THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702210054
SECTION: HOME & GARDEN PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARCIA MANGUM, HOME & GARDEN EDITOR
LENGTH: 182 lines
THE PROBLEM was obvious: My house was a mess.
We moved into the 1920s-era home in Norfolk nearly three years ago, just weeks before my younger daughter was born. Lacking both time and money, I didn't know where to start decorating.
From the day we moved in, there was too much clutter; a hodgepodge of styles; no room or project completed; and things in boxes and piles.
I needed an affordable decorator. I found Joan Dinger and Kim Nozzarella, and their Chesapeake-based business, In Its Place.
The business is the first of its kind in Hampton Roads, but the use-what-you-have redecorating concept began in New York in the 1980s and has spread across the country.
Dinger and Nozzarella are part interior designers, part cheerleaders and part miracle workers. Their aim is to take what you have and make the most of it. They try to arrange your things tastefully and creatively, in a style designed to suit your needs and reflect your personality.
Along the way, the two women make you feel good about your stuff.
First thing Dinger and Nozzarella did was sit down with me for a consultation. We decided to go for the most visible rooms first, our adjoining living room and dining room.
They asked a lot of questions:
What do we use the room for?
Do we entertain much?
What do we like about the living room? Dislike?
What furniture or furnishings do we really like?
Are there things we particularly dislike?
Do we prefer a formal or informal style, or something in between?
Once they had a feel for my family and had taken a good look all around the house, they started thinking and brainstorming about the possibilities.
Then, because we knew there were certain gaps in my furnishings, they went shopping, selecting some drapes and pillows that would let me see what the living room would look like, if I decided to purchase a couple of basics.
A few days after the consultation, they were back to begin the real work - taking apart my rooms and putting them back together, better than before.
They arrived at 9 a.m., donned matching aprons, filled their pockets with tools and went straight to work.
They stripped each room of pictures and accessories and did some serious cleaning. They'd left me a list of supplies they would need, such as vacuum, glass cleaner and dust rags, so I wouldn't end up with nicely arranged but dirty rooms.
Then they got down to the bare bones, figuring out where the major pieces of furniture should go. These women were not timid - they grabbed a sofa and shifted it around, turned the rug, slid the chairs, moved a table out and a secretary in. It happened in a hurry, with nearly constant banter.
``You don't like it,'' Dinger said, after they hauled a love seat from the foyer into the living room.
``I don't know,'' Nozzarella replied.
``If it works, we'll keep it; if it doesn't, out it goes,'' Dinger agreed. A few moves later, and it went back out.
Nozzarella, the less conventional of the pair, decided the L-shaped arrangement of sofa and love seat was too trite; she'd rather stick to a more interesting, diagonal floor plan.
They used our non-working fireplace as the focal point of the living room and oriented the furnishings around it.
Nozzarella needed a long table for behind the sofa. ``I don't know if she has one, but let's look around,'' she said. Sure enough, she found one in a bedroom and brought it down. (I'd tried the same table in the same place on one of my re-arranging frenzies, but rejected it as too shabby. The pros covered it with a lamp, framed picture and a large plant, and it looked great.)
I had told them my antique secretary was my favorite piece of furniture, but it had been practically hidden behind the front door.
``Sometimes people have the most beautiful things tucked away in a corner,'' Nozzarella said, as they moved it to a place of prominence in my living room.
The two don't always agree. Sometimes it's a matter of inches or angles, sometimes more.
``I move something, and she moves it somewhere else,'' Nozzarella said. ``Sometimes she'll do something that really bugs me, and I'll go back and change it. And sometimes she never notices.''
They agree it's not a linear process. ``Once we come in and get the `bones' of the room, then we try a lot of combinations and see what works,'' Dinger said. ``We know the basic principles, but then it's trial and error.''
Usually, in the end, they agree. They enjoy the creative give and take, bouncing ideas off of each other, often with half-finished thoughts and phrases.
The pair ran up and down the stairs, pulling pictures and furnishings from bedrooms, hallways, closets and the basement, anywhere they could find interesting pieces. Much of what they used was already in the living room or dining room, but poorly displayed.
