Shropshire mum Kerrie has designs on business awards
It's one thing being nominated for a national award, and it's another being shortlisted. But this Shropshire mother of two is up for three business awards.
Kerrie Griffin-Rogers, who started up her own interior design business from her home four years ago, has been shortlisted for Entrepreneur of the Year category at the Free2Network Business Awards, Best Website at the Mumpreneur magazine awards and Best Small Accommodation Provider at the North East Wales Tourism Awards.
"It's quite emotional really," she said. "When you're working from your home it's hard to know whether you're doing well or doing the right thing.
"I do work on my own, so my 12-year-old daughter writes me cards and letters and comes in and tells me how well I'm doing, or that she liked something I've made or done.
"So these awards are pretty huge."
Miss Griffin-Rogers, 47, runs an online interior design company Interior Co which has also grown into a clothes design company Feathers of Italy.
The entire business has come right from her own home in Breaden Heath, near Whitchurch – even the logo is a feather she painted herself.
She said: "I was starting to notice the way some stylists dressed women would make their stomach stick out, or they'd not look as good as they could.
"And I thought that if I can make a room look better I should be able to do the same for clothes and women.
"But I will only ever put things on the website that I would wear myself."
One of her first projects was turning her double garage at home into a cottage getaway, now called the Turtledove Hideaway, which saw her featured in countless national interior design magazines.
Picked up by Unique Homestays holiday letting company, the bookings have been flooding in.
She said: "I had a photographer come in and she couldn't believe it.
"She couldn't believe it was once a double garage, she thought there must have been something added on somewhere.
"But it really is down to how you lay out the room and how you style it."
And she'll soon find out how she's done with the awards, with the last ceremony held on November 28.
The designer has also penned her journey in her first book, From Shed To Chic.
She said: "It is quite a story I suppose. My husband left us five years ago and we went through hell.
"I just wanted to show my two daughters that I can make something of myself and all that we've got now just shows how far we've come.
"I think it shows any woman that you can do anything you want to do and I hope it will inspire others."
She's now got some more books in the pipeline, all sharing her journey and hoping to inspire other women to use their space wisely and really think about the design of their room.
See also: The Shropshire B&B . . . in a garage
Visit www.theinteriorco.co.uk
