Decorating is an art, an art that Pat Scheppe owner of Rooms to Enjoy has mastered. As she runs back and forth, moves things here and there, positions things and repositions things, she is only fine tuning her art and she knows that the beginning stages are most often than not, far from the final masterpiece.
In my opinion, decorating is an art, a form of expression and creativity that some people have and some people don't. That's where interior decorating, or, as I learned from Pat, interior redesign comes in. I love decorating and I love color. I find excitement at seeing intricate displays of furniture and walking into a house where the rooms come alive because of a person's careful attention to detail and to making the most of a room. There are those, however, who struggle with this display of creativity, whether because they have no clue as to where to start, they lack a creative spirit, or they are not sure what to do with the rooms and accessories they already have. So they look to others with the creative genius and mindset, who can give them a house or a room that they.ve always wanted. That is where the decorators and designers come in. They look at your house either before or after it's been built, draw up some plans, recommend some ideas, and in the end, leave you with a bill that's not exactly affordable. So what do you do? Do you just resign to leaving things the way they are? No, because that is where Pat Scheppe walks through your door with her boundless energy and enthusiasm for giving you a place to call a home.
You may ask, what is different about Pat? What can she do or what does she have that other decorators don't? Well, Pat is a REDESIGNER, meaning that Pat will not come to your house and tell you to go out and buy all new furniture or remodel rooms. "Reduce, reuse, and recycle". That is her motto and she sticks by it because she understands that people want beauty without having to pay an arm and leg. This is evident when you see the things that fill her house and the things that she uses to decorate other people's houses. As I observed her redesigning a woman's bedroom, I noticed that she bought things from Marshall's and paid very little for the things she purchased, though you would never know that the dainty bedside table only cost her two dollars. When I took a tour of her house, after our interview, it was even more evident that this is a woman who knows the meaning of the word economical. Many of the tables she has in her house are old tables that she doesn.t like any more but she spruces them up with coverings and the round table in her bedroom is actually an old, worn out patio table that she simply covered with fabric. She makes good use of paint, fabric, and organic materials to give a room the effect she desires.
Combine the frugal aspect of her designing with the way she works and it is truly a joy to watch her because it is evident that this is her passion. The end result of a plan well thought through is exciting to her and she works with a pace that signalizes enjoyment. Observing her as she worked was enjoyable not only because I got to assist her but because I witnessed in her a pleasure doing what I loved as well and I learned many tips that are useful to designing. The original plan for the bedroom she was redesigning was to hide the woman's work space, which also resided in the room. Pat was going to put the bed at an angle in the room, put two bookcases, with their backs to the bed, at the head of the bead for the headboard, and then in the corner behind that, place her desk. And so the work began. It went as planned until we finally got the desk behind the bookcases and that is when it became evident that plan A was going to have to be revised. The desk fit but with very little room and anywhere else we put it would yield the same results or make the room awkward. Wait a second. Pause right there. It didn't work? Pat spent all that time evaluating the room and coming up with this great plan and it failed. So what does she do? She improvised. And that is one of the great lessons I learned about designing. Sometimes the initial idea you have for a room doesn.t work and that is where the fun comes in because you work as you go and see where you end up. The image in Pat's head didn't work as well in real life but she played around with things and made the objects in the room work for her. We moved so many things in that room at least four times each but that is just the nature of redesigning. Many people have this preconceived notion that designing is so easy. You just decide where you want things to go, you put them there, and voile, the finished product is everything you could.ve hoped for and more. However, as I learned that night, designing is not so simple and to the point. It takes a sort of skill to be able to visualize in your mind what you think would look good or work well but it also takes skill and patience to realize that it's not going to work as well as you thought and to keep improvising until you get it right.
Once Pat changed her original plan, we focused more on the bed and dressing the bookcases. Pat would find a place for the desk later and actually place it in an area, where it was somewhat concealed. Pat brought black velvet and a sheer burgundy fabric to drape over the bookcases. As we got to this part of the project, I realized that designing also involves a lot of evaluation and thinking out loud. You won.t like the way everything looks immediately and sometimes, one or two things need to be moved to create that effect that you are looking for. Talking to yourself and thinking through things out loud helps because it allows you to work through what you.re trying to do and at the same time, it is just a natural thing that many people do when trying to solve problems. And that is what redesigning is, the way to solve problems with color, rearrangement of furniture, and the addition of things to enhance a room.
Finally, we were done with the room. While not being able to achieve Pat's first goal, the room still looked wonderful with its new dressings and pictures which were hung on the wall as a final touch. It was really a hands-on experience being able to work with Pat and she let me into a world that she can call all her own.
However, as well as being frugal, Pat recognized her creative side. She was very artistic and was always looking for ways to expend her creative energies. Sadly, her tendencies towards aesthetics were put down by her father. In the time in which she grew up, women were not encouraged to go to college or work and her father's belief was that women were simply to raise children and keep a household. Pat desperately wanted to go to art school but didn't think she could ever afford it.
And so life moved on. Pat became an adult and was married to her husband Bill. She worked for eight years before her son was born, and after his birth, Pat applied at a temporary agency and was given a job at a title/escrow company. They asked her if she would stay on permanently and for 30 years, Pat kept this job. She was paid well and given good benefits so what reason was there to quit?
The artistic side of Pat never left, however, and as she got older, it began to resurface. After 30 years she finally quit the escrow job to start her own redesign business. She quickly found it was not so easy to start a business and marketing herself was going to be key. She found herself in a state of depression. She no longer interacted with people daily and she knew that she could not spend her retirement sitting at home knitting, which she adamantly told me she does not know how to do. That was when it came to her. All those years of struggling under her dad's pressure came back to her and when her brother told her that he had kept all her artwork from her high school days, she no longer had to think about what was her calling. Decorating is her thing and Pat finally decided that for the rest of her life, she was going to do something that she had a passion for and loved to do. She said she loves what she does so much she would do it for nothing, however her mortgage company, utility company, grocery store, etc feel different about this !!
None of these trials, no matter how big they were or seemed, have taken the light out of Pat's eyes. She simply glows as she interacts with others, whether she's redesigning or passing on knowledge that she's learned. She knew it would take time to start her business and she still realizes it as she struggles with trying to market herself and make money. She is determined not to let any brick walls stop her this time and she is slowly taking down the ones that stand in her way now. She didn't need a degree but took classes. Quite expensive classes, mind you, but classes that would get her started on her way. She has a hard time marketing herself, especially while trying to do without spending all her profits, but she does things to get herself out there like joining a networking group and going to silent auctions. It will be tough at first but Pat has the endurance to run the race. Also, she has so much more to keep her going strong like a family that loves her and the mere energy that she puts into helping others. Along with redesigning, Pat has a heart for charity and she volunteers at several different places, one called Room for Joy. This non profit charity is like a mini Extreme: Home Makeover Edition that creates dream bedrooms for chronically ill children.. She does not come up with the designs, but she loves it because it is something she has always wanted to do and she realizes that it is just another brushstroke on the masterpiece of her life.
