Where has Sumner’s Northlight Interiors moved? One city over in Puyallup

When business owners Juleen Pudists and Christine Kern found themselves in need of a new storefront, one site caught their eyes.

Mostly, it was because Pudists constantly passed it on her way home, and it had been sitting vacant for six months.

“I was driving by it every day,” said Pudists, who lives in Puyallup.

Pudists, 51, and Kern, 60, are interior designs who own Northlight Interiors, which provides a range of residential and commercial interior design services, including remodels and additions. Their storefront boutique allows for walk-ins and offers furniture, rugs, lighting, accessories and gifts.

They first opened shop in Sumner, which became home.

But last year, when they were unable to renew their lease, they had to find a new location — and fast.

“We were in a rough spot,” Kern said. “We were caught in the transition. It was not the movement we wanted.”

So the business owners turned their sights on Puyallup and officially opened Northlight Interiors in its new 2,000-square-foot location at 103 W. Stewart at the end of January.

While it was hard to move from their Sumner location, which was right along Main Street, Pudists and Kern had faced their challenges as small business owners before and pulled through. Pudists and Kern first opened up their shop in 2008, right in the middle of a struggling economy.

“Our industry hit the hardest — anything having to do with housing,” Kern said.

But Kern and Pudists loved interior design, so they worked hard. Growing up with mothers who were artists, they developed a love for home decor and creating a vision out of nothing. When they first met in the 1990s, Kern was freelancing perspective drawings for an architect in Tacoma that Pudists worked for.

One night over a glass of wine, they made a big decision.

“I said, ‘Hey Juleen. I’m going to open my own business,’” Chris recalled.

“She said, ‘Let’s do it together,’” Juleen added.

They decided on Northlight Interiors as the name, because “artists use north light as the perfect light that can’t be altered,” Kern said. “I thought that reflected us and our integrity.”

Despite the economic crisis, faith and support from their families encouraged them to keep going.

“We’d have a bill due and all of a sudden someone walked in and blessed us,” Pudists said.

Now, 10 years later, they’re facing their next challenge: operating in a new city. While they both live in Puyallup and service customers from all over the area, they’re new to the business community.

So far, they’ve received a warm welcome from Puyallup.

“Everybody has been kind to us and that has been our saving grace,” Pudists.

Northlight Interiors is also closer to one of its projects — the kitchen remodeling of the Parrish home at 818 W. Pioneer. The home was featured on HGTV’s “House Hunters” earlier this year.

“I feel so honored to be able to touch that in history and I’m lucky enough to be able to work on it,” Pudists said.

Their Sumner customers still stop by.

“They’re following us, which is great,” Pudists said.

“We love when people find us. It feels like a reunion,” Kern said.

Kern and Pudists look forward to creating relationships in the Puyallup business community and to becoming more involved. They see an opportunity for Puyallup businesses to flourish.

“This community’s going to change,” Kern said. “It will grow and I hope it grows in a great direction.”

For more information on Northlight Interiors, visit northlightinteriors.com.

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 7:18 AM with the headline "Where has Sumner’s Northlight Interiors moved? One city over in Puyallup."