Molly’s Back Porch and Millionaire’s Daughter are two of many antique and consignment shops on Ottawa Street in the East end of Hamilton.  They are among  an eclectic mix of shopping destinations on the street that include art galleries, fabric shops, and other speciality stores.  I enjoyed a few hours there recently and snapped a few pictures of items that I would be happy to include in the homes and gardens of my clients. Maybe they will inspire you.

This is a fantastic armoire with matched veneers in great condition.  Wonderful storage piece for a bedroom or office, from Millionaire’s Daughter.

An old door becomes a show-piece; great for a narrow hall or as a garden feature. Acid green crackled original paint.

At Molly’s Back Porch shutters, corbels and old furniture get a second life after a coat of paint.   The owner has a knack for re-inventing old materials and turning them into pieces with purpose and personality that will add depth and patina to a space.

A round box has been converted into a wonderful planter, or magazine stand, or roll up towels and place beside the tub.

 Old wicker has old world appeal but these black square tables have a rare modern feel; these are a find!

These beautiful peachy orange blossoms are from my front garden.  The bush is around 24 inches high and wide, and I prune it regularly to keep it from growing too tall in the space it occupies close to the house.  I try to keep a natural shape, with soft arching branches.  The leaves are a nice bright shiny green, so even when there are fewer flowers in late summer, it is still a wonderful plant.

The landscape designer that I hired recently didn’t know what it was (!), but he is young…

No matter, I found it on Google.  It is called Cameo Flowering Quince, it’s popular name.

So, I am very happy to have the opportunity to bring spring inside, and I have enjoyed filling vases and bowls of different shapes with these lovely flowers.

It’s also nice to have a version of this years hottest accent colour, Tangerine Tango, in such a pretty and fragrant form in my home.

Orange Gerbera Daisies that I just planted in my back deck planters look cheerful with papery white Wave Petunias and lime green Creeping Jenny.  They will continue the citrus theme throughout the summer, growing lush and spilling over my planter boxes with juicy abandon.

What can make you feel more privileged than designing a new bathroom?  Not much, perhaps designing a new kitchen?  Luxury, spa, relax, retreat, comfort are all words that we use today to describe what we want in a new bathroom.  Gone are the days when replacing chipped fixtures, or a defective faucet, and painting the vanity were considered an update.  If the bathroom today doesn’t have the look and feel of a spa or luxury hotel ensuite, it misses the mark.

Excessive consumerism, or just reward?  I think for most clients, working long hours, and meeting the demands of children, a retreat-like bathroom is not only well deserved, but neccessary.  A beautiful and efficient bathroom may help you to achieve a happier home—well worth the investment.  Not to mention that it will increase your home’s value.

I have the privilege of designing new bathrooms often, since this is one of the most popular renovations that my clients undertake.  I am currently working on the re-design of no less than seven bathrooms for 3 different clients, so I thought it would be a good time to write about the process, and show you what’s interesting in tiles, a large part of the selection process.

Marble, marble, and more marble; we can’t seem to get enough of it for our water closet updates.  Marble is both luxurious and classic, and adds soft texture and pattern to a space, giving it a timeless quality.  Limestone, Travertine, Carrara, Calacatta, and Saturnia Ivory are some of the more popular marbles for floor and wall tiles.  They are all light neutrals, in shades of sand, beige, grey, cream and white, with veining in grey, beige and brown.  Because they are neutral there is lots of opportunity to add pops of colour in art and accessories, a wise way to decorate, because you can easily change the accessories when the mood strikes.  Remember the days when we committed to pink tiles for ten to twenty years—not any more–thank goodness!

It can be challenging to coordinate shower surround tiles, counter top and floor.  Here is an easy formula:  start with a large tile on the floor, such as 12” x 24”, or 18” x 18” in the marble of your choice.  Then use the same marble for the counter top and shower surround, only in different formats.  The counter top will be a solid slab.  The wall tiles can be a combination of smaller tiles:  12” x 12” tiles can be used for the background, or field, and then a panel of ½” x ½” mosaics can be framed using a border, or marble moulding tile, creating a picture frame effect for a feature area.  There are many other shapes for the feature area, from hexagons to basket weaves.  See below.

There are many great alternatives to marble as well, including combinations of marble with glass and metallic tiles, crackle finish ceramic, and the classic and economical subway tiles.

