior design firm, Lennon Nora Interior Design (named after my two girls) and I couldn’t be happier to do what I love everyday. Thank you to all of you who follow along on all of our projects and for all of the support! On this blog, I am going to share behind the scenes of projects that we work on, before and afters, DIY ideas, design trends and tips. Follow along to stay in the loop or better yet, if you are a lover of sophisticated style, contact us to get started on your design project! Next post I will share how we transformed our first home to a beautiful updated 1950s cape cod.

XX,

Christie