A woman who worked in HomeSense for six years before quitting jokes she still visits “every single day”.
Ellie Fenlon, from Liverpool, was a visual merchandiser in the home furnishing store owned by TKMaxx, before making the “scary” decision to quit when the pandemic hit and follow her dreams. The choice wasn’t taken lightly, considering she loved her job in the shop, however during lockdown she realised "life is too short" to not be taking chances.
After quitting to pursue her own home interior business, the 25-year-old has now hosted her own masterclasses and worked with some major furniture brands. She has also racked up more than 1,000,000 likes on TikTok and 20,000 followers on Instagram. After dubbing herself the “queen of interior dupes”, Ellie’s followers regularly tune in to find the latest bargains on the market.
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The owner of Fenlon Interiors told the ECHO: “I worked at HomeSense for six years, as a visual merchandiser and I absolutely loved it. It’s basically like I still work there. I'm in there literally every single day shopping and getting content for my socials.
“It was definitely something I enjoyed and gained so much knowledge on brands whilst I was there. I practised so much styling with the most random stock we used to get in.” She added: “I just thought life is far too short not to be going after what I love to do, I was so young and I felt like I was just going through the motions and I thought this isn’t how I want to live the rest of my life.
“So I did the most brave and scariest thing and just one day left my job, with no plan just this has to work! I’ve never worked so hard in my life and although it has been a rollercoaster, if I could go back in time I should have done it earlier because who knows how further along I could be.”
Ellie has now left the shop floor for the influencer and content creator life. Day-to-day her work is made up of recording hauls, to working with home brands on social media campaigns and creating styling arrangements. She also hosts a podcast about interior design and trawls through shops to find bargains and dupes.
Ellie believes that the “obsession” with home-style grew in the pandemic, when people were confined to their homes for months on end. She said: “I truly believe it's everyone's safe space and being in those four walls for that length of time I think the value of our homes become more.
“I think it's something that was under rated and I couldn’t be happier. It's now a popular thing, I am so passionate about helping people create their dream homes and fall back in love with it. It's not quite there on par with the popularity of fashion but it will over time.”
While most of Ellie's work is conducted over social media, she recently held her very first styling masterclass of her own. The sold out event was held at Mamasan , in Liverpool ONE, and saw some of her loyal followers meeting for a class on interior styling, a live demo and more.
In the future she will be holding more, due to demand. Ellie said: "It has definitely been a rollercoaster. I know social media shows my highlights, but I don’t think its a job for the faint hearted.
"It been extreme hard work but most definitely been worth it and I get to share it with all my followers who have supported my through it all and I couldn’t be more grateful for that as I’m now living my dream. My advice to anyone would be you are capable of turning whatever passion or dream you have into your career."
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