Hunter Phelps, left, creator and founder of Phelps Room Designs and one of her room designs brought to life.
Photo provided by Hunter Phelps
Phelps Room Designs’ curated room décor are created by theme, color and more, with three packaging options.
Photo provided by Hunter Phelps
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, get a room.
That is what 22-year-old native Detroiter Hunter Phelps wants her future clients to do (regardless of the holiday) as she creates an intimate oasis of designs through hotel rooms, bedrooms and elsewhere.
As the owner and founder of Phelps Room Designs (PRD), Phelps makes her love of creativity and bringing smiles to others as the driving forces behind her business by transforming rooms with balloons, string lights, rose petals, romantic colors and other décor that are as unique as her customers based in Detroit and Chicago.
Phelps told the Michigan Chronicle that after designing a room in October of 2021 for her friend, she later went viral on Twitter with 28,000 retweets on her post featuring a blue-themed room, which included a blue balloon arch over her friend’s bed. Since then, she launched her business and hasn’t looked back.
“I realized I could open a new market in the Midwest–a lot of people weren’t decorating rooms,” Hunter said adding that her room-designing business is now celebrating its one-year anniversary.
“Most of the time I usually freestyle,” she said of her designs, adding that based on her client’s request, she will draw, paint or sketch out the ideas and bring her ideas to life in a personalized way.
Phelps isn’t alone in her quest for success as a businesswoman.
Seventeen percent of Black women are in the process of starting or running new businesses, according to the Harvard Business Review, which states that a Black woman is more likely to start a business than a white man. Statistics back up that fact because compared to the 17 percent of Black women with nascent businesses, only 15 percent of white men (and 10 percent of white women) are doing the same.
From garlands and helium-filled balloons holding floating white roses to questions like “will you be my girlfriend?” spelled out through her designs, Phelps creates from the heart while customizing her business. PRD’s décor room packages consist of three levels (ranging from the least to the greatest number of materials used). Decorating takes about two hours.
Southfield native Marie Jackson who currently lives in Columbus, OH, told the Michigan Chronicle that she used PRD’s décor services last November to surprise her girlfriend for her 25th birthday party, which she described as “phenomenal.”
“In the beginning [I] never came with a specific vision,” the 25-year-old said, adding that she just knew the color but Phelps brought the ideas to life through a jungle, butterfly theme. “[My girlfriend] was speechless. I was so shocked by the level of detail in such a short amount of time.”
Phelps is also keeping Black businesses at the forefront. Recently, PRD collaborated with Black-owned business Detroit Phoodie to offer a private chef dining experience with a designed room through add-ons, which also include a next-day cleaning service.
“As a Black woman it is so important to open up opportunities for others,” Phelps said, adding that she is bringing new clients to fellow Black-women-owned businesses to give them some shine, too. “[A] Black-owned business in society … opens up new doors for generational wealth in our community.”
For the future of PRD, Phelps sees an expansion in the works. “I am currently back and forth between Detroit and Chicago,” she said. “The goal is to bring Phelps Room Designs in most major cities–Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, the DMV area, Houston. That is the larger goal.”
For more information visit phelpsroomdesigns.com
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