Photo: Margaret Rajic
At 25 years old,Sophia Leealready has a stacked interior design portfolio — and connections to some of the biggest names in the industry.
PEOPLE chatted with the up-and-coming designer, who interned forNate Berkusin college, about how she got her start in the competitive industry and launched her own firm,BSL Studios.
PHOTO: Margaret RajicPHOTO: Margaret Rajic
While Lee says learning from Berkus and his team was “one of the best experiences” and taught her about the “nitty-gritty work” that goes into the job, she tells PEOPLE that the lifestyle blog she started out of her dorm room sophomore year played a large role in her present-day success.
“When I went to college, I didn’t care about the classes. I cared about what my dorm room looked like, and I would literally fall asleep at night thinking about what bed set I’m going to get and how I’m going to decorate the dorm walls,” she recalls. “It was so ridiculous, but I knew that if I was thinking about all of that, that there were definitely other people that would also think about that.”
She ended up creating a blog that still generates over six figures a year in revenue,By Sophia Lee, so that she could not only pay for her college tuition, but also work towards her dream of becoming a professional interior designer.
Margaret Rajic
Using the money she earned from the blog, Lee had the idea to invest in her first restoration project when she was just 23 years old. She tackled the entire remodel in a year and documented the process onTikTok. But her goal wasn’t to make a profit off the property at first.
She recalls: “I went into it being like, ‘I don’t care if I make a single cent from this house. I just want to show people what I can do.'”
Lee credits social media as one of the main reasons why her designs started catching people’s attention, as a lot of her followers admired her for being so transparent in what she says can be a “secretive industry.”
“I wanted to be really open and honest, and I think that’s what attracted a lot of people to me,” she says, “People pay so much money for the services that a lot of people want to gatekeep. What they’re doing, where they’re buying things from, and how much something costs.”
The positive reaction from her first flip attracted a number of clients. (She and her team are currently juggling nine projects.) While she may have her hands full with her bustling business, Lee is eager to continue making a name for herself and showing off her style, which she describes as “traditional casual.”
“I want my space to look just as good in 20 years as it does right now,” she explains. “So I really try to find a timeless style, but also I never want to create a space where you’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to sit on that couch. The pillows are too perfect.'”
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The now-25-year-old designer adds that she gets a lot of her inspiration from vintage home magazines and loves to pair a more expensive piece of furniture with “a $12 pillow from H&M.”
Along with wrapping up her second home renovation in May, Lee is also getting ready to marry her high school sweetheart this summer.
“This is a very busy year for me. I’m getting married in June, and then we also finish our second restoration project next month,” she tells PEOPLE. “We ripped out the entire house. We’re styling the entire thing from up to down. So I’m really excited for people to see that one.”
source: people.com
