For Canton resident Nicole Flint, a childhood love of fabric (and rearranging her parent’s home) led to a new business fueled by creativity, passion and some good, old fashioned elbow grease.  Enter the Nicole Flint Collection–a whimsical treasure trove of custom, one-of-a-kind upholstered furniture sure to add a bold conversation piece to any space.

Flint, who has both a business and an interior design degree, is an ambitious renaissance woman in the truest sense–even running her parent’s construction company and heading up her own design firm for a time. She’s also a dedicated wife (to husband Chris) and mother of two (soon to be three) young children, and it was around the time her first son (Keegan, 5) was born she found her priorities changing. Still, she didn’t purchase her first project chair until her youngest son (Gavin, 2) came along. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I bought a wingback chair from a consignment store,” she said. “I’m so indecisive with fabric that I had five fabrics on this chair and thought, ‘Well, why do I have to pick just one.’” Flint had never upholstered a chair before that time and enlisted a Woodstock upholstery teacher to guide her.

“I was really used to picking out something that was already done or taking somebody’s piece and having it done,” Flint said. “The good thing was the chair I bought was cheap, so once the fabric was off I could really see the mechanics of the chair and experiment.”

With a little help from the upholstery teacher and a lot of ingenuity and trial and error, it wasn’t long before Flint had completed her first project. “It’s hard work, but now it’s not so bad,” she said. “Once I’m in there and tearing out staples and nail gunning, I feel like I become one with the chair.”

In fact, Flint identifies so much with each of her uniquely playful designs thats she gives each one a name–and they’re all girls. “People seem to like it,” she said. “I always send a thank you note saying, ‘Thank you for buying Lucy, etc.’ and people end up calling the chair by her name. I love getting emails saying, ‘I bought Sarah, and she’s great.’”

Whether she’s transforming a client’s dated chair or creating a custom piece from a found chair, Flint always tried to incorporate traditional structure with her funky style. “If I have the chair already, I cut samples and piece it together,” she said. “I also have people call me who have a room and want something to coordinate, so I’ll go to their house. Either way, I always ask for creative freedom because each one is a unique work of art.”

Nicole Flint Collection chairs are available at www.nicoleflint.com.

Originally published in the February 2013 issue of Cherokee Life Magazine.