Ready for Her Closeup
with conceiving her second child. “I
At 20 years old, Mary Welch saw
was afraid I wouldn’t be able to put
Trading Spaces on TLC, HGTV’s
my best foot forward and my strug-
sister network, and decided that’s
gles trying to have a second child
what she wanted to do — have her
would show through on camera..”
own show on HGTV. She studied
But, Melch didn’t want them to give
interior design at Colorado State,
up on her. So she said to not forget
worked for an interior designer,
her and sure enough, a couple years
then a fashion designer, and then
later, the process began again.
in the music industry for a bit. After initially turning HGTV She had so many hopes and dreams,
down, they circled back with Mary
she wanted to do it all. After spend-
Welch like she asked. They started
ing a few years in other industries,
the interview process and began
she returned to design and began
formalizing ideas. It turns out, one
taking projects one at a time. It
of Melch’s friends from childhood
was then that she got a call from a
initially brought her to HGTV’s
production company asking if she
attention. “She worked in produc-
wanted to do an HGTV show out of
tion and told them to reach out
thin air. She turned it down due to
to me,” Melch explains. “It was a
fertility struggles she was having
dream I let go after that conversa-
136 • CH+D • Spring 2021