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.
