When Amber Guyton graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2008, she never imagined she would be applying her advertising degree to running an interior design business. But that is just what she has done, now operating the Atlanta-based, Blessed Little Bungalow.
“After I graduated with my B.A. and later MBA, I was working in financial services in a marketing capacity — product marketing to be specific — but I’ve always loved to decorate,” says Guyton, a native of Pineville, South Carolina. “I’ve always loved to wander through home stores, buy new accent pillows, and things like that. When I was living in San Antonio, Texas in 2016, I bought a new house, and I decorated it in a week. My family and friends came to visit, and my mom was just like, ‘So, when are you going to do this for real?’”
Initially, Blessed Little Bungalow started as a blog Guyton wrote in her free time. She would write about design decisions she made in her home and give advice to others, but that quickly changed. She began offering design services and building a following on social media. In 2021, when she relocated from San Francisco to Atlanta, she decided to take the plunge and become a full-time interior designer and content creator.
“Your home should be a place where you see yourself reflected, where you feel safe, where you can relax — and, sadly, a lot of people don't feel that way,” she says. “So, being able to come in and help them feel good about where they live within their budget or create something that’s outside of their comfort zone, but completely changes the way they feel about their home is just an amazing feeling.”
At USC, Guyton studied print journalism initially, but changed her major to advertising during her sophomore year. She has always been interested in commercials and branding, she says, but it wasn’t until she went to college that she realized it was something she could study and do for a living.
“So many of the things I was involved in made me a leader and who I am today. And seeing that diversity when visiting campus before being a student — being able to just get a glimpse of, ‘Hey, this feels like a place where I can grow up and be someone' and then actually experiencing that — was phenomenal.”
Though she no longer works in the advertising industry, her background in advertising, marketing and writing helped her build her company, and it has influenced how she interacts with media companies and influencer partnerships.
“Storytelling is so important and a skill that is transferable in really just about any field,” she says. “For example, I can show a ‘before and after’ of a client project on social media. But writing a blog post talking about where things started, who the people are and what they enjoy, why they decided to move there, why they hate their house, and what was our plan to transform it helps humanize the process. A lot of the things I learned in advertising play a part in that. It makes interior design less transactional.”
Being from a small town in Berkeley County, attending USC gave Guyton an opportunity to broaden her worldview. The diversity she saw when she visited campus for the first time was something that drew her to the university. She says her involvement in student organizations like the Association of African American Students and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and being a resident advisor and orientation leader set the foundation for who she is.
“So many of the things I was involved in made me a leader and who I am today,” Guyton says. “And seeing that diversity when visiting campus before being a student — being able to just get a glimpse of, ‘Hey, this feels like a place where I can grow up and be someone' and then actually experiencing that — was phenomenal.”
With a recent expansion of her brand to retail products like artwork in HomeGoods and a wallpaper collection with Mitchell Black, she hopes that Blessed Little Bungalow will one day be a household name.
“I’m not really sure where the finish line is,” she says. “It’s been a fun ride, but I also feel like I’m just getting started.”