I have a lot of people to thank, and a lot to be thankful for. Here goes! . . .
This book has been over a decade in the making and is the result of countless thousands of hours of time and energy invested by talented and dedicated craftspeople and skilled trades to realize the transformation of each and every room within these pages. Yes, it’s safe to say that this book is the product of blood, sweat, and tears (if you’ve ever watched my TV shows, you know exactly what I’m talking about . . .). Our craft is a product of human time and effort, and without the work of all the trades, craftspeople, manufacturers, and suppliers who contributed their expertise to transform ordinary spaces into extraordinary places, none of this would be possible. For all you have done to help me make our ideas become reality, thanks to each and every one of you. I hope you look at these pages with pride, knowing that you made a difference.
But before the magic can happen, it all begins with the clients, without whom none of this would exist. A huge thanks to every client who invited us in, embraced the creative vision, invested in our ideas (even when you wondered what on earth we were thinking), and allowed us to transform your home into a new vision of you and your personal style. Your involvement in the project is what gives each room a unique and individual flavour, and your willingness to invite us in to your personal space has fuelled our creative process.
In the early days of your career, you never know who you’ll meet when you go to work, and what their impact will be. On one of my early photo shoots, I met Stacey Brandford, and soon learned that not only was he an unflappable, cool and competent photographer, with an unwavering ability to deliver an endless supply of beautiful shots, but collaborative and just plain fun to be around. Creating an entire book with the work we shot together is a testament to how extraordinary I think Stacey is. Behind every great photographer is a talented team, and Mikael Cosmo and Ryan Coe are the men behind the Stacey machine, who make every shot sparkle.
After ensuring every room looks picture perfect, there’s the matter of making the girl in the room look half as good as her surroundings. Brandon Barré has a unique knack for knowing just how to light and just when to click the shutter so that this aging mom of two looks a little bit more youthful and a lot more well rested than I often feel in reality on a shoot day. Thanks for sharing the portraits for this book.
You are only as good as your weakest link, and I have the best team. My collaborators and colleagues at Sarah Richardson Design made each of these rooms a reality, and this book is a shared accomplishment. Whether calling couriers or finding the perfect finishing touch, it takes a co-ordinated team effort to drive any space across the finish line, and I’m thankful for everyone who has been a part of the SRD team and helped take our projects to the next level. Specifically, to Natalie Hodgins, Lindsay Mens, Tommy Smythe, Kate Stuart, Allison Willson, Tara Finlay, Nicole Herman, and Tanya Bonus—you are talented designers blessed with endless style and fabulous ideas, and our clients live their lives in incredible spaces every day thanks to your passion and hard work. These pages are our pages, and they tell the stories of our many adventures and experiments as a team.
Good partnerships lead to great results. My partnership through five TV series and over fifteen years with Michael Prini and Primevista Television allowed me to chart my design destiny with someone who was just as dedicated to the production details as I was to to the rooms and visuals. There isn’t a more invested or attentive producer out there, and your unwavering dedication to making great TV is a huge part of the reason this book exists.
You can’t have a show without a network, and HGTV has given me the platform to share my ideas with anyone willing to watch or listen to them. To everyone in the big HGTV family that I’ve worked with over all these years (including Barb Williams, Emily Morgan, Tanya Linton, Andrea Griffith, Robert Wimbish, Bill Myers, Karen Gelbart, Michelle Kosoy, Anna Gecan, and Jenna Keane), thanks for helping us deliver real-life design solutions to viewers around the world that could stand the test of time and become the foundation for this book.
A television crew is expected to guide the technical process, but my production crew has always been a cut above the rest, and lugged, dusted, vacuumed, assembled, and installed whatever was needed to make the rooms we worked on picture perfect. Going beyond the call of duty is just who you are, but your appreciation of the transformation from beginning to end always made me feel proud. Rick Boston, Michael Josselyn, and Mikey Mazeika—you’re my favourite cheerleaders!
This book was a decade in the making because getting it out of my head and onto the pages in a way that I imagined it didn’t seem possible until I met the delightful, calm, capable, and creative talents of Rose Pereira, who managed to know exactly what I was dreaming of, and then exceeded my expectations to design the book you hold in your hands. I’m sorry for the relentless late nights and excessive amounts of caffeine you had to ingest to bring this project to life, but I am deeply grateful and very proud of where we’ve ended up. Additional thanks to Erica Rodrigues for her design assistance.
