Making a Show House

There is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into completing a Show House, months in advance of the opening. I love being able to participate in a show house to express my creativity for a good cause. This year marks my 11th year participating in the St. Margaret's Guild Decorators' Show House.

For the designers, the process begins in September of the year before, so we visited the house in September of 2015...this was one month after having my first child! The Designers tour the house and then we narrow down the spaces we would like to do to 5 rooms. We submit those rooms to the Guild and then the selection process begins. When I first walked into the room I ended up getting, I saw great bones, a small space, but it had character. It was a little hard to see past the things in the space, as it was mostly being used as a storage room.

My initial thought was that I wanted to maintain some sort of an office space, but I wanted it to be cozy and a place for the whole family to use. I had wanted to remove the existing laminate desk and replace it with a new built-in. The homeowner didn't want to spend the money on doing that, so I had to reinvent my design plan and go a different direction. I decided to have fun with the space and make it colorful and vibrant with a nod to Kate Spade. I had to leave the laminate desk in place, which looked very commercial. I REALLY had to think outside the box on how to deal with that desk! I came up with the idea of making a new top out of wood stained in a matte ebony finish and then using fabric to skirt the bottom of the desk to hide what was underneath. Everything can be removed after the show, but it helped to solve a big problem in the space!

I am really happy with out the space turned out, it is fun and fresh! It went from a room that was cluttered to a place that you really want enjoy!