My husband's only request at the outset had been to keep his guitar accessible. They not only did that, they made it part of the focal point of the living room, creating a music corner beside the fireplace, with instruments, pictures, music books, chimes and tuning forks.
To spruce up the fireplace itself - which was designed to burn coal but no longer works - they filled it with a dozen or so candlesticks in various heights and sizes, which can be lighted when we entertain.
By about midday, the hard-working pair had mostly finished the living room and moved on to the dining room. I thought there would be little they could do there.
It's a small, square room with a dining room table, six chairs, a sideboard, an oversized bookcase and two old radio cabinets.
They asked if it would be OK if they unloaded the bookcase and sideboard and swapped their positions. More power to you, I said, knowing that task alone would have taken me a full day.
They explained that the sideboard would look better from the living room. The bookcase also looked less hulking once they angled it in a corner of the room.
I thought that was enough. But then I heard them talking again.
``We're going to try something really daring in here,'' Nozzarella said.
Soon they were tugging and turning and twisting my nearly room-size rug and dining-room table to a diagonal angle that aligned with the living room configuration and broke the monotony of the small, squarish room.
A few hours later, the project finished, the difference was incredible. It hardly looked like the same house. The colors and patterns on the drapes and pillows warmed the living room, and the seating arrangements and lighting were much cozier.
The dining room, which I'd written off as a lost cause, was so improved that I decided I could live with the bamboo-style wallpaper and hand-me-down curtains for a while longer.
All of my friends who've seen the rooms are amazed. And they all keep asking if I really had all that stuff to begin with - and where I had hidden it.
Like most of their clients, I was convinced that their $250 fee for a consultation and room redo was money well-spent. Dinger and Nozzarella point out that the cost is roughly the price of a small piece of furniture. You could spend the same money and get a new coffee table, but it might not solve the problem.
They sometimes bring a few props to let you see what they'd look like - a few pillows or plants can go a long way toward disguising flaws, filling up spaces or adding color and warmth. For a fee, they'll do some shopping, if that's agreed to in the consultation.
For my house, they brought plants and living-room pillows and curtains. Dinger also brought her ottoman, so I could see how it would look - and gave me simple instructions for making one of my own.
But their main goal is to use what you have. The two women are used to moving furniture around and getting by on a budget. Dinger's husband was an Army officer for 27 years, and the couple moved frequently.
``As we moved, I continually moved my furniture around,'' she said. ``I was compulsive.''
Nozzarella also recalls rearranging furniture, even as a child. She said she always wanted to be an interior designer, but, like Dinger, her career was delayed, as she married young and raised children.
The two women met at Tidewater Community College, and, as they studied together and got to know each other, their styles and personalities seemed to mesh.
So when Dinger read about a redecorating business in the Raleigh, N.C., newspaper, she knew who to call about starting such a business here. After they graduated in May, Dinger and Nozzarella went to work in earnest.
They're finding much of their business is from women similar to themselves - established homeowners who have acquired some nice things but aren't happy with the overall look. Many are tired of their things, but they don't want to go out and buy all new. Some are women who've raised children and are ready for a more sophisticated look.
``There are people who . . . are afraid of traditional designers,'' Dinger said. ``They think it's going to cost a lot of money - and it often does.''
Unlike traditional designers, Dinger and Nozzarella aren't selling anything beyond their basic service.
``We think that's an asset,'' Dinger said. ``There's no pressure - no fear that it's going to cost more than we said.''
The only downside I found was that when one room looks so good, the rest of the house may look worse by comparison. Indeed, some clients have hired In Its Place to come back and do a second room.
Others, like me, may not have enough nice things remaining to redo another room.
But, for now, the room where we entertain and spend much of our time looks great. And with relatively little time, money or worry on my part. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Vicki Cronis
Before and after pictures of the living room and dining room
Photo by VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Joan Dinger, left, and Kim Nozzarella move chairs into position in
the living room. They prefer to work with the client out of the
house, so they can try various ideas and options without the client
worrying about the process.
KEYWORDS: INTERIOR DESIGNER