For an adopted kid growing up in New York City, Tiffany Thompson’s idea of home was (and continues to be) an emotional one. Home, she says, is so much more than just a place to sleep. It’s the sense of safety, the way a place brings comfort and joy and resets the mind and body. As she hopped around from New York to Miami to Chicago to Portland, that idea of home as an emotional center continued to grow. She started small, decorating her own home, then her friends’ homes, then the higher-ups’ offices at Nike, where she spent about a decade as a global product line manager. Then, last year, she founded Duett Interiors, and what started as a side hustle became a full-fledged passion. Here’s Thompson on interior design, creating a home, and trends amid the coronavirus pandemic:

“It matters to me that people feel the way I feel in my space, in their space.... Interior design is the foundation for the memories you create. It’s the background to photos and things that you remember and smells that you remember and moments that you had.

“The way that we interact with our home has now changed, because it’s also becoming a place where we work, sleep, and live. People don’t realize the spaces that you’re in, they really do affect your mood and the way that you see things, the way that you respond to people, and the way that you interact with people.

“We’re so spoiled with the internet and access to literally anything you can think of, and there’s always somebody able to do something, especially from a home services standpoint. So it’s really cool to see people getting down and dirty and creating themselves. You see a lot of DIY projects, which creates this story you can tell and say, ‘I did this. I put up this. I painted this.’”