Stand alone tubs are taking centre stage in larger bathrooms, and walk-in showers with heavy glass are now standard.  Faucets are the jewellery of the bathroom and very important to the design.  Polished nickel has taken over from brushed, but watch for satin and brushed brass to come on strong as an alternative, while oil rubbed bronze has all but disappeared.

 Light fixtures need to be selected thoughtfully; they add another layer of decoration and warmth while doing the important work of illumination.   Pot lights alone don’t cut it.

Cabinets look like furniture, and details are important, such as louvered doors, pictured above.  Shaker style, flat panel doors are still very current, but extra levels of mouldings are being used, such as a second step, or bevelled moulding. Beautiful hardware is a must.  Squared off handles seem to be overtaking knobs, but glass knobs in faceted or round shapes add nice sparkle.

Look up.  Coffered ceiling treatments, elaborate squared sections of beams and mouldings, or lovely deep crown moulding and sky blue paint will insure that you have something beautiful to focus on when you luxuriate in a long warm bath in your new soaking tub.

Don’t forget to include a terry cloth upholstered chair , and small table to hold a candle, a glass of wine, and a book. Ahhhhh….

Window frame filled with a pretty patchwork of vibrant flowers and other natural materials.  Notice the combination of orange and pink, cooled off with bright lime green.  These colours are great for spring, including Pantone’s now famous Tangerine Tango, and would be wonderful in accessories, such as throw pillows and vases.

There were inspiring displays at both shows.  Here are some pictures and ideas that may move you to make some changes, which will be way more fun than spring cleaning!

Outdoor industrial garden chic lighting from Sweet Peas in Toronto.

A nicely weathered looking wall sconce from Sweet Peas,Toronto.

                     Yellow and Orange painted branches compliment yellow/orange plants.

Vintage light fixture in antique brass adds a modern touch to a traditional framed kitchen from Bloomsbury, Toronto.  Antique Nickel, stainless steel, and satin brass mix well when the correct amounts of each are used, as they are in this kitchen display.

Custom mirrored doors add light, elegance and space to the same display kitchen.

Decorative mosaic tiles are surprising affordable, from $1,500 to $2,500 for thirty-five square feet, from Orro Mosaic inVaughn,Ontario.  Wonderful for a powder room, as an accent over a bathtub, or in an entrance.  Would also make a unique headboard.

 Marble and inlaid hardwood floor.

 A leggy island– if you don’t need extra storage below, this looks refreshing.

There were many displays of doors and windows.  What’s new are fibreglass entry doors that have the texture of wood, so they can be stained to look just like the real thing.  There are many, many options for the glass inserts, and there seems to be more and more glass than ever.  A very good website, by Novatech, a Canadian manufacturer, helps you to design your own entry door. Click on their Design Centre for a excellent selection of door and glass styles, then you can print out the design, as well as get a quote for your creation.  You can even download a picture of your house, and insert a door in one of their factory colours, to see exactly how the door will look.

Finally, I will leave you with a beautiful picture of orange tulips–watch for them to be coming to a garden near you.  Who can resist!

Let’s leave the beautiful kitchen (if you can!), and travel down a long narrow hallway that leads to the biggest surprise of all.  It’s a long walk, about twenty feet; turn left into the great room or go straight out the back entry Marvin door with full glazing.  Another hanging lantern style fixture punctuates this back entrance that leads out to the spectacular garden, pool and dining cottage.

 After the long walk down the narrow hallway you don’t expect to see this vast soaring space–the new great room was once the 1960’s classroom addition.  It had a ten foot ceiling, which was higher than average, but the footprint of approximately thirty by thirty, although large, wasn’t big enough to accommodate the desired office, family room, gym and powder room.

Another thirteen feet was added to the height, making the top of the new cathedral ceiling an  impressive twenty-three feet tall at the peak.  What an inviting space, with its reclaimed wood beams and trusses, full-height stone fireplace with Rumford insert, antique wood floors, and Marvin windows, all custom designed by Adele Barrett Interiors.

Other custom designed and built features of the family room include:

• The original slate chalkboards with blue and red horizontal lines have been installed into new millwork, with wide crown mouldings, book shelves, and cork board, and the wood was painted in a rich clay colour.
• A twelve foot tall bookcase was made from recycled hemlock that houses the T.V.
• An open staircase was hand-crafted using antique wood, topped by glass panels in the loft railing.
• A craggy six-foot barn door made from salvaged wood slides open to reveal the home gym.

