Meet Grace Hernandez | Interior Designer & Creative Entrepreneur

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

Hi Grace, what’s your definition for success?
I’ve thought about this one a lot.

Over the course of my twenties, I’ve started 5 businesses and only one has actually stuck around. In my earlier twenties, I was pursuing starting a coffee business with some friends. Long story short, it never worked out, even though all the cards were initially in my favor. I had everything I needed to start, but when it came down to a location, the right door just never opened up, my friends bailed on the plan, and I was left wondering where I went wrong. Years later, I started a furniture business, repurposing and selling old furniture, which, through a series of events, turned into a candle business where I made and sold candles as well as taught candle-making workshops. But then that season ended and I lost all the traction I had to keep it going. Then, during covid, I started a business remodeling and selling vintage campers, which revealed my love for interior design. That turned into designing for Airbnb’s, which turned into designing for people’s houses, which takes us to where I am now.

What I’ve learned through all these events is that we actually need to walk through failure in order to find success. In my eyes, all those businesses failed. But if I had not gotten up and tried again, or tried something different, I would not have gotten to where I am today. I would never know the victory had I not first known the defeat. I think we often define success for ourselves without defining failure and letting it sharpen us and make us better and stronger. For me, success means coming off the battlefield with a little blood, sweat, and tears on my clothes, but living to tell the stories.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Even though I own and operate a business, I consider myself first and foremost an artist and creative. My mission as an artist is to create beauty everywhere I go. Whether it’s through interior design and using my gifts to make something beautiful, or it’s through nurturing my relationships and my community by looking for opportunities to enjoy life and its beauty together. Interior design for me has been a journey of seeing the world with different perspective and bringing others into that world by making it come to life in someone’s space. I’ve had to start five different businesses to find the one that works for me, and through that I’ve learned so many different skills that I’m able to implement into my work and my design. My journey has not been without its bumps and turns, but I have so much more to offer in return. I’ve learned how to redefine failure and I’ve actually gotten to know myself more. Who I am, what I like and don’t like, what my strengths and weaknesses are. It gives my designs better definition, because I’m not just creating what I think people will like, I’m creating from a place of true inspiration, unique to who I am.

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 love Denver because we have such a sweet mix of nature and urban life. If I had a week to show someone around, I would spend a couple days in the mountains, take them to some small mountain towns to hike, window shop, and maybe soak in a hot spring. Then I would take a couple days in the city and take them to Milk Tea People for matcha, Steam for coffee, Redeemer Pizza in Five Points and Hong Kong Station for dinner, ESP HiFi for a vibe-y evening cocktail, one of the hundreds of breweries for a patio beer, and then City or Wash Park for a walk or hammock hang.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I credit most of my success to God and my community. If I didn’t have a faith in something greater than myself, I would have given up a long time ago. And the way that my community, my friends and my family, have reminded me of who I am and pushed me further has truly made me who I am today.

Website: https://www.brightendesigns.com

Instagram: @brighten.designs

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

Image Credits
Micah Stailey Photography, Abbie Joy Photography, Golden Hour Production LLC, Picture My Listing