EDMONTON – A postage stamp and a couple of pictures are all Diane Dallaire needs to decorate most houses.
After years of making drapes for friends, going through a divorce and the empty- nest syndrome, Dallaire figured it was time to take a chance and start her own mail-order decorating business.
The idea has had plenty of time to germinate. About 20 years ago Dallaire saw an article in a magazine offering to redecorate a room for free. All the reader needed to do was mail in a few pictures, answer some questions, send in a few cloth samples and a design would be mailed back.
Read Also
StatCan stands by its model-based crop forecast
Statistics Canada’s model-based production estimates are under scrutiny, but agency says it is confident in the results.
“I saw the idea in Chatelaine 20 years ago and I never forgot it,” said Dallaire.
When she closed down the store she had been running in Bonnyville in northeastern Alberta and moved to Edmonton, she took a chance and started her mail-order decorating business, Partners in Decor, just over a year ago.
So far Dallaire has worked with just over a dozen clients helping them redesign rooms. One client wanted help to decorate her new house. The house was painted a modern white and had little character, said Dallaire.
“Everything was blah.”
Dallaire asks clients to fill out a detailed questionnaire about what the room is used for and the image they want to create.
“I talk about feelings a lot. I pick their brains until I know what’s going on.”
Dallaire will recommend decorations for the first room in a house for free, but most people ask her to continue with the rest of the rooms.
While she offers the mail-order service she has had no clients yet from farms or rural communities.
“Maybe people from out of town think I’m offering too much, it’s a gimmick.
“I think it will grow by word of mouth.”
But she still sees merit in the mail-order service for out-of-town clients.
“You can be in Timbuktu and not be available to go to the city,” she said.
Rural people worry hiring a designer will cost too much, but Dallaire said she believes in designing on the cheap.
“I like to decorate and help people, to live in today’s economy is to live to their means.”
Dallaire bought a house in Edmonton last fall for $34,000 as a decorating project. The house was about to be condemned, but $46,000 worth of repairs later, it’s again livable. The house was recently appraised at $110,000.
She encourages clients to use what they have at home to decorate and renovate. She once made a curtain valance out of an artificial Christmas tree. “That’s an example of using what you have.”
