By design

Interior decorator shows off her handiwork.

By: Elaine Worden
   Angela Spina’s home is elegant.
   The walls are painted in bold, rich reds and golds flanked in soft textile window treatments made from intricately designed fabrics outlined in fringe. The heavy, sturdy furniture is sprawled out in every room, inviting guests to take a seat.
   Although the rooms in her home may look like something featured in an exclusive interior design magazine, it also feels cozy and warm.
   "You shouldn’t be afraid to use your rooms," she said. "You want your room to feel comfortable."
   The proprietor of Simple Decorating Solutions, Inc., Ms. Spina runs her company from an office in her Monmouth Junction home.
   "The bulk of the business is window treatments," said Ms. Spina.
   However, she does help with color consultations and remodeling — with a little help from professional installers. With a handpicked army of contractors, painters, artists, carpenters, electricians and drapery fabricators, Ms. Spina has a design arsenal on call and available for referral for every one of her client’s needs.
   "I went to a few trade shows and started interviewing people — you had to make sure that you got quality people who would understand the vision," she said.
   After working on Wall Street for 17 years as an Institutional Canadian Arbitrage Trader, she decided to stay at home with her newborn daughter. After giving birth to her second daughter and after both girls had grown older, she decided to begin working again.
   She went to DeVry University to dust off her computer literacy skills, and then started working at Greenbrook School in Kendall Park as a purchasing agent.
   By this point, she was constantly helping others decorate and color coordinate their homes. It got to the point where, after coming home at 11 p.m. one night from helping a friend design and paint their home, her husband, Mark, convinced her that she should open her own business.
   And now, three years later, Ms. Spina is very happy she listened to him.
   Ms. Spina was recently given the Newcomer of the Year award by the Window Fashions Certification Program during the International Window Coverings Expo, held at New Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Ga., from April 6 to April 9.
   Ms. Spina was given the award for the design of her lavish-yet-livable living room, tied together with her cascading, fringed window treatments and sheer shades that make the room feel completely coordinated from the reupholstered wingback chair to her glass-topped coffee table.
   "It is a little distressed at the bottom of it, but, you know, my dad sat in that chair and I can’t get rid of it," she said, gently touching the bottom of the wingback chair to point out a few wear marks on the wood.
   Ms. Spina recently passed the master’s level of the Window Fashions Certification Program. The WFCP, an accredited training program complete with national standards testing, provides designers, retailers and installers with a continuing education and a network of window fashion resources.
   The program was created by Window Fashions magazine publisher Grace McNamara in 1991, and it offers associate, specialist, master and expert levels for students, each requiring their own specific amount of credits for certification.
   Ms. Spina said a new set of curtains can totally revamp a room. There are two types of window treatments — hard and soft. Soft, as one may guess, are different fabric treatments, such as valances, swags, curtains and drapes. Hard treatments include wooden shutters, blinds and so forth.
   "You have to get a feel for the client, a feel for what the room is all about," she said.
   Whether she is shopping for fabrics at a high-end store or browsing through Target, there’s an answer for every client’s need and budget, she said.
   "There’s ways of doing things inexpensively," said Ms. Spina.
   Ms. Spina is also on top of new trends in window-fashion.
   "I’m always looking for new things," said Ms. Spina, as she held what appeared to be a square of wrought iron in her hands.
   The square turned out to be faux-iron, and is a new idea for dressing up windows. The iron, which is extremely lightweight, comes in different colors, shapes, sizes and designs.
   Other hot trends include panel tracks, string draperies (which is just that — drapes made up of hundreds of strings), wood shutters, light weaves (which lets light in, but provides privacy while looking from the outside-in) as well as motorized shades.
   "Draperies are your final touch and they should make a statement," she said.
   Ms. Spina’s love for design has even spread throughout her family.
   Her two daughters, Danielle, 17, and Dionna, 16, will soon be working with Ms. Spina over the summer.
   "It’s funny because my father was a master carpenter and my mother was a seamstress, so I’ve always had it in my blood, and I think I’ve passed it down to my children," she said.
   Despite all of the factors that go into designing a room and dressing up its windows, there’s one that supercedes all of them — client satisfaction.
   "Each one is treated as an individual," she said. "They’re not only clients — we build a relationship and they become part of the family."
   Ms. Spina also does not advertise. Instead, she relies on word of mouth and lets her client’s homes speak for themselves.
   "The best form of advertisement is someone’s home," she said.
To contact Ms. Spina or to find out more information about Simple Decorating Solutions, Inc., call (732) 355-1680, or e-mail: [email protected].