Meet Christine Cowles | Interior Designer for Vacation Rentals

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christine Cowles and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christine, we’d love to hear more about your end-goal, professionally.
The end goal is to have built a successful interior design business that I can do remotely while traveling or living anywhere. I just want to earn enough to live comfortably with the freedom for my husband and I to travel while still generating income. My professional goals support my life goals, not the other way around.

What should our readers know about your business?
In 2017 I launched Styled & Staged Santa Barbara, a home staging company located in Santa Barbara, CA run solely by my husband and myself. We grew fairly quickly and quit our W-2 jobs, which was a huge leap of faith for both of us. When the pandemic hit in 2020 it gave us time to pause and dream about what we wanted next in life – and all of the signs were pointing to the fact that we weren’t working towards our life goals; rather, the business was running us.

We started to realize that we needed to transition away from what was a successful home staging business and create another revenue stream that would allow us to generate income while working remotely. Since then we have expanded into interior design for the short-term rental industry, allowing us to transition out of home staging and into a related field that supported our life goals.

I really struggled with this decision and for some time felt as though I had failed as a home stager. It took time to emotionally reconcile this transition which made sense on paper. Lesson learned: evolving and growing is a natural part of any business and being a business owner. It’s good to be proud of what you’ve accomplished but don’t let pride hold you back from what’s next. For me it’s being able to work remotely while traveling in our campervan!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m fortunate to live near the beach, so a beach walk or hike every day would be in order! Enjoying dinners at some of my favorite restaurants to sample local seafood would be next. And a trip to the Santa Barbara area isn’t complete without wine tasting. Some favorite tasting rooms include Rusack, Stolpman, and Rivahil Winery.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Women’s Economic Ventures is a non-profit in Santa Barbara, CA dedicated to the economic empowerment of women, and their guidance and support has been invaluable in helping me launch and grow my business. Every crossroads or major decision I’ve made has been with their mentorship.

Website: http://www.vacayrentaldesign.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vacayrentaldesign/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-cowles/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vacayrentaldesign

Image Credits
Sarita Relis Photography Mauricio Bergamin