{"id":26118,"date":"2023-10-23T20:45:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T20:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/"},"modified":"2024-02-29T21:11:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T21:11:50","slug":"my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/","title":{"rendered":"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 1 of 3: My Journey into Interior Design & Entrepreneurship<\/h2>\n

\"barbie\"<\/p>\n

My dad, a cabinet maker; When I was a child he would take me with him to his hobby shop on Sunday\u2019s. I would watch him work, play with the scrap wood bits using them like building block, push the broom around, and eventually get a bit bored and antsy as most kids do. \u00a0One day, when I was around 7-years-old he pushed a bin of scrap wood over to the bandsaw, explained that if I wasn\u2019t carful I would loose fingers, and left me there to create. I would draw up plans for chairs and tables for my first “clients”, Ken and Barbie and then attempt to build them. \u00a0By age 16, my dad and I were working together building nick-nack shelves for a local store. We still work together now and then when he needs an extra set of hands to complete a project. I still have that bandsaw and all my fingers.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN3760\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“I had a creative child hood. My dad is creative in what he builds and can look at a space and immediately see the potential in it. My mother sews, crochet\u2019s and needle points. She does crafts and has a meticulous eye for detail in what she does. These attributes managed to find thier way to me whether through genetics or influence I don\u2019t know, I am not a scientist I am a designer.”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When it came time to think about schools I had considered The University of Waterloo for Architecture, but eventually decided University was not for me and chose the more hands on approach of college. I was accepted to all the Colleges I applied to and after much thought chose Georgian College in Barrie for Interior Design. At Georgian College I was taught the fundamentals for interior design, everything from the Ontario Building code to drafting and Auto CAD. I studied history of architecture and design, colour and rendering. I also joined ARDIO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario) as a student member while at Georgian College and when I graduated in 1998 with honour\u2019s, I stayed with ARIDO as an Intern Interior Designer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>I love to paint and draw. I love architecture. As a child and well into my teens I would spend most of my alone time painting or drawing. At age 13, I designed my \u201cdream house\u201d. At that age I did not fully understand metric vs. imperial and designed a full set of house plans with a scale of 1cm=1 foot. I still have the drawings and still would want a home like the one I designed 26 years ago! <\/em><\/p>\n

Post graduating I registered my first business, S.K. Designs. I did freelance projects such as office planning for Georgian College\u2019s Career Centre, kitchen designs and even a rendering of a local community sports complex. I had the opportunity to work in Georgian College\u2019s Engineering Department and took it with excitement. It was a temporary job and my main task was CAD and completing the drawings for Georgian Campus\u2019s K Building. When that contract ended I had time on my hands. My dad, who just started his own business doing cabinet making, was busy and needed some help so I offered, temporally.<\/p>\n

Temporary was turning into permanent. He took on more projects and we got busier and busier. I didn\u2019t want to be a cabinet maker! Oh sure I got to do all the design work when it came to anything custom but that was maybe 5% of the time, the rest was gluing, sanding, cutting, assembly etc. and it was not part of my career plan. I needed to break away before I got stuck. \u00a0An opportunity came for a CAD operator for a company that produced lab furnishings, I applied for it and was hired. It was a good job, paid well, reasonable schedule (finished by 2 on Fridays) and great co-workers. I learned allot here, about detail, triple checking and teamwork.<\/p>\n

It was a good job, BUT zero creativity! In my opinion, what I was doing was data entry. My job was simply to take architect\u2019s drawings and re-drew them into shop drawings for manufacturing. Also the commute was killing me. I could barely make it to work on time after dropping my daughter off at daycare as soon as it opened. It was a race to get my 3-year-old daughter from daycare before it closed.<\/p>\n

Summer 2002; Fate pulled me back onto my path of being a self employed designer as I had started out and as it would again in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 1 of 3: My Journey into Interior Design & Entrepreneurship My dad, a cabinet maker; When I was a child he would take me with him to his hobby shop on Sunday\u2019s. I would watch him work, play with the scrap wood bits using them like building block, push the broom around, and eventually<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMy Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design | Simply Design<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At Simply Design, we have been working in interior design for a long time. Click here to learn about our humble beginnings as interior designers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design | Simply Design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At Simply Design, we have been working in interior design for a long time. Click here to learn about our humble beginnings as interior designers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Simply Design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-23T20:45:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-29T21:11:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"599\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"363\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/\",\"name\":\"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design | Simply Design\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-23T20:45:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-29T21:11:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/774d44e7794edd112ebbf716acd103e9\"},\"description\":\"At Simply Design, we have been working in interior design for a long time. Click here to learn about our humble beginnings as interior designers.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg\",\"width\":599,\"height\":363,\"caption\":\"Photographer: Paul Jordan\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/\",\"name\":\"Simply Design\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/774d44e7794edd112ebbf716acd103e9\",\"name\":\"Ryan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d855ffe3ba73e04995cb5681817de2d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d855ffe3ba73e04995cb5681817de2d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ryan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/author\/ryan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design | Simply Design","description":"At Simply Design, we have been working in interior design for a long time. Click here to learn about our humble beginnings as interior designers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design | Simply Design","og_description":"At Simply Design, we have been working in interior design for a long time. Click here to learn about our humble beginnings as interior designers.","og_url":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/","og_site_name":"Simply Design","article_published_time":"2023-10-23T20:45:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-29T21:11:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":599,"height":363,"url":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ryan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ryan","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/","url":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/","name":"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design | Simply Design","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg","datePublished":"2023-10-23T20:45:40+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-29T21:11:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/774d44e7794edd112ebbf716acd103e9"},"description":"At Simply Design, we have been working in interior design for a long time. Click here to learn about our humble beginnings as interior designers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Barbie-and-Ken.jpg","width":599,"height":363,"caption":"Photographer: Paul Jordan"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/my-story-part-1-doll-houses-to-interior-design\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Story Part 1: Doll Houses to Interior Design"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#website","url":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/","name":"Simply Design","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/774d44e7794edd112ebbf716acd103e9","name":"Ryan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d855ffe3ba73e04995cb5681817de2d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d855ffe3ba73e04995cb5681817de2d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ryan"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/simplydesign.ca"],"url":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/author\/ryan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26123,"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26118\/revisions\/26123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplydesign.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}