As an interior decorator, Cindy Laws has dealt with all kinds of different tastes, conservative, funky and even feline.

“There are so many projects I am proud of,” Miss Laws recently told The Royal Gazette. She and her mother Anslie Laws run Anslie’s Interior Decorating on the corner of Middle Road and Tee Street in Devonshire.

“I have been working as an interior decorator for over 20 years,” she said. “I enjoy doing projects that are somewhat uninhibited, where the customer gives me the basics of what they want. They let me choose for them and co-ordinate for them and put it all together. Those work out well.”

Over the years she has helped design rooms for homes, commercial properties, hotels, offices, cars, boats and even special rooms for pampered pets.

“You would be surprised at how many dogs have their own room,” she said. “I have done a few of those. It has been a while since I did one of those. I have done a couple of cat rooms.

“Cat owners are particular about the types of fabric we use, because cats’ claws can get caught in some fabrics. For a cat we might use bright colours or do a mouse theme.

“Some people’s animals are like their children, so they do similar things for them that they would do for their children. It is fun when they come in with stuff like that.”

Doing a couple of rooms in a house can cost upwards of $3,000, but she said interior decorators are not just for the wealthy.

“Most people invest in custom made once they own their own home. We don’t get too many people renting,” she said.

“When people are renting they don’t tend to put that kind of investment into it. We will get rental companies that hire us. Sometimes they want us to reupholster furniture and things like that.”

As an interior decorator, Miss Laws knows it is vital to keep up with trends and decorating fashions. “When people come in and ask for something, I have usually had wind of something like that,” she said.

“If it is becoming a trend, I am usually aware of it already. It is very important to keep up with trends. Stuff is changing all the time. It is just like clothing fashions. It is the same thing in interior design.”

She said interior decorating styles often follow clothing styles. For example, a few years ago when clothing designers were adding lace, ruffles, fancy buttons and other things to pants and skirts, furniture designers followed suit.

“They were doing the same thing in interior decorating, even in the way they mixed their colours and patterns,” she said.

One of the ways that she keeps up with the fast moving interior decorating industry is through trade shows.

At a recent interior decorating trade show held in Washington D.C. she met Michael Payne who was the star of HGTV decorating television programme ‘Designing for the Sexes’.

“He is actually a part of an organisation that I am a member of,” Miss Laws said. “We got to talking and eating. We were throwing around some interior decorating talk. It was neat, but it wasn’t a big deal to me.

“It was a pleasure meeting him. He said he has a lot of respect for our company and our accomplishments.”

Miss Laws said she has often encountered couples who have a hard time agreeing on how they want to redecorate.

“There are often different views, opinions and tastes between husbands and wives,” she said. “What I try to do with that is marry their differences. They married because they came to some compromise. I try to marry them in their interior design.”

In cases where one likes flowers and the other hates them, for example, Miss Laws will try to find a happy medium and compromise.

“What I do is try to bring in a little bit of what each one likes, and find some common ground between them,” she said. “I have worked on situations like that a lot. It works out. I am usually able to bring them together.

“In the situation of the flowers, there might be some muted flower, or abstract flower that is not too flowery. It would be enough to satisfy the wife if she wants flowers, but not enough to offend the husband.”

Miss Laws got into interior decorating through her mother who was an interior decorating seamstress. “As I was growing up, she would give me little things to sew and do when I was very young,” said Miss Laws. “So, from young, I have been designing clothes and making drapes and my school uniforms. She went into business and I went to help her.”

However, Miss Laws didn’t go in with her mother full-time until the company she was working for went into liquidation.

“So I got up the next morning and went to work at my mother’s shop,” she said.

“It ended up being a full-time job. Every day I was busy. I was working more than eight hours a day. My mother is still the production manager. She still oversees the work room.”

People looking for interior decorating help first contact the shop and state what it is they want to do. If they are looking to do a whole house, Miss Laws tries to take as much information as possible. She often makes a site visit to meet with the parties involved, and take measurements.

“Most of my customers are very happy,” she said. “What I do find is, if I make a suggestion and they decide to do something else, they usually come back and say, ‘I should have listened to you’. They came to me looking for advice, so most of the time they go with the flow.

“I do the best I can to project the image I have for their space, even if I have to do the designs on my computer system to show them what the finished product will look like. Most times we reach a happy medium. The only time I find they are disappointed is when they don’t listen to me.

“I have been doing this for so long. I can put things together, and I have a vision that they don’t have. I can envision the finished product, which is something they don’t know how to do.”

However, she said that when it came to doing her own home projects, she found it more difficult.

“I do have difficulty doing my own,” she said. “It takes me longer. Styles are changing all the time. The minute I decide to do my house one way, then new books come in, and I change my mind.

“My living room has been the same for awhile. It took me about five years to complete that. I was just looking at it the other day and thinking it is time for a change.

“It will probably take me a year to get around to it. My television room has been about the same for five years. I am thinking of doing my kitchen again, and I did my bedroom last year, but it isn’t quite finished.

“Sometimes I get started, but I have to stop because I am so busy dealing with other people’s stuff.”

Miss Laws said she might deal with at least 25 customers in a day, and sometimes it is more.

“Sometimes people just have a room or two they want redecorated,” she said. “They find that they start with just one or two rooms, but once they’ve finished that, then the other rooms that aren’t in order show up more. It makes the ones they thought were okay look worse.”

She said she also gets calls to help with smaller projects such as hanging curtains or putting up shelves.

“They