An Inspired Chat with Susan Yeley of Bloomington

Susan Yeley shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Susan, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
I actively seek out things that make me lose myself! It’s my Buddhist training: I believe every moment is enhanced by practicing presence, so I try, again and again, to be present. Your question hints at this irony of losing oneself to find oneself. Outside of work, a good novel works. Or power yoga: I have to clear my mind of chatter to focus on all the parts of my body and brain it takes to hold a tricky pose. At work, a deep dive into a design problem will make an afternoon or morning fly by. When my children were in Montessori school, I learned about the 3-hour work cycle, which is what they said it takes for a person to be fully immersed in a task; a three-hour dedicated chunk of time does seem to have magic for me. When I’m not designing, the other thing that makes my work time fly is client meetings, if you can believe it: I’m in this job for design, but also, just as much, for people. I love digging in with people, getting to know their stories, listening and internalizing their quirks and hang ups and joys, so that I know them well enough to create a home for them.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
About. me:

Back in the early 2000s, I was a graduate student in Religion and Philosophy when I swapped Kant for Dwell and took an unpaid internship at Thomas Job, a terrific but now defunct furniture and fabric showroom in the Merchandise Mart. Shortly thereafter, I enrolled at the Harrington Institute of Interior Design and took a job in a high-end residential design firm in River North. (Gosh that makes a really hard journey of reinvention seems so tidy and obvious! 🤣) Soon enough, my husband Brian and I returned to our Hoosier roots — just a few weeks before our first daughter, Anna, was born in 2005.

I initially dubbed the little design business I did on the side “Gravity and Grace: Design that Grounds and Uplifts”—after a Simone Weil book I read and loved at the Div School at University of Chicago. It was a nod to the place that led me to this happy career in which I am privileged to be invited into people’s homes, relationships and lifestyles.

The unofficial SYH motto remains: designing spaces that ground, and uplift too. 💗 🏠

About SYH:

Although the seeds of SYH were planted in 2001 in a cold-in-the-winter and hot-in-the-summer rental apartment in Hyde Park, Chicago, we actually launched as a business in Bloomington in 2005, and incorporated 10 years after that. That makes this our 20 and also 10-year anniversary year! 🎂

Susan Yeley Homes is a full-service residential design firm based in Bloomington, Indiana, serving clients throughout Central Indiana, the greater Indianapolis area, and across the Midwest. We offer holistic home design services, architecture to art and finishes to furnishings, ensuring that our clients’ homes are as beautiful and functional inside as they are outside.

The homes we design at SYH are qualitatively different, honoring history, warmth, and artistry over unnecessarily large footprints and trendy finishes. Our team creates spaces with soul, that have the same qualities as our favorite humans: depth, texture, intrigue, light and lightness, color, whimsy, and warmth. If you are building, renovating, or furnishing a home, and you are looking for a je ne sais quoi you just aren’t seeing in the vast world of home design and construction, call us.

At Susan Yeley Homes, we believe in the power of good design to change the way you feel and function in your home. Life is too short not to love your home.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who taught you the most about work?
Oh, that is easy: my parents. They both started their careers as attorneys, but as my mom’s career took off, leading her to become an Assistant US Attorney and later the first female US Attorney and eventually federal judge in Indiana, my dad felt himself drowning in the world of billable hours and legal research. They recognized their own truths, and each other’s, and decided my mom would pursue her professional passions and my dad would scale back to support the family; eventually he quit altogether to be home with me and my siblings, which worked beautifully for everyone in the family at a time when men really weren’t ever primary homemakers and child-rearers. Both of them taught me to listen to my instincts, follow my bliss, work hard and do what you love with your time.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I did give up. In my mid-twenties, I gave up on every plan I had to date concocted about my career, because it was clear that not a one of them was right for me. I was deeply depressed and not at all able to see a way through to a profession I’d love, and I wound up pulling on the single thread that appeared in those days of darkness: design. It took career counselors, therapists, miles and miles of running, an incredibly patient and encouraging and loving spouse and parents, and a keen ear to listen to a tiny but persistent inner voice.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
People. Embracing and maximizing joy. Being a Yes person. Home.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people remember me as a source of joy in the world–a person who felt and cared deeply, and created and reached out and held tightly to the people and ideas I value most.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Photos of spaces by Sarah Shields Photos.
Photos of people by Eric Rudd Photography.

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