My parents told me that I started dragging furniture to different locations of our Chicago apartment around the age of six. I don't even remember doing it, but then again I still do it to this day on an almost daily basis and when I do--I zone out. Instincts take over and things happen.
My poor, concerned parents tried to stop me from hurting myself but then realized that the apartment looked better when I was done. They learned to live with and encourage the new wallpaper and chair rail that I would install in our dining room when I was nine and they were out to dinner with friends or the miriad of other "projects" I decided to tackle around the house. I really believed, from an early age and still do, that the space you live in can change the way you feel.
I figured it was time to take my "act" of moving furniture out of the house and on the road. I started majoring in architecture before I realized I didn't have the patience or the math skills for it and switched to fine art & design. Always intrigued by film and theater I minored in theater arts and stumbled through the Chicago and New York acting scene with bit parts here and there while always designing spaces for family and friends. I couldn't get architecture, design and construction out of my blood and I would offer to freelance in that world every chance I got, even if I wasn't getting paid. Waiting tables and making lattes at coffee houses barely paid the bills and then a friend had the bright idea that I should charge people for my design skills. That led to a diverse array of clients from budget conscious college students who wanted to spruce up their dorm rooms to designing events at the Playboy Mansion.
A few years later a different friend suggested I do this on TV and I resisted for about two years until he and his wife wore me down. Since then I've done 5 different shows on networks like TLC, LIFETIME, STYLE & HGTV and have appeared on places like The TODAY Show, CNN, TYRA, GOOD DAY LIVE & KTLA Morning Show.
It's all been and still is "good times" since at the end of the day, I LOVE what do!
There's no better feeling for me than looking into the eyes of homeowner's as they see their home and themselves in it, for what it can be for the first time. It's an amazing feeling and it changes lives. It changed mine.
Go move some furniture,
