About

For 22 years I have been developing my skills in creating and renovating gardens, interiors and construction projects from small and straightforward to large and complicated.  I have designed, sourced, researched, managed and physically worked on almost everything, from furniture and accessories to driveways and drainage.

I consider my approach to building, decorating and designing to be thrifty, practical, creative and, well, fairly inspired!  Since my whole education in this field was conducted on my personal budget and “hands-on”, I bring an acute consciousness of cost to every beautiful vision, and I am aware of the large differences in both cost and quality of work and materials.

My original house

I am not certified in interior design, garden design or architecture, but have acquired design skills through avid research and a passion for transforminghouses and gardens.  Lucky enough to have grown up in the awe-inspiring natural setting of the Canadian West Coast, as gardened, designed and decorated by my mother’s modern sensibility, I acquired an Honours certification in fashion merchandising at a local college.  Little did I know the extent

My house, revised

to which that short but intense programme would cause me to dissect every garden, house and interior that I encountered thereafter into a series of design principles!   By now, I am scarcely able to see any house or garden without going straight to its potential revisions in my mind:  I can’t help it!

In later years, although I practiced as a lawyer for some time and remain a member of the Ontario Bar, I began to renovate, decorate and garden with a passion that soon eclipsed many of my other pursuits.  I have renovated seven of my own houses and homes, from design, inside and out, to decor and garden leaving no stone unturned, have had strangers and friends seek my assistance based on my own projects.  I have been featured in, and on the cover of a home renovation magazine, have consulted on friends’ construction projects, and have designed several successful, low-maintenance gardens for others.

For the past five years, my friends and family have urged me to “hang out my shingle”, and I am responding with this website.  Please view the garden and home photos on this site, and “Contact Us” if I may be able to bring ideas to your home or garden.