Making leap of faith from steady paycheck to new career

When Lauren Nolan-Sellers left her teaching job in Philadelphia in 2012 to pursue her passion for interior decorating — with no training and no plan — she experienced a bit of a moral crisis.

“Honestly, sometimes I’d be like, ‘There’s starving children and I’m worried about a throw pillow!’ ” she said.

But what Nolan-Sellers learned is that changing the space where people live can sometimes change their lives. And understanding that changed her own life.

Nolan-Sellers, 41, grew up with two biological brothers, six adopted sisters and, at any given time, three or four foster siblings.

Nolan-Sellers attended Villanova University on a soccer scholarship and became captain of the women’s soccer team, but she struggled to figure out what she wanted to do after graduation.

Unsure, she decided to get her master’s degree in education and taught grade school in Philadelphia for about seven years. She didn’t love it.

What she did love was her wife, Wendy, and the renovation process they went through together as novices on their first house,.

No matter that most of their knowledge came from HGTV or that they had to borrow tools from neighbors to get the job done. The project was the most fun Nolan-Sellers had ever had in her life.

“I could not shake the feeling of ‘I love this,’ ” she said. “But I was still scared. I had a steady paycheck.”

So Nolan-Sellers stayed the course, continuing to teach and taking small decorating projects on the side. Then, she and Wendy decided to start a family. During delivery, she went into kidney failure.

“They didn’t know if I was going to make it or if she (the baby) would make it,” Nolan-Sellers said.

After mother and child — Kamryn, now 7 — made it through healthy, NolanSellers wasn’t so worried anymore about that steady paycheck. With the support of her wife, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming an interior decorator.

“I had this life-changing epiphany. It was like, ‘You almost died!’ ” she said. “So I called the principal and was like, ‘I’m not coming back,’ and I hung up the phone and said, ‘What did I just do?’ ”

Nolan-Sellers took several online decorating courses to give her the foundation she needed to back up her design instincts. Wendy took over behind the scenes.

Nolan-Sellers knew she’d have to compete against candidates with more formal educations if she tried to join an existing firm, so she instead decided to start her own, which she named Trust the Vision Decor.

From getting her first few clients off Craigslist to decorating for such local notables as former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, Nolan

Sellers has designed the career of her dreams and she’s seen it make a difference in the lives of others.

“I didn’t expect the way that we could change our clients’ lives,” she said. “I didn’t expect that because someone is now proud of their dining room they decide to host their family they haven’t seen in 15 years.”

In addition to her business, based in her South Jersey home, Nolan-Sellers also runs an online Aspiring Designers Academy and a Facebook page where she shares decorating tips and answers questions.