 The loft office is washed by light from the two skylights and the large window with arched wood insert.  A bespoke cabinet lines the long wall, which allows for plenty of office storage and is topped with the same slate black board that was carefully removed from the old classroom walls.  There were originally two large walls of the old blackboards (you can just imagine row on row of cursive writing lessons) and only one was needed for the new chalk-board millwork in the family room below; we didn’t allow any of it to go to waste.

 Jenn and Jim’s art collection is abundant in this large space, from the painting of colourful houses on the mantel, to the row of tiny portraits of earnest school children that look right at home on the blackboard, to the ice skating gentleman,  to name only a few.   The art adds to the charm and vibrancy of this fantastic home.

The principal bedroom is one of four, three on the main floor and one in the loft.  The former is a retreat, with two sets of double, antique, carved wood doors from Egypt, a rustic crystal chandelier, and a dramatic headboard make from repurposed architectural panels.  Their Gothic arch shape suggest that they may have come from an old church.  The effect is almost ethereal.

 The floor is carpeted with a custom bordered rug, and the walls are stencilled in an oversized damask design pulled from the carpet border, designed by Adele Barrett Interiors.  A floral crewel fabric in shades of cranberry, gold, green and blue is used for a roman shade and matching pillow.  The bed is covered in striped velvet and green paisley, all custom made.

The owners have hung their largest painting in this room, (and good for them!) It is a beautiful oil of an open door, painted blue, which leads you into a bright green room.  Sunlight spills into it, just as light streams into their bedroom from the adjacent tall mullioned window.

The ensuite bathroom has marble floor and shower tiles, accented with panels of river rock and a smaller version of the wall stencil.  In each corner two separate cabinets with sinks and mirrored medicine cabinets are lit with polished nickel sconces, and a built- in dressing table make this an ensuite to rival the best boutique hotel.

Down the hall from the principal suite, the main bathroom contains a claw-foot tub that looks at home among bead-board wainscoting painted navy blue, a pedestal sink with Venetian mirror, and a honey pine vanity desk that is new, but is so distressed that it looks like mice have nibbled on its legs for years.  A piece of slate blackboard from the school’s 1960’s addition was used for the vanity top, and visitors can leave a message with the chalk provided.  Above the wainscoting a spicy mustard yellow paint colour compliments the pine floor and vanity.  A perfect tiny antique brass candlestick lamp casts a mellow light on the chalkboard vanity top.

Back through the hallway and the antique double doors and you see the new kitchen to your right.  Once the family room with brick fireplace, we doubled the opening, added a brick arch that echoes the front entrance, and opened the existing arch from the servery to create a pass-thru.  The straw coloured reclaimed brick fireplace is once again a feature, and we added a bench, built into the side of the massive island with colourful cushions so Jenn can have a cozy spot to read her cookbooks and enjoy the warmth of the fire.

This is a kitchen like no other, an original master-work designed by Adele Barrett Interiors, executed by a local kitchen shop.  All the cabinets have been carefully aged with multiple applications of paint and glazes, in three distinct colours of Butter, Teal and Charcoal to give the impression that they were collected separately over many years.  There are tall teal painted cabinets standing guard beside the fireplace.  The glass doors have antique brass grills and brass tassel pulls.

The stove hood is finished in aged plaster and rises up from the stainless steel counter with large sweeping brackets, topped with a shelf to hold art and accessories.

The island and one wall of cabinets are in a buttermilk colour, with chunky dark round wood knobs reminiscent of old country kitchens.  The porcelain farm house sink looks right, along with the white, beige, and grey veined Calacatta marble top and backsplash.

Another free-standing unfitted cabinet is painted charcoal grey, a similar shade to that used on the servery cabinets. It has custom made recessed panelled doors with mission styling. A tiny flat screen T.V. is tucked into a niche alongside pottery and ceramic bowls.

But the most surprising and dramatic feature of the kitchen is the light fixture.  It is another one-of-a-kind piece, measuring five feet by seven feet, charcoal grey painted wood structure, reminiscent of metal I-beams forming a double capital “I” shape.  It has over twelve halogen recessed lights in it, spot lighting many different areas of the kitchen. It draws your eye up to look beyond it to the cathedral ceiling, which is panelled in pine boards and framed in rustic wood beams.  A large skylight was added to allow natural sunlight to illuminate the room.

