How it all started… thanks, Dad!

My friends and clients have often asked me how I got into this line of work.

My love affair with houses began early.  My dad gave me a dollhouse for my eighth birthday, which he lovingly crafted from a Better Homes & Gardens plan.  He went the extra mile and built furniture out of scraps of wood and nails.  That furniture co-exists quite nicely with the miniature Eames chairs in the living room.  The dollhouse has a place of honor in my home – even though it’s battered and a bit bruised.

Every time I visited the doctor I brought a crayon drawing of a boxy house with a tree out front, a fireplace, and a large picture window.

About the same time, we had to take down an old Catalpa tree in our back yard, to make room for a garage.  My dad took the huge pieces of wood and made me a log house in the yard.  I made window treatments with tiny pieces of scrap cloth.  The house was only there for about two weeks, but I made the most of it.

When I began to read for fun, I discovered the joys of decorating magazines.  I would spend hours trying to figure out the floor plans – which way did the doors open and what was room flow?

As a teenager, every Saturday was spent rearranging the knick-knacks in my bedroom.  It was at this point that I started developing my own sense of style, placement, and color.

Later, in married life, the interest in design crystallized with the purchase of our Prairie style bungalow. – my crayon drawings had come to life!

It was inevitable that my career would take a turn and lead me to becoming a Certified Interior Refiner in 2006.  This second act of my career is absolutely rewarding and my labor of love continues; only now I’m sharing my enthusiasm with my clients, one home at a time.