Once I knew what it looked like, finding the right home for my book was a voyage of discovery, but as soon as I met Kevin Hanson at Simon & Schuster Canada, I knew the search was over. Thanks to Alison Clarke, David Millar, Felicia Quon, Amy Cormier, Rita Silva, and the S&S Canada team for not only jumping at the chance to make this book, but making the process a fun adventure. Your passion for the written word is inspiring, and I’m honoured to have made the cut amongst all the real authors you’ve worked with.
Since design is a worldwide market, I was intent on taking my ideas to a global audience, and thanks to some help from the S&S Canada team, we somehow convinced Louise Burke, Jennifer Bergstrom, Jean Anne Rose, and the Gallery Books division of Simon & Schuster in New York into taking a chance on a girl from Canada. Here’s hoping that gamble pays off in the free trade spectrum.
I am a designer, creative spirit, and a DIYer in the overall game of life, so it was important to me that the words on these pages be written by me (looking back, during the writing process I must admit to wondering . . . all these words . . . what on earth was I thinking?). I thought editors were supposed to be serious and tough, but fortunately they broke the mould when they made Tricia Boczkowski, and I got a fun, easygoing, and super supportive editor to champion my amateur writing abilities. Phew!
Every girl needs a gay BFF, but I’ve got more that. Tommy Smythe, without your collaboration, design vision, and impeccable taste, I never would have made it through over 300 renovations on TV, we definitely wouldn’t have laughed so hard (and I would not have blushed nearly so often). Your wit and wisdom, friendship, and loyalty go far beyond the definition of any colleague and have made you my co-host, sounding board, style counsel, day husband and creative collaborator. This book would not have been possible without you, and I value all the insights and energy you’ve invested at every step of the way from inception to completion. Thanks for always being there and never settling for less than the best.
And every good on-camera team needs an engine behind the scenes that makes the process run smoothly, even when the train seems to be heading down the wrong track. If you’ve ever wondered how we make it look so easy on TV, I can tell you that Lindsay Mens likely has something to do with it. With lightning speed and endless charm and cheeriness, this girl can and has moved mountains for me to get the job done.
Spending your career making homes fabulous for other people isn’t without its perils. It’s not all sunshine and happy days, and sometimes it seems that nothing will go right, and the job will never be done (or done right). Thanks to my amazing husband, Alexander Younger, for steering me through the ups and downs of fifteen years and seventeen seasons of TV production, and helping me keep the big picture in perspective with your sound advice and support, and of course for never complaining when you came home to find the house torn apart, repainted, or reconfigured . . . yet again.
There’s no handbook to being an entrepreneur and a TV personality in an ever-changing market, so thanks to my girls, my confidantes and my besties Natalie Hodgins, Stephanie Nerlich, and Eva Salem for being there for over two decades as we all try to figure out the secrets to success day by day.
Spreading the good word about a brand or an individual is no easy task in a noisy world, but Deb McCain, pint-sized PR powerhouse extraordinaire, somehow makes all my design adventures newsworthy and noteworthy. Thanks for helping strategically steer my ship towards interesting opportunities by being the most savvy “in the know” girl I know.
I am a firm believer that a house needs to have a soul, and that embracing original art infuses character and spirit into a home. Thanks to the talented artists, and the galleries that represent them, who help to fill our clients’ homes with unique and beautiful works of art, including Michael Adamson, Canvas Gallery (Chris Albert, Donna Andreychuk, Sophia Banks, Meredith Bingham, Mark Brodkin, Wendy Farrow, Roz Hermant, Ben Mark Holzberg, Steven Nederveen, George Pavlasek, Charlene Serdan, Marjolyn Van der Hart), Ingram Gallery (Barker Fairley, Patricia Larsen), Loch Gallery (Bogdan Molea), Nicholas Metivier Gallery (John Hartman, Douglas Walker), Christine Flynn, Dave Hind, Tony Koukos, and Wieslaw Michalak.
The goal of the work we create is to design interiors that will speak to a global audience. Some of the rooms within the pages have previously appeared in other publications, so thanks to Canadian House and Home and Renovation Style for allowing these images to have a second life and be part of my design story in this book.
And there’s no point writing a book if no one is going to read it or buy it, so mostly, thanks to you for watching, reading, and engaging with my work for almost two decades. You are the reason I keep going, and you keep me focused on the authentic spirit of home. Cheers to you!