Melinda Sechrist grew up on Vashon Island with a penchant for sewing and matching fabric patterns, a skill she learned from her grandmother. A seemingly contrasting interest, however, was visiting the local hardware store, sifting through the bins, and wondering what types of projects people were working on and how they were going to use all those little nuts and bolts.

Now, having been the president of Seattle’s Sechrist Design since 1980, it appears that those two interests – in both fabric and hardware – were an ideal precursor to the life path she choose.

After graduating from the only high school on the island, where Sechrist also met her husband Mike, she took a few classes at Highline Community College. The duo soon transferred together to Washington State University where Sechrist explored several different majors before taking a few core courses in the fashion merchandising department and discovering that her passion was actually a career choice.

“I just didn’t know that people did this type of thing,” she said. “I’d never thought of interior design and found I was really good at it.”

After starting in the major with 150 others, she was one of the 28 people that graduated with an interior design degree.

“Most people didn’t understand that the work was not just picking fabric and colors,” she said. “You have to have an interest in layout and space planning. Every detail such as the cabinet work, the millwork, and the lighting has to be drawn on paper – someone has to figure it all out.”

After graduation she worked briefly for Safeco Insurance as a space planner, which turned out to be a fantastic foundation as a business owner because the planning required her to think methodically, such as figuring out what people needed to sit together, where the copier room should go, as well as the traffic patterns throughout the space.

When she had her first child, in 1980, there were no opportunities for job sharing or part-time work at Safeco, so she started her own company in the basement of her home and focused her professional efforts on residential design. It was an ideal arrangement where she had time to spend with her son, as well as a flexible work schedule.

By 1989, with 12 employees, three sons, and a busy schedule as a volunteer soccer coach and classroom helper, her husband quit his job and started helping to manage what had officially become Sechrist Design.

“Eventually, things got overwhelming. We’d had organic growth and were putting some processes in place but I was spending all my time on the business — and that’s when I met Dave,” she said about joining Excell in 2006. It was exactly the right time for her to start learning how to execute her plans and to manage the company’s growth, as well as talk with other business owners and learn from what they were doing.

Melinda Sechrist, middle, and her team at Sechrist Design.

Her senior designers now take on more of the leadership roles when it comes to individual project management and Sechrist focuses on the overarching design and building new client relationships.

“I’m now able to spend time getting to know clients and seeing how they work and what they like. I have a tremendous team that allows me to do that,” she said, adding that her office of 23 employees operates like a family.

Competition for talented designers is tough, however, and it’s sometimes hard to hold on to her employees. Larger architecture firms often have interior design departments that are very busy and these larger firms can woo designers with better pay and larger, more visible projects. She recognizes and accepts that her company is sometimes the training ground for people to move elsewhere.

In her free time, she likes to have dinners with her family and spend time with her eight grandkids, who all live nearby. She also enjoys reading and hopes to travel soon to Norway and Ireland, as well as make time to attend the theater.

Even though she’s been with Excell for several years, she still considers herself a “remedial student” because it sometimes takes her a long time to change. Even so, the consistent learning environment holds her accountable to making those changes.

“I really like watching these other companies grow and I learn more and understand more about business by just watching their success,” she said. “I know that I need to work on tapping into both sides of me – the creative person and the businessperson – and Excell meetings help me always move toward that goal.”

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