Discover how thoughtful interior design honors personal history, supports daily life, and creates homes that reflect who we are rather than following trends.
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Influential Woman · Interior Design
Michelle Young
Interior Designer, Michelle Silbaugh Designs
Santa Cruz County, 95076
2026Years experience
1Article published
3Awards received
Her Story
About Michelle
Michelle Young is the founder and principal designer of Michelle Silbaugh Designs, based in Santa Cruz County, California. Her connection to design began in childhood, when she was more interested in arranging homes for her dolls than playing with the dolls themselves. At 52, after years devoted to supporting her family, community, and other people’s businesses, Michelle finally gave herself permission to pursue the creative life she had always imagined.
Today, she is building her design practice while completing formal studies in Interior Design at West Valley College. Her philosophy is grounded in a simple belief: a space should support the life that needs to be lived within it. Drawing inspiration from nature, history, culture, and personal stories, she creates environments that foster well-being, connection, and belonging.
Although Michelle’s path into professional design was unconventional, each part of her earlier career prepared her for it. Her work as a health and nutrition coach deepened her understanding of human behavior, motivation, and the connection between personal environments and well-being. Her experience in office management, marketing, client relations, and business support gave her the operational, communication, and branding skills needed to serve clients and build a business of her own. Her experience in education strengthened her ability to listen, adapt, and create solutions around individual needs. Together, these skills allow her to approach design as both a deeply human practice and a well-managed professional service.
In 2026, Michelle was part of the third-place-winning team in the IIDA San Francisco Design Charrette, where the team developed a multifunctional community hub centered on connection and gathering.
Her larger vision extends beyond individual homes. Michelle hopes to bring history thoughtfully into modern life through historic properties, adaptive reuse, and community-centered spaces. Guided by honesty, integrity, compassion, and respect, she wants her work to help people feel seen, valued, and fully themselves.
Michelle’s own journey has shaped the message she hopes to share with other women: Your dream has always been yours. Every moment has led you here. Now take the step—and bring your voice to the table. It matters.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Michelle
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to finally giving myself permission to pursue the work that has called to me throughout my life. For many years, I used my skills to support my family, my community, and other people’s businesses. At 52, I recognized that caring for myself and honoring my own gifts was not selfish—it allowed me to bring a happier, more fulfilled version of myself to others.
My varied experiences in health and wellness, education, marketing, and business management also prepared me for this path. They taught me to understand people, listen carefully, communicate clearly, and turn a creative vision into something workable. Most of all, I attribute my progress to saying yes, doing the hard things that once intimidated me, and allowing each experience to build my confidence.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Take care of yourself and fill your own cup. Caring for yourself is not selfish; it allows you to bring a healthier, happier, and more creative version of yourself to your work and to the people who depend on you. Pursuing design has made me more fulfilled, and that happiness has positively affected my family as well as my professional life.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Your dream is your dream, and in some way, you have been living it all along. Every experience has prepared you for what comes next, even if the path has not been obvious. Do not let age, uncertainty, or fear convince you that it is too late. Take the step, do the hard thing, and bring your own voice to the table. It matters.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of my biggest challenges is my inner critic—the voice that tells me to stay small and choose what feels safe. I am learning not to let that voice make my decisions or determine how far I am willing to go.
At the same time, I see tremendous opportunity in aligning myself with meaningful work. For me, success is connected to happiness, purpose, and creating work that helps other people flourish. Interior design allows me to combine creativity and functionality with a deeper understanding of how people experience their homes and how those environments can support their lives.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that guide me professionally and personally are very much the same: honesty, integrity, compassion, respect, and a genuine desire to help others. I believe people want to feel seen, heard, respected, and accepted rather than judged. Every person is beautiful and uniquely themselves, and I want to honor that individuality in the spaces I create. For me, design is ultimately about recognizing people for who they are and creating environments that support them in living well.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Michelle
The Most Personal Rooms Begin With What Already Matters
Design that honors your story and supports the life you actually live.
Interior design is often presented as a dramatic before and after. The old room disappears, everything new arrives, and the transformation is complete. That can be exciting, but it is not always where the most meaningful design begins.
Sometimes the best starting point is already in the room.
