Dawn Skarsen may be used to 'Designing Spaces' but this past week she moved out of her comfort zone and set up shop in Woodgrove Centre.
Skarsen and her crew, which included about 17 people from camera operators to artists, painters electricians and more, designed a soft seating area, family style room for the mall. Decorative artist Kim Sirett is working on the space, as well as Lana McRae from the Interior Design Group, among many others. Skarsen is the producer and host of Shaw TV's Designing Spaces, a home decorating show shot in the mid Island area for the past two years. This fall the show will go Island wide, from Victoria to Powell River on Shaw TV. Skarsen said after two years showing people their new spaces is her favourite part.
"My highlights are working with the clients and the reveals just seeing how happy people are," she said. "The challenges are keeping everyone's schedules in tact. At any one time, there's usually about 20 or 30 trades at one time working. It can be tough because everyone's working on top of each other, but I really like the fact we work outside the 'norm' box. It's always a challenge and it's always fun. Getting recognized in the community is always fun. My highlights really would be the support the whole Designing Spaces team gets from the whole community."
This week the camera crew was in the mall documenting the building and creation of the new space. The segment will air in the fall.
The new area is located in front of Sport Chek in the north Nanaimo mall and gives families a chance to sit down and relax while shopping.
"The biggest issue is that sometimes it's not easy to shop when you have kids," said Skarsen, a mother of three herself. "We're giving them a place where they can come, feed their babies, warm a bottle, whatever. There's a space for the kids to play."
The area will host a TV, microwave, comfortable leather furniture, a large custom made area rug and a kid's activity centre.
The crew had five days to finish the living room, which seems like a frantic pace, but Skarsen seems used to orchestrating such projects. Many of the items are made off set because building in the mall would be impossible.
"We can't build or paint on set so finding the space to do all that has been difficult and of course getting everything here is tough too," she said.
For more information of show airing times call DS Designing Spaces Inc. at 755 -9142 or check out their website at: www.dsdesigningspaces.ca