Park interior designer wins big

Nancy Korpanys road to success began with a move into a timeworn home in Belgravia and a photograph.

I just moved into an old 1950s house that had a very ugly, muted beige bedroom and I thought that would be perfect, the Sherwood Park native explained.

Kicking off earlier this year, Southgate Centre in conjunction with Crate and Barrel launched a home dcor challenge in which more than 45 contestants were asked to submit before and after photographs of a room redesign on the popular social media photo-sharing app Instagram.

We had a wide range of competitors involved in terms of experience, said Claire Kolmatycki, marketing director for Southgate Centre. We had some students from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) involved, along with some more seasoned professionals in the home dcor field.

From the 45 hopefuls, the field was narrowed down to eight semi-finalists who incorporated personal touches, including unique colourways and textiles, to showcase the largest transformation.

Those before and after photos were then posted on the Southgate Centre website, accumulating a total of 2,000 votes in five days to determine a final four.

With Korpany advancing through to the final round, she now had an opportunity to claim $3,000 in gift cards, the chance to design a showroom at Creekwood Showhomes, an advertising feature in Avenue Magazine, a feature in Creeklife Magazine and booth space at the 2015 Edmonton Home and Garden Show.

The finalists were given one of four spring trends including Global Village that incorporated cultural pieces; Wild Orchid, to play off of the Pantone colour of the year; Room to Bloom, a floral trend; and Garden of Light, integrating outdoor spaces to decorate their vignettes with furniture and accessories from Crate and Barrel.

The theme I ended up getting was Global Village, and that was the one that stuck out to me when we were narrowed down to eight and I said if I make it to four, that would be awesome to get that just because I love travelling it would have been something that would come naturally to me, Korpany explained.

However, after shopping for a couple of hours at Crate and Barrel, Korpany, an interior designer at Brinsmead Kennedy Architecture, realized the task was one more difficult than she initially thought.

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Park interior designer wins big