Pam
Ellis' services should come with a warning:
"If you're not really, really ready to sell your home, do not hire this woman."
Pam creates selling power as a professional virtuoso artist and as a business woman. She views each house as an artistic project—a canvas to create a painting or a stage to choreograph a new dance. She combines her artistic creativity with a solid understanding of business—specifically, the business of selling houses.
Like all successful artistic directors, she understands what audiences want and knows how to reach their hearts and minds.
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“Pam is one of the most talented people I know—a true artist in every sense of the word. Pam has been the 'yes' factor in many homes I've sold for clients. Every personality I've matched her up with has been thrilled with how she has worked with them. Some have even wanted her to continue giving them advice in their new home. Pam's love for what she does shines through with every job, and anyone can see that no matter how tired she may be, she continues to put her heart and soul into everything she touches. And . . . she's a great dancer, she's really pretty, and she has a great laugh!” - Cristina Jensen, Windermere |
Your Ellis Design Staging Team: Pam Ellis and Nathan Thomas
Pam
Ellis, founder and owner of Ellis Design, has
been creative since birth. She moved to Seattle
from Alaska to continue studying ballet, eventually
earning a full scholarship to the prestigious
Pennsylvania Ballet School at age 19. Throughout
her training, and through 17 years as a ballet
dancer, she found time to study design, painting,
and sculpture.
Pam returned to Seattle in 1979. She worked with the Pacific Northwest Ballet's artistic directors and continued studying art. After taking time to raise three children, she honed her marketing skills as she sold her own jewelry designs through local stores, fairs, and even one Japanese distributor.
Pam's real vocation emerged from working as a muralist and faux-painter while running a thriving, high-end house painting business with her husband, Jacob.
She discovered the staging profession when she visited a house to do a color consult and painting bid. The house was expertly staged—but for the drab purple kitchen and some very worn out cabinets, the house wouldn’t sell. She saw where her skills and experience were needed in this new staging profession.
Pam couldn't resist the challenge. She painted warm wheat colors over the dated wallpaper. She smoothed and repainted the beat-up trim with soft gloss creamy white. She used her special "magic" varnish techniques on the worn-out kitchen cabinets.
When the house sold in a matter of weeks, Pam knew she had found her next career. "I swear I heard angels singing in heaven when I loaded my paint ladders for the last time," she says.
Pam's dance background had taught her the importance of studying with experts. So she signed up for training and certification through the Stagedhomes organization. She now holds a board position in the local chapter of International Association of Home Staging Professionals. Recently she joined other stagers for an episode of 20/20 (available at the stagedhomes.com website) and recently participated in an upcoming episode of Extreme Home Makeover.
Currently, Pam lives in Seattle with Jacob, her husband of ten years, her teenage daughter, Renae, three huge dogs, and a "really cool cat" named Riley.
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"This is the perfect business for me. I feel all my skills, talents, and experience have finally come together. Although I don't dance through the homes (or at least I wouldn't admit it if I did), I definitely use the discipline and theater background experience I gained through all the training and performing." - Pam Ellis |
Pam's
son Nathan Thomas joined the business in 2005,
adding youthful energy to Pam's experience.
Nathan inherited Pam's "go the extra mile" work
ethic, people skills, and sense of humor. He
has a special gift for visualizing how a house
will look after the staging transformation.
Nathan's creativity comes through in graphic design as well as music: he co-owns a DJ company, "Upside Entertainment," and produces hip hop and R&B music for local Seattle artists. He plays in a band—drums, piano, bass, and guitar. Nathan teaches music to middle school-aged children and won Student Of the Month at Nathan Hale High School for "reaching out to the special ed students."
Besides all that, he's athletic: He effortlessly carries couches around to help clients create their new spaces faster.
Pam says: "We get the staging done faster and we spark off each other's creative energies, so our clients get solutions they won't find anywhere else."