Not sure where this came from, but tonight I felt inspired to write a little bit about where my passion for design came from. Decorating is in my genes. If you’ve seen me speak publicly, you may have heard me refer to the first home I ever decorated – for Malibu Barbie at aged 8 years. I was always moving furniture, requesting a new paint color, a new fabric, a new look. I remember vividly going with my grandmother at about this same age to pick out my first set of furniture. I remember vividly the day they set up my four-poster bed and hung the wallpaper behind it. I remember being enthralled by having a giant cow-hide hanging on the two story wall in our living room. Amazing.
When I was child, it was, In fact, the odd (expensive!) home that actually paid attention to interior design, but in my family that was different. My dad grew up in that environment. My mother did NOT and craved it. She learned to refine her flair for design at the hands of her mother-in-law. My grandmother had impeccable taste and her home reflected that. Whenever she traveled, where most women picked up a new pair of shoes, a dress, a hat or bag, MY grandmother brought home furniture. She took a trip to the Orient when I was about three. She brought home a container of furniture! I have some of those very pieces now. My most treasured possesion (you know, the one that makes the cut in the event of a fire?) is a vintage candleabra that’s been sitting on the same spot on the Piano for (literally!) 100 years! My Nana had impeccable taste!!
Even my dad was in the act. A true man’s man, he would finish watching the football game or the weekend’s golfing event and paint a wall or a room. My dad was real estate agent and while I would groan at having to go to work with him, he worked in the sales office for a high-end tract of homes where all the decor finishes were prominently on display. In those days, there were no staged homes. There were these model home tracts with their displays of choices available to a new home owner and I secretly enjoyed spending the occasional weekend there so I could play with the carpet/counter/appliance options available. How cool!
We were the only home in our tract that had anything beyond white walls. Oh yes, except for my best friends mom and grandmother who lived on our street and were BOTH interior designers. THAT was when my dream became cemented. THAT was when I KNEW what I wanted to be when I grew up. So while my friends were dressing their Barbies in couture and 70’s hippie chic, I was creating condos on my bookshelves and mansions in the dining room!
From custom decor for Barbie, to model home selections to the best decorated dorm room on campus in college, I really have been doing this a LONG time!
