Fifteen years ago, I retired from a decade of work in corporate sales in Dallas to move back to my native city, Houston.
I was pregnant with my first child, and while I knew I wished to stay home and raise my children, I also knew I wanted to have an activity outside of this for myself. I began dabbling in decorating, which I had done in my younger years, and rediscovered my love of it. I realized at that moment that, while I had loved my decade in sales, my true passion was for decorating.
So where did my design education come from? Not from a degree, as being dyslexic stood in the way of formal educational opportunities. Instead, it was my childhood home: I grew up in a house that my mother constantly decorated and redecorated. Money did not grow on trees at our house, so my Mom had to be creative – she could create magazine looks in our home on a dime. Our house, although small and full of four kids and several pets, was featured in The Houston Chronicle, The Houston Post and even Houston Home and Garden Magazine. Need I say more – I learned from the best! I can’t tell you how many times and ways I moved my furniture around in my bedroom. And, after a while, my mother let me graduate to other parts of our house. It was the perfect mode of education for me.
My lifetime love of staging was nurtured at an early age, and there is no question that I could not have had a better teacher than my mom!
I look in magazines today and I realize my mother had such a natural eye for decorating. She always picked classic, tried and true fabrics, colors and accessories. I grew up with custom linens and was also the only girl I knew that had a chandelier in her bedroom.
All our linens and slipcovers were made by a lady named Mrs. Robbie. When it was time to redecorate, my mother would drive across town and pick up Mrs. Robbie so she could work in our dining room. They would turn our house into an upholstery shop for a week at a time while, as kids, my brothers and I would run in and out of our house, watching new slipcovers be created. Throughout the years we had the same couches slipcovered in varying white twills, an off-white duck fabric, and once in denim. My mom even had Mrs. Robbie slipcover a wicker couch and chair that were her Great-Grandmother’s with Lilly Pulitzer fabrics, which my mother hand quilted herself. It was an amazing process and the results were classic and timeless.
My lifetime love of staging was nurtured at an early age, and there is no question that I could not have had a better teacher than my mom! Let me help you create a home that you love to be in and spaces that you adore.