Interior designer Tobi Wells Fairley of Little Rock has steadily built her name from a cottage industry into a full-blown brand -- Tobi Fairley & Associates.
The designer credits a large portion of her success to her early entry into social media. When she started her blog, tobifairley.com/blog, in 2008, she was one of the earliest members of the design blogging community.
"I just happened into that," she says, adding that her design work was covered in the magazines House Beautiful and Traditional Home after editors noticed her blog.
"It all stemmed from individual relationships and social media. A lot of it has been a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Those companies were following me and watching me. That visibility came from social media. There are a lot of designers who are more creative than me but really want access to my audience, creative ideas and an instant audience," she says.
"I have access to the customers they desire."
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The 44-year-old Sheridan native's latest venture is a collection of printed and woven patterns made in collaboration with Duralee of New York. Officially announced in early December, it is the fourth of her licensed product collections. In a nod to her home base, the designer has named one of the designs La Petite Roche.
Her other product lines are upholstered furniture produced by CR Laine; tables, chests and desks by Woodbridge Furniture Co., and more than 100 pieces of decorative art by Soicher Marin of Florida, some of which were recently featured in Restoration Hardware's Modern catalog. Fairley also has her own private-label collections of pillows, lanterns and accessories.
The new fabrics are expected to be available to the public and to the trade beginning in April on her e-commerce site. True to her established design aesthetic, they feature bright hues including shades of jade, emerald and blue.
Arkansas businesses carrying her CR Laine products include Phoenix Interiors and Cantrell Design Center of Little Rock and Harper Howey Interiors in Fayetteville.
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A recent check of Fairley's social media presence showed 16,000 "likes" on her main business page and 35,000 followers on Twitter, where she has posted nearly 16,000 tweets. She also has nearly 12,000 followers on Instagram.
"We have four Facebook pages that we use for promotion, so we have a total of 23,000 followers on Facebook," says Cheminne Taylor-Smith, senior vice president of Tobi Fairley & Associates. "And we have 42,000 on Pinterest -- that's important because we get a lot of our 'tribe' from that channel, too."
And then there's Fairley's website, where she offers products, classes and courses for fellow
designers. Its homepage features six blocks in vibrant colors -- emerald green, vivid orange, turquoise, navy, bright pink and gold -- offering click-throughs to areas of her design business: interior design, blog, consulting, furnishings and fabrics ( Tobi Fairley Home), video design advice (Tobi TV) and Tobi U -- her online instructional courses on the business of design.
Since its inception, the website has received hundreds of thousands of hits, says Taylor-Smith. "And she regularly has over 100,000 readers of her blog, in over 100 countries."
The designer's business may have blossomed in recent years, but her interest goes way back.
"I always was creative and when I was 12, I got to spend time with a cousin and a great-aunt in Fort Worth who were designers," Fairley says. The Wells family was originally from Hampton, where they still own the 100-year-old South Arkansas Telephone Co. founded by her father's great-grandfather. Her parents moved to Sheridan, where Fairley graduated from high school in 1990.
Encouraged by her father, she studied accounting at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and then moved to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she finished her bachelor's degree in accounting. And then she earned a second bachelor's, in interior design, from UA-Fayetteville, and in 2000 her master's degree in business administration.
"I always knew I could decorate; I always had a great eye for colors," Fairley says. "But I wanted to have that education in space, systems, planning and lighting -- it's almost like having an architectural degree. A lot of people just become decorators, but I loved the idea of getting a degree in it."
Her earliest design jobs included internships, including one with award-winning interior designer Georg Andersen of Conway.
But Fairley, then in her late 20s, was discouraged by her low salary. "In 1999, the pay was really low -- maybe $14,000 or $19,000," she says, recalling her decision to start her own business once she had secured her MBA.
"So I just jumped in with both feet," she says. Most of her clients live in Arkansas or have a connection to the state.
"I really love product design and business design," she says of her work as a designer and a consultant to clients and fellow designers. She offers mentoring, helping designers determine what to charge and how to establish their own brands.
One of her business's earliest clients, Martha Murphy of Little Rock, recalls meeting the designer at the Junior League of Little Rock's Holiday House in 2002.
"She had a small booth at that event and a storefront in Benton," Murphy says. "I liked what I saw in her booth, and after talking with her, I knew I wanted her to come to my home in Fort Smith to help with the design of my three daughters' bedrooms."
Fairley has worked with Murphy on four remodeling projects in three houses -- the latest being a 10-month remodeling and addition to her home in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock.
"I love her vision, her organization and commitment to quality in each job she designs," Murphy says.
Brandy Harp of Little Rock, whose husband, Richard, is a custom house builder, also speaks highly of the designer.
"What I love about Tobi is that she is real; simply put, she is authentic," Harp says. "What you see is what you get. Tobi is just as gorgeous on the inside as she is on the outside. She is a woman of integrity, strong work ethic and positive energy."
In September 2009, Traditional Home magazine included Fairley among its list of top 20 young designers. But, she says, the most pivotal moment in her career came in March 2010 when her work landed on the the cover of House Beautiful in the feature "All About Blue."
"It was a major game changer," says Fairley, who is also a wife to lawyer Carter Fairley and mom to daughter Ellison, 10.
"National exposure does get you some national clients, but the most affluent clients would go to New York. But national exposure also sends a lot of traffic to a blog, website and social media," she says.
In fall 2013, she opened a satellite design studio in Dallas' historic Uptown neighborhood, where she also teaches.
In April 2014, her work was featured in Traditional Home magazine. "That was the credibility within the industry," she says. "They were saying, 'We can all take a leap with her now.'"
Fairley, who describes herself as "highly focused, super-driven and an admitted workaholic" says she has other product lines in the works. She is also working to expand her online presence by offering more educational and consulting services.
"I love technology, and we're looking at doing some live streaming. We already have Tobi TV, which launches every Tuesday, and are downloading more courses and classes. People want live webinars and video," she says, adding, "I've spent a lot of time building the business, and now I want to make sure you can have access to it."
Her goals?
"To stay relevant and make more of a long-term presence in the industry."
HomeStyle on 02/06/2016