An Experiment with Home Staging Led Rasheeda Gray to a Full-Blown Design Career

Photo credit: Brian Wetzel

Photo credit: Brian Wetzel

From House Beautiful

Photo credit: VINAY PANJWANI

Photo credit: VINAY PANJWANI

“Act now, perfect later!” is the best piece of advice Rasheeda Gray says she’s ever received—and it’s clear she took it to heart when she launched her design firm, Gray Space Interiors. It all started when Gray was selling her own home, and the realtor asked her to stage the space for potential buyers.

“After Googling what staging entailed, I went to work,” she explains. “Our realtor was blown away at the transformation, and our home sold in one day.” Gray piled on design courses on top of her full-time job to sharpen her skills and hone her craft, ultimately leaving behind her 15-year career in corporate marketing, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Gray’s contemporary style involves a love of clean lines and knack for creating warmth in a space. Her ultimate goal as a designer is to make sure her clients feel nurtured, pampered, and inspired by their homes. “We want them to have a sense of well-deserved indulgence, that their home is beyond their wildest imagination, because they deserve it,” she says.

Tell us…

What project are you the proudest of and why?

My very first project! It’s the one that took the most courage and faith. It was a bedroom for a family friend and it gave me the confidence needed to go after my dreams.

What or who was your first design crush?

Candice Olsen.

And your current design crush?

Kelly Hoppen.

What’s your favorite room, anywhere, of all time, and why?

The primary bedroom. It is the one room that should authentically tell your story and is the most personal room in the house. It should also serve as a place to recharge, a retreat from the everyday and we all need that in the best way right now.

Where do you look for inspiration?

Magazines. There’s nothing better than flipping though the beautiful pages of a shelter magazine on a Friday night after a long work week.

For under $100—or even for free!—what decorating trick that has the most impact?

Paint. It covers the largest surface in any room – the walls and therefore has the greatest impact.

What’s overrated in decorating?

White shaker kitchen cabinets.

What’s underrated in decorating?

The power of art. Art can transform a space.

What would we be surprised to learn about you?

That I also flip houses. My husband and I are partners in a real estate development business.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Rasheda Jones

Photo credit: Courtesy of Rasheda Jones

What’s your favorite—and why?

Thing to collect: Elephants because they represent strength, wisdom, and good luck. They are also a symbol of my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.

Paint color: Caviar Black by Sherwin Williams. It’s powerful but plays well with others with its subtle brown undertones.

Artist or piece of art: Kehinde Wiley. I’m obsessed with portraits right now and his interpretation of modern culture and old world tradition is like none other.

Local shopping destination: Philadelphia’s Main Line neighborhood. Many small boutiques with fabulous finds.

Online store: Amazon. The convenience and variety is unmatched.

Item to pick up when traveling: A Christmas ornament

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