Sue Womersley long bio

EXPERIENCE / TIMELINE – LONG VERSION

• I loved colour growing up – I had a shoebox full of paint chip samples long before big box shopping existed and you only had your little, local family run paint shoppe.  In many ways I have been consulting on colour most of my life – from a very young age selecting fabrics and wools for my talented Mum to knit and sew clothing for us growing up, to choosing and installing wallpapers and frequently rearranging the living room furniture as a teen in our family home which progressed to helping all of my friends decorate first apartments.
• I was reading decorating magazines in my mid-teens, (was up to about 10 magazine subscriptions per month at one point pre internet), and have a huge collection of design books started in my 20s that I have lost count of at over 200.
• My very first full time job out of college was in the Visual Presentation department at Eaton’s, and to this day was one of my favourite jobs.  Window display, seasonal decor – loved it all.  During College I worked at a lovely gift store called Dower Cottage – with beautiful table linens, tableware, and here also I did much of the visual presentation.
• My first condo (and my first renovation of many) – it was my little design science lab where I tried different things.  I painted it at least 3x and although I did not have my Mum’s sewing skills – I was good at sewing straight lines and made drapes and bedding (without patterns).
• In my early 20s I owned an antiques store with a friend, was a sale rep for a wholesale framed art company supplying furniture stores, a sales associate in a high end gift store, a sales associate in a high end tableware store, was a manager at Bombay Company’s largest volume store in Canada (at the time), even tho a manager, I was still doing most of the displays.
• 1998-2002 Film Industry – Art Depart set decorating – for commercials and music videos – the beginning of my self employment/contract work.  Sourcing product, finding suppliers, buying for and dressing sets, project managing jobs, budgets and crew – all very similar to what I am doing now but in a different sandbox.
• 2002-2006 created and ran a popular home accessory boutique in a historic fishing village called Haven Home.  It was at this point I realized that I was actually offering decorating advice already as people brought in their cushions from home for me to select colour or wanted to know the paint colour I had on the walls… so I officially became Interior Decorator.
•  As a Decorator the initial focus was colour consultation where I created my own 8″ x 11″ boards of colour samples that I still use to this day, over 10 years later.  I also provided custom draperies and custom furniture as well as art and accessories.  This progressed to design work both for renovations and new build consultation which progressed to my business becoming Design and Build where I offered project management of full gut renovations.
• As someone who has broad interests, I am always learning new information through attending events, courses, product knowledge and tradeshows.