Read about the other great room, including gym, loft office, and powder room in part three of this series.

Balloon Shades are back, so says Agatha Bak, a vibrant and beautiful young woman who runs her own company, Custom Home Décor, in Oakville.  You could say balloon shades are back to Bak (ha-ha!).  She is a drapery fabricator and workshop owner who works exclusively for area designers, from Niagara-on-the-Lake, to Toronto and Muskoka.

Agatha Bac, Custom Home Decor–left

Lin Munro, The Decorating Centre, hosted–right

 Agatha recently presented a seminar about the latest window drapery designs and tips to designers at The Decorating Centre, an exclusive designer’s only supplier in Burlington.

 She says balloon shades may be back in fashion, but not the way we remember them; they have been re-invented.  Fabrics are all natural: linen, cotton sheers, silk, not the synthetics of the 80’s and 90’s.

 Agatha’s background is not what you would expect; she started in the theatre industry, making period costumes.  After that, she apprenticed with a milliner, doing meticulous and painstaking sewing of hats.  Both gave her a creative start and love of fabrics and design.

 Now, she uses that creativity to inspire and support designers, something she prefers to working directly with a customer.

Here is a taste of what Agatha says you should consider when approaching the design of challenging windows, such as, stacked double high, corner windows and arches.  She also presented her latest tips, and favourite treatments.

• Paris Texas Hardware, available through decorators and designers, makes rods to fit any shape of window, including arches, pointed peaks, corner windows, and bay windows, to name a few.

• Always hang draperies as high as possible to avoid making the window look squat.

• You don’t have to treat all windows in a large room the same way.  Bak showed examples of two walls of windows, one with Roman shades, and the other in long drapery panels, but you must use the identical fabric for both.
• Large grommets and stitched top pleats stack tighter, which is better when you need the panels to take up little window space, and expose the view.  She prefers very long and thin panels when the ceilings are high.
• Flat panels of embroidered and patterned sheers are good replacements for tight sheers, with rods top and bottom.

• Don’t be afraid to embellish your drapery.  She hand sews Swarovski crystals onto the panels to add sparkle when the room calls for it.

• Grosgrain ribbon is a great add-on to Roman shades and drapery panels to customize them.

• Roman Shades are very popular and have many advantages:  relaxed (softly draping folds instead of straight across), hobbled, and sheer are three popular styles.

• London Shades, a cross between a Roman and a balloon shade, pull up and take up little space in a room, but are a pretty and functional window treatment.
• Upholstered valances are a good way to add a tailored top to a window and hide hardware, but make sure it is long enough.  Bak isn’t fond of valances that are too short and look out of proportion to the ceiling and window height.
• You can have an arched top on your window treatment to fake an arch-top window and make the window look much taller.

This is the first in a series of articles about a charming and unique home in the country, just minutes from Hamilton.

I’ll describe through pictures and narrative how my clients have transformed the former schoolhouse into their own showcase for their collections, as well as a comfortable home where they garden and entertain extensively, generously sharing their lives with family and friends.  Jenn is well known for her cooking and gardening skills.  Jim likes to keep his collection of fine wines well stocked.  By the way, to protect their privacy these are not the home owners’ real names.

My clients don’t need any schooling about how to style their home.  They are collectors of rustic Canadian antiques, as well as decorative artefacts, and original Canadian art, and they live comfortably among them within the walls of the old schoolhouse.

It was once a country school surrounded by farmland, and it is still bordered by a church and cemetery.  Tall trees dot the former school playground.  A black and white photograph of the original schoolhouse with its quaint bell tower, dating to the 1800’s, shows the same trees when they were only a few years old.

Now there are honey coloured wide-plank pine floors, soaring ceilings framed in rough hewn beams, exposed brick walls, and beautiful woodwork.  Jenn and Jim have added schoolhouse furniture and old school supplies to their decor; you can almost see the earnest faces of the students and hear the school bell ring.

Previous owners actually made the conversion, but with my help my clients have since renovated extensively inside and out, including five bathrooms, enlarged principal bedroom, and built-in storage cabinets.   We also added an extra thirteen feet of height to the 1960’s classroom addition to create a loft office, gym, powder room and family room.  The old family room has since become the kitchen, and the old galley kitchen is now the servery, which is open to the living room and dining area.  A double car garage complete with a full height room above ensures an enviable amount of room for storage.