It may be a piece of furniture that has served a family for years, artwork found while traveling, something handmade, or an object inherited from someone deeply loved. It may not be valuable in the traditional sense, but it carries a story. When those stories are removed in favor of whatever is currently popular, a home may become more stylish while feeling less like the people who live there.
I believe a well-designed space should support the life that needs to be lived within it. It should also reveal something about the people living that life.
Begin With the Life, Not the Shopping List
Before choosing paint colors, furniture, or finishes, I want to understand what needs to happen in the room.
How do people move through it? What creates frustration? What makes them feel comfortable? Are they hoping to gather, rest, work, create, or simply move through the morning with less chaos?
A beautiful room that does not support daily life will eventually become a burden. The furniture may be impressive, but if no one wants to sit on it, it is not serving the home. A kitchen may photograph beautifully, but if preparing a meal feels difficult, something essential has been missed.
Design goes much deeper than deciding what looks good. It creates the setting in which ordinary life unfolds.
Look Carefully at What Is Already There
When approaching a room, I pay attention to what should stay. This is not only a practical way to work; it can also lead to a much richer design.
In my own laundry room, some of the most meaningful pieces are not traditional laundry-room décor. There is my mother's sewing basket, a small lamp that belonged to my grandfather, a piece of art acquired from an estate, and an antique brass trivet given to me by a friend because it had belonged to her father.
Individually, these objects come from different places and periods. The room needed a strong visual story to bring them together, so I used a deep green throughout the space and repeated warm wood, brass, glass, and natural textures. Practical necessities became part of that story rather than distractions from it.
Laundry detergent sheets are kept in a glass-and-brass box instead of a plastic container. Vinegar used for softening laundry sits in a glass dispenser. Even the lids of ordinary storage jars were painted brass to connect them to the other finishes.
There is also a plate painted with yellow flowers beneath a potted fern. No one sees it unless the fern is moved for watering, but I know it is there, and it makes me happy.
Not every meaningful detail has to announce itself. A home is not a display created for everyone else. Some details can exist simply for the person who lives there.
Let History Participate in the Present
Honoring history does not mean turning a home into a museum. It means allowing the past to remain part of the life being lived now.
An inherited chair can be reupholstered. An old textile can become framed artwork. A weathered table can sit beside something contemporary. Pieces from different eras can live together when there is a thoughtful relationship between their color, material, shape, or meaning.
Signs of age do not always need to be removed. Worn wood, softened edges, and visible craftsmanship can bring depth that new objects often have not had time to develop.
Our homes can hold evidence of where we have been while still making room for where we are going.
Bring Nature In With Intention
Nature is another important part of how I understand design. Bringing the outdoors in can be as simple as allowing natural light to move through a room, framing a view, including a living plant, or choosing materials that feel connected to the landscape.
It does not require covering a room in botanical patterns. Sometimes it is the color of the surrounding hills, the texture of unfinished wood, the irregularity of stone, or the quiet movement of linen.
Here in Santa Cruz County, nature is woven into daily life. We carry in sand from the beach, mud from the redwoods, and memories connected to the mountains and coastline. Our homes should be beautiful, but they should also let us live. They need to welcome the evidence of a life being enjoyed.
Create Belonging, Not Perfection
Belonging is difficult to manufacture because it cannot be ordered from a catalog. It develops when a space reflects the individuality of the people within it.
That requires listening. It also requires resisting the urge to make every home look like the same carefully styled image.
Trends can be useful sources of inspiration, but they should not erase personal history or dictate how someone is supposed to live. A client's culture, routines, interests, collections, and memories offer a far more meaningful foundation.
Before redesigning a room, consider three questions:
- What does this room need to help us do?
- What already belongs here, practically or emotionally?
- How do we want to feel when we enter?
Those answers create direction. They help separate what is merely attractive from what is genuinely right for the home.
A beautiful home does not need to be filled all at once, and it does not need to prove anything. It can develop slowly, through thoughtful choices, useful solutions, treasured objects, and experiences gathered over time.
The most personal rooms are not always the ones containing the newest or most expensive things. They are the rooms that recognize the life already present—and create space for that life to flourish.
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