The creative mind and soul behind Dressing Rooms
Born to a Dutch mother and Newfoundlander father, how lucky I am to speak three languages...English, Dutch and of course, the ever exotic, Newfoundlandese!
Growing up, mom would find me moving my bedroom furniture around on a regular basis. Being a child of six siblings and always having to share a room with my sister, perhaps I was searching for my own space solutions.
After graduating high school, and then finishing first in my Radio & Television Arts class in St. John's, I moved to Ontario and took on various jobs trying to figure out my 20-year-old self. I signed up for a 15-week work placement through Georgian College with Quay Designs, a well-established interior design firm in Barrie. Quay Designs decided to keep me on after the placement where I enjoyed managing the workings of the showroom and assisted respected interior designer, Anne Saso. She was a fabulous mentor.
It was a whirlwind, mind-blowing experience that kept me on my toes and most certainly made me a better visualizer and decorator because I had to think on the fly and fix issues in many instances. At the 10-week mark, I waited with excited anticipation with everyone else at the grand finale reveal which was filmed live as they told us room-by-room, which team captured the most Canada-wide votes. Then there it was...we won 5 out the 8 spaces...it was incredible! It meant that the Grises family I designed for won their newly renovated and decorated home. Christine and Joel were so lovely and when they credited me on national tv, I was so overwhelmed with pride. Makes me smile every time I think about the experience. Acting and decorating, two of my creative loves, came together beautifully!
I later had fun being featured on a number of design episodes of Rogers TV's Daytime. We always had a good time going over the latest design trends.
I would love to be your sorter of spaces, your curator of colour, or your fashionista of finishes!
A move to Ottawa found me craving a more formal education in decor, so I studied Interior Decorating with QC Design School in Ottawa as well as Residential Decor with Algonquin College. I remained involved with both schools— teaching colour and staging for QC to design professionals for over 5 years across the USA & Canada; and for over 10 years I sat on the Algonquin College Advisory Committee for the Interior Decoration program that is now sadly defunct. Four years after starting Dressing Rooms in 2000, I was offered a part as a designer for a 10-week home reno challenge on Global TV called Rona Dream Home. I was nervous and freaking out a little when it was presented to me, but I took the challenge with a vengeance. To turn it down would have been crazy!
Dressing Rooms has been awarded Best of Houzz awards for many years running and is in good standing as
a member of DDA—Decorators & Designers Association of Canada.