When you enter the house you can see right away that it is special, even though you need a guided tour to see all of its charms.  There are surprises around every corner.

Most visitors come in the side door, the closest to the driveway at the side of the house.  In summer the sounds of trickling water echo from the nearby small stone grotto that you can enjoy seated on a grouping of wicker furniture, covered in shades of lime and orange.  Jenn, a talented hobby gardener, has artfully planted heuchera and begonias in the same citrusy colours.  All of this gives a hint of wonders to behold inside.

To the left of the side door entrance, where most visitors enter the home, are the laundry room and a powder room.  The floor is terra cotta and Jenn found an antique washstand with original paint in the same distressed peachy tones, which makes a unique vanity.  Clear urethane was applied to the top to make it a waterproof counter, and a six inch softly shaped back splash was custom made and finished in multiple layers of paint to blend with the chipped and crackled original finish of the old chest.  A gleaming new polished nickel faucet and pair of light sconces, bead-board panels around the sink area and walls painted in milk chocolate make this the favourite powder room of some of the client’s guests.

From the side door entrance you turn right into the large open space with cathedral ceiling that includes the dining area, living room and original galley kitchen, now the servery.  A long, merlot red, bead-board panelled cabinet houses a dishwasher, hammered copper sink and storage.  On the other side, pine doors were treated to an undercoat of red, topped off with a charcoal, satin-finish paint.  A Meile coffee centre is built-in, along with a beverage fridge to make entertaining a breeze.  A rare piece of Porterro black and gold veined marble elevates the counters and pass-through of the servery from a mundane task area to a sophisticated destination for gourmet delights.

Above this, accessed with a custom sliding ladder, is the loft library overlooking the living room and dining room below.  Jenn is on a search for old bookcases to house books and objets d’art, which will create another cozy spot in the house to sit and read a book.

The living room and dining room areas are furnished in Jenn and Jim’s antique finds, some from New Brunswick, some from jaunts to the local Christie Lake Antique Show.  They include a grand, golden pine, corner hutch that houses silver and crystal serving pieces.  The dining table is a classic age-old trestle style surrounded by antique New Brunswick press-back chairs.

The living room is dominated by a sumptuous, caramel coloured, cut-velvet camel back sofa from Whittington Furniture, in Oakville.  Two crackle finished chairs, upholstered in a red check, also from Whittington, complete the seating arrangement that sits on a rich antique oriental rug in shades of red, blue, green and gold.

This great room, one of two in the house, is graced by tall mullioned windows on two sides, allowing plenty of natural light to pour in so this old house is never dark, not even on a grey day.  When night falls, charming schoolhouse pendant lights on long chains dot the ceiling and impart soft golden light.

Beyond the living room is the front entrance to the original schoolhouse.  Here a large exposed brick arch welcomes you, and Jenn reminds you that this was a place of learning with the tiny school desk and chair, as well as the inkwell on the antique side table.  A wicker hat placed on an upholstered bench looks like it was tossed there a hundred years ago.  A gorgeous antique brass lantern hanging from the tall ceiling has marbled teal coloured glass inserts, and contrasts beautifully with the red brick walls.

Walk through the living/dining/servery, and go through double antique wood doors to the bedrooms, or turn left and enter the new kitchen and beyond.

We’ll take a look at these rooms and more in the next instalment, Principal Bedroom and Kitchen.

I think I crave a little of all-of-the above, but what I rarely crave, because I am a designer, is to do something creative.  I’m lucky to do be able to do something inspired every day, and I know that it is a privilege to do so.

Have you noticed that a craving can be exchanged?  One way to distract yourself from an obsession with chocolate is to go shopping for a piece of clothing, flowers, or an object for your home.  Feed the craving and satisfy the addiction, for a time.  I’ve been told to work out or go for a walk when a food craving threatens my diet, but I have to admit that shopping works better!

A few years ago I taught decorating classes, first at Mohawk College, and later at my own school of decorating at my shop, Barrett Interiors.  My classes where a great success, in part, I think, because of the many folks who wanted to inject some creativity into their lives, and homes.

