Shelley is a graduate of the Interior Design Program at Lakeland College in Vermillion Alberta. Almost immediately, Shelley focused her career on custom kitchen design. Shelley’s attention to detail and her ability to conceptualize the finished project from the early stages of the design process ensures that the space will be functional and aesthetically pleasing. She looks far beyond the room in which the cabinetry is designed for; she takes her styling cues from adjacent rooms, the ambient lighting, colours, trim styles and flooring. Other cues to factor in are to the amount of light the room receives at different times of the day as well as the clients taste in art and furniture. Shelley’s ability to pull all the design elements together to create one cohesive design is second to none.
Perhaps even more importantly is her attention to the functionality of the cabinetry and the layout itself. As every cook has different habits and a unique process in the way they prepare their food, designing a kitchen with those specific needs in mind is often under looked, but not when you’re working with Shelley. She asks all the right questions; how many cooks at one time? What are their primary tasks of each cook? What are their storage needs and special requirements? It’s these types of considerations that leave her clients with true lasting satisfaction with the functionality of the kitchen design. Making it aesthetically pleasing is only half the battle. By analyzing her client's wants, needs and lifestyle requirements and integrating this information into a design that is pleasing, functional and practical enough for everyday living but also reflecting her client’s individual style is paramount to creating the perfect design.
From concept to completion, her ideas combined with her own love of cooking and entertaining in the kitchen have made her the award winning designer she is today. Shelley has received well over a dozen design awards in her career to date. Shelley has received awards in every style; from Contemporary and Modern, to Traditional and Transitional, Shelley has been recognized by her peers as having the ability to create incredible spaces in each design style. She was also the recipients of the coveted “Most Outstanding Kitchen” in all of Ontario award, as presented by the Ontario Home Builders Association (OHBA) in 2006. Shelley has also been a contributing designer for a world famous chef’s whose personal kitchen and test kitchen were also used as the sets on his televised cooking show.