Beautiful Living by Laurel T Colins

10/30/2026

There's something about being somewhere new that makes you breathe differently.
The light hits differently. The colours feel richer. You notice things. You slow down a little.
And then you come home and somehow it all disappears.
Here's what I know after years of doing this work: you don't have to book a flight to feel that way. That sense of being somewhere that actually suits you , warm, beautiful, a little bit alive , we can create that right where you are, with what you already have.
Maybe a few new pieces if you want them. I love a good sourcing hunt. But mostly it's about finally letting your space reflect you instead of the version of you that was just trying to make everyone else comfortable.
That's exactly what we do in a fall mini makeover session.
A few hours together, your home, your stuff, and by the end it feels like somewhere you actually want to be.
DM me to book yours before the season fills up.

10/29/2026

10/29/2026

10/21/2026

For years, I said yes to everything.
That's what the film industry teaches you. There is no "I can't do that." There's just figure it out, make it work, show up, and keep moving. I carried that into my business and honestly thought it was the only way to operate.
Then I was sitting across from an architect over coffee in Nelson. He'd asked me to assist him on a project , which I was completely flattered by , and somewhere in that conversation I found myself confiding in him. About the imposter syndrome. About feeling like I needed to know absolutely everything before I could call myself anything.
About not being sure what to even call myself, being more of a school-of-life decorator than a formally trained one.

He just looked at me and said, "You don't have to know everything. It's OK to say I don't do that."

Something shifted.
Not long after that conversation, I finally put up the sign I'd been sitting on. A custom decal applied to the glass of my little pink door at 422 , Laurel T. Colins, Interior Decorator.
Inspired by Rachel Ashwell's store in Santa Monica, and just... waiting for me to add my title. Because who was I to say that out loud?
Turns out, I was exactly who I said I was.
(The door is still pink, by the way. It's a barbershop now.) 🩷
I still catch myself slipping. The yes reflex doesn't disappear overnight, especially when you've spent decades being the person who figures it out no matter what. But that conversation gave me permission to stop trying to be everything to everyone, and instead show up as the specific thing I actually am.
Someone who walks into a room and sees what it's quietly trying to say.
That's what I bring to my room makeover and styling sessions. I'm not coming in with a formula. I'm coming in to see your space, with your life in it, and help you figure out what it's actually asking for.
If something feels off but you can't put your finger on what, that's exactly where we start.
Send me a DM and let's talk about your room. 🌿

Mural by Rufina Luis Gomez in Oaxaca
Dress from Esprit de la Femme in Nelson
Sign by Speedpro Nelson

10/19/2026

Even my daughter said it.
We were driving through Midway yesterday and she just looked at me and said, "Mom, you're living in chaos. You deserve some peace."
And I didn't argue with her.
Midway.
I love that we stopped there.
Because honestly? That's exactly where I am.
Past the midpoint of my life, somewhere between Nelson and Vancouver, somewhere between who I've been for everyone else and who I'm actually becoming for myself.
I've gotten so good at tolerating things that I stopped noticing they were limiting me. The slow background hum of compromise you stop hearing because it's just always there. You don't even know what you want anymore, you've been making do for so long it starts to feel normal.
Standing under that ridiculous red maple, throwing leaves like an absolute maniac, that was me deciding, even just for a moment, to stop tolerating and actually feel something.
Small things.
That's how it starts.
What's one thing you've been tolerating that you just keep walking past?

also, for some reason, The Stranglers song Golden Brown was playing in my head yesterday, so I love that it popped up as an option.
selfreclamation

10/13/2026

Morning coffee thougnts!

Yesterday I hung my winter art.

Every year when the light starts to drop I pull out the little jars of lights and start brightening the dark corners. The winter painting goes up. The crystal lamp goes on. The Buddha sits in his usual stillness and watches it all.

And apparently so does she.

He's been up there all year. Yesterday his family finally came home.

I see deer outside my window all summer. Having them on my wall through the cold months feels like keeping something I love close when the world goes quiet.

This corner says one thing to me right now: resilience. The light in the darkness. The beauty that's possible even in the coldest season.

What do you pull out when the season turns? 🖤

10/12/2026

I knew it was holding me back.
I could feel it every time I walked into my room. The cramped closet with a curtain in front of it, stuff on the floor, beautiful things I loved completely buried. I knew. And I kept walking past it anyway.
Not because I didn't care. Because I had stopped making myself a priority. There was always something else, someone else, something more urgent than my own space, my own comfort, my own joy.
I wasn't thriving and I knew that too. I just kept telling myself I'd be ok.
This is my Gene Keys shadow. Entropy. The slow slide into disorder that happens when I stop tending to myself first. It shows up in my physical space, in my thoughts, in my energy, in my business. All of it connected.
Getting this wardrobe from Facebook marketplace, putting up the art by Julie Breton | Abstract Art I almost sold off, the perfect plant and pot from Bellaflora ,the fairy lights, the little chair I actually sit in now, it sounds so small. But it wasn't small. It was me finally saying: I matter enough to have a space that feels like me.
This has been my Thanksgiving weekend and I'm so grateful for the time to reset.
What have you been walking past and telling yourself you'd be ok?

09/23/2026

BEFORE & AFTER
UPPER DECK TRANSFORMATION
Same View, A Whole New Feeling ♡

BEFORE / AFTER

From the grey to a warm modern farmhouse luxury covered deck. We love these amazing lights from Hudson Valley and all the styling products we sourced from Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Hobby Lobby. Thank you so much to the amazing Laurel for the styling assistance — I had so much fun working on our team with you as our styling assistant, with all the finishing touches being placed in the perfect location.”

CONSTRUCTION Weiland Construction Team
PAINT Valor Painting
PROJECT DESIGN Deborah Weiland
Photo credit: Andrew Doran Photography
Staging Assistant — Laurel T. Collins

“Grateful for this amazing team! ♡”

09/09/2026

I was sitting at my campsite when a stranger called. ChatGPT sent them to me. I couldn't help them, but I did anyway.

They'd been directed to me for something completely outside what I do, and the easy answer would have been to say sorry, wrong person, and move on. But I asked them to send me a picture of what they were trying to accomplish, and we figured out together who could actually help them.

That's just how I work.

If you call me with your problem I will do what I can to help you find the right person, even if that person isn't going to be me. I'd rather you find your way to the right solution than leave you more confused than when you started.

Peace of mind matters. Yours and mine.

09/02/2026

I thought I was the one who couldn't follow directions. Turns out the directions weren't mine to follow.

Still 2021.

For a long time I genuinely couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Why couldn't I just follow the directions? Why did every simple strategy become something more complicated in my hands? Everyone else in the coaching groups seemed to get it. The strategies worked for them. I'd try the same thing and end up three left turns away from where I started, doing something nobody asked me to do, that I couldn't explain, that felt completely right anyway.

Don't reinvent the wheel, just follow the formula. I heard that a lot. But the formula wasn't working for me.

And then I found Human Design, and for the first time I got an answer that actually made sense. I wasn't difficult. I was just built completely differently from almost everyone in those rooms. Of course I couldn't follow someone else's formula. I wasn't designed to.

That was both a relief and a revelation, and it made me think: if understanding my own design explained so much about why I worked the way I did, imagine what it could do for my clients, especially paired with Feng Shui and interior design, helping women see what their spaces were already trying to tell them about who they actually were.

I was figuring it out. Slowly. I was also posting pictures with my new found Canva skills and calling it a brand strategy, so there's that.

Trying to show up online although I didn't even know how to get a decent photo of myself yet. If I made a reel, it was practically a promotional video for whatever neighbourhood I happen to be in. That was about to change.

2022 is next.