I heard from nurses and office workers who spent their days dealing with pain and paperwork who sought to focus on beauty and to inject it into their homes.  Decorating allowed them to do this.  Learning about it gave them a creative focus, as well as material to dream about.

Picture of a spring table setting from Homesense.   Satisfy a creative craving by making some small changes, such as buying some accessories in a new colour scheme, or painting a fresh new colour.  

I don’t teach any more, but I see the same decor-lust in the eyes of people who wander the aisles of Homesense, hoping to find that perfectly exquisite item that will transform their room.  As preposterous as that image is, who hasn’t been merrily carried away by a fabulous accessory from that store and walked out with it under your arm, even though you were there “just to look?”

There are many other sources for stylish inspiration.  The large garden centres, such as Holland Park Garden Gallery and Terra Greenhouses, are enormous temples of interior decoration, as well as exterior, featuring beautiful pots, lanterns, candles, and cushions to name only a few items that can feed a styling appetite.   Not to mention the colourful flowers.  Pottery Barn, West Elm, Urban Barn, Restoration Hardware; all have colourful web sites loaded with inspiration.  Locally, Pure Home Couture and Muscari Floral Atelier, both on Locke Street, beautifully display wonderful objects of desire.

I find, especially at this time of year after the holidays and even more so on grey days, an injection of creativity into your home, whether through colourful accessories, such as throw pillows or glass art, or a new paint colour for the walls or piece of furniture, all will satisfy your creative craving.

In fact, a decorating project can lift your mood, and make it easier to weather dull winter days and long nights.

No guarantee, though, that when you satisfy your decorating impulses the chocolate cravings will go away for good…

Most interior designers who worked through the decadent eighties remember encouraging and celebrating excess, the more is more method of decorating, sparkle makes everything better.  Newness was celebrated, in sharp contrast to today’s philosophy of reduce, re-use, recycle.

We have a new found appreciation for time-worn, age (go, baby boomers!), exposed layers, provenance, patina, in other words, history.

My talent is that I can transform a space, home or office on a small budget.  I can do wonders with a can of paint or a bargain fabric.  A rickety chair will get the Cinderella treatment and become a treasure.

Many decorators have the same talent, as do many gifted do-it-yourselfers.

Witness today the abundance of entrepreneurs that hunt, demolish, scour the country-side for abandoned buildings and factories and gather the huge beams, old pine floors, corbels, mullioned doors and windows, wrought iron, and metal parts, to wharehouse and sell these found architectural, industrial and antique prizes.

These refurbished and salvaged materials become patinated wood floors, furniture, entry doors, and headboards (see the antique doors turned into a bed headboard, to the left), and find their way into home renovations, as well as new builds.  A word of caution though. The treasures found and resold by others are not necessarily bargains, but they have deep value and a story, which can’t be said of new stuff.

Embrace sentiment and economy:  you can take grandma’s scratched buffet and it can become a great new base for the T.V.  A tired family chest that no one else in the family wants can become the star of the great room. That old chest of drawers can be painted, or even more distressed and find new life as linen storage or to break up a tired pair of bed side tables.

The plain old bookcase, embellished with mouldings and styled, becomes a useful storage piece in the office.

As faux finishes have lost favour as wall treatments, some antiquing techniques can transform old furniture, creating future heirlooms.  How satisfying to recycle an old book found at a garage sale, the yellowed pages can be applied to drawer fronts using decoupage materials found at a craft store.  The same pages can be used as a wallpaper feature, just a small area over a bed or above a fireplace, or a tiny powder room’s walls or ceiling.

There are endless ideas for economical budget stretching projects on internet sites such as Pinterest. You can also just Google the items that you want to work with, for example, mason jars, and see what pops up, from lighting to soap pumps.

Dresser ideas are abundant as well, such as ribbon bows to replace handles for a little girl’s room, and interesting paint schemes.

Moving a piece of furniture from one room to another is my favourite simple and cheap way to inject fresh air into your home.  As mentioned above, break up a suite of furniture, in the bedroom or dining room and see how it makes a difference.  Take the hutch off a buffet and add a mirror to open up the space.  Invest in closet organizers and eliminate a dresser, the dresser will give you great storage in a hall or family room.

It’s all about tranformation, and doesn’t have to be expensive, so your frugal partner will be happy.  As you can see, a talented designer can help stretch your budget.  She can have a talent for “change.”