Interior Designer
Founder of Creative Tonic Design

“owning your responsibilities in business relationships and forgiveness equals love and freedom”

Rapid-fire questions with Courtnay Tartt Elias

Most important item in your bag?
My Lavender “Le Pen” + Creative Tonic Notebook, they go hand-in-hand.

Favorite power woman lipstick?
MAC #413 Let Them Eat Cake… I discovered it at the MAC store on the Champs- Elysees in Paris!  

Your favorite podcast, if any?
Can I have 2?
The Business of Home + The Design You Podcast by Tobi Fairly… both so amazing!

Last book you read? Or last show you binged watched?
The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles made the World by Virginia Postel.

What’s something you can’t leave the house without?
My MAC Oyster Girl Lip Gloss!

What is your favorite song of all-time?
Elton John’s Your Song… reminds me of my husband!

What’s heavily played on your music playlist right now?
The Soundtrack to Hamilton, of course! I’m known to sing loudly at stoplights and cry when belting Dear Theodosia… makes me think of my three sons… my suns!

What is something you want to get better at?
Pickle Ball!

What excites you most about SheSpace?
How inspired and productive I FEEL in the colorFULL environment there with the most colorFULL people.

What is the coolest thing we might find on your desk?
My collection of Eiffel Towers I started when I was 20 and living in Paris.

Who would you most like to share a workspace with?
My incredibly productive and inspiring Creative Tonic team… and I’m lucky because I already do! Sarah Jessica Parker would be fun too!

Favorite Houston restaurant?
Armando’s… a Houston institution.

Advice to your 20-year-old self?
It all works out how it is supposed to work out!!!

Life motto?
Live ColorFULLly!

 Favorite inspiring quote of all-time?
I have 2:
“Smile and Say Thank you”- Barbara Tartt

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Teddy Roosevelt

Heels or flats?
Heels ALWAYS! I’m 5’2”… it’s a MUST!

Coffee or tea?
Coffee… but room temp and I sip on it all day… weird!

Walk or bike?
Walk… especially when it’s with my fun husband Mark!

Find Courtnay on Instagram
Check out Creative Tonic Designs Website