Philly-area designer turns modern spaces into stories of Black history

Style Posted Tuesday, September 8, 2026 12:37 pm A major health scare forced Lauren Nolan-Sellers to reconsider what she wanted to leave behind — and ultimately transformed the way she saw her own work. The Philadelphia-area interior designer had already built a career helping clients transform their homes. But after losing her mother in 2021 and facing her own serious health battle the following year, Nolan-Sellers began thinking bigger: What if those same spaces could do more? What if they could tell stories, teach history and inspire people? 'That scary health challenge forced me to take a look and say, 'What do I really want out of life? What am I really doing here?'' Nolan-Sellers told Metro. That question eventually became H.O.U.S.E.D. Inn Blaque — a design initiative that uses interior spaces to honor the overlooked stories, achievements and legacies of Black Americans. The birth of H.O.U.S.E.D. Inn Blaque Serving clients in the Philadelphia metro area, Nolan-Sellers is the co-founder of Trust the Vision Decor. Since 2018, she has met traditional interior design needs and even launched an Aspiring Designers Academy to help newcomers with tips and advice to start their own businesses in the industry. 'I wanted to flip a house, and I did that. I wanted to do a documentary… and it was going to be about all the stories you never heard about surrounding Black people and their contributions,' she said. 'Our history is made up of more than George Washington Carver, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.' While nurturing this vision, Nolan-Sellers recalls hearing a distinct internal message stating: 'You have everything you need.' She quickly realized she could ultimately tell these historical stories of Black culture through her existing craft. That spark led to the launch of H.O.U.S.E.D. Inn Blaque, an acronym which stands for 'Honoring Our Unique Story with Excellence through Design.' The mission Nolan-Sellers explains is to spotlight the unsung heroes of Black history through interior spaces. 'I feel like design is my gift, and I feel like design is my art,' she said. 'When people go to the Art Museum in Philly, what is this art saying? What is it speaking about?' Nolan-Sellers says she decided to use her room transformations to make a statement rather than chasing the latest trends seen on HGTV. The core message Nolan-Sellers explains is: "Thank you." The inspiration behind merging these connections of interior design and Black historical culture, Nolan-Sellers adds, is to use design as a tool, instead of simply an end product. 'What if it can be a tool for teaching? she asked. "What if it is a tool for education or empowerment?' An example of this Nolan-Sellers shares is being emotionally tired and then seeing a symbol of Bridget 'Biddy' Mason, who walked 1,700 miles across the country behind a 300-wagon caravan to the Salt Lake Valley with her three children, including a newborn. 'I'm sure you can get up and do whatever it is you want to do,' said Nolan-Sellers, who looks to get these types of messages out to others through her interior art vision. 'I want people to be immersed in these spaces and feel their own empowerment.' Bringing legacy into real spaces While Black history in the U.S. often centers on tragedy, Nolan-Sellers wanted to ensure she intentionally highlights the other side of triumph and contribution. She explains that by weaving these narratives into physical environments and interior spaces, she's able to connect people to the impactful figures who helped pave the path forward for many today. Nolan-Sellers points to Philadelphia's own James Forten, an influential businessman and activist, as another example of the kind of overlooked history she has incorporated into a local H.O.U.S.E.D. project. 'If you can walk out of that space like, 'Wow, I didn't know that about my history. I didn't know that contribution. You're just going to have a fuller and broader narrative of what history really is.' A recent project Nolan-Sellers spotlights is just outside of Philadelphia in Dresher, Montgomery County. A woman came to her after losing her father, whom she described as the crux of her family. Born in Haiti and coming to America with little money, the woman's father started a bus company which paved the way for his children to obtain PhDs and become lawyers, according to Nolan-Sellers. 'He was their turning point and had passed away and she really wanted to find a way to honor him,' she added. 'We designed a space and had a theme that was: 'Leave your mark and blaze a path.'' With the client's father being the central figure, Nolan-Sellers states that she was also able to weave inspiring ancestor stories of others who left their mark and 'blazed the path" into the same space. 'This is my love letter to my ancestry to say thank you because they are who make my life possible,' Nolan-Sellers said. 'That is really the foundation of what I'm doing.'