My name is Chelsea Best and I have studied design for many years. But, before I explain my history with my love for design let me show you a peek into my world beginning with a journey to my past.
I come from a small rural town named Metamora, in central Illinois where I spent all of my childhood. The interest of design was sparked at a young age when I seemed inclined with the world of art. I would always be drawing at home or taking lessons from my grandma whenever I visited her on weekends and was always fascinated. For the longest time I was set on being a Fashion Designer—which may have stemmed from watching The Devil Wears Prada, but that is when I realized my love and passion for design overall. That dream continued to live up until my Junior year in high school when I took my first class in Interior Design. Originally, I added the class to simply fill a requirement on my schedule outside of an art or drawing, photography or graphic art class; however, I quickly realized how much I enjoyed that world of design.
“Never did I think that Interior Design would be my ultimate passion especially as nobody told me! ”
My dad was the one that noticed my interests at a younger age and steered me to pursue the field for college as he noticed how much I was in to seeing interiors of vacant houses and explaining what I would do to that space—I didn’t know the first thing about architecture or anything beyond decorating but I yearned to know. If it was not for my grandma introducing me to art and design or my dad for really showing me interior spaces, I would have never thought that design would be my ultimate passion.
After graduating high school, I went to college at Illinois Central College (ICC) to receive my Associate of Arts in Interior Design in 2016. In that time (2015), I helped create Little Land of Candy N’ More in Chillicothe, Il with my Interior Design class—it’s very unique local candy shop on a town walking strip! Shortly after recieving my associates, I then moved to Nashville, Tennessee to attend O’More College of Design in Franklin from December of 2016 to May of 2018. It was a big change for me to be on my own out of state in a huge city, but the school and it’s location gave me the small town home feel I needed. After being in the program for a year nearing two, I received the news that O’More would be transferring to Belmont University in Nashville. Although it was a shock and a bit unplanned, I then continued my degree at Belmont’s O’More College of Architecture, Art & Design from August of 2018 to May of 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design. I continue to follow my passion of Interior Design in search of a way into the world of design in Nashville, TN.
“I would not have studied this field of design for 7 years if I did not have an overgrowing passion for it!”
If I’m not in design mode, you can typically find me playing with my Australian Shepherd named Paisley, thrift shopping on Instagram, watching a multitude of shows (two most favorite are Friends or NCIS) or looking for inspiration images for future projects!
Now that you know about me, maybe you would be interested in seeing my work! Click on the link below to continue or use the upper menu to see what I strive for in design at the page labeled: Personal Design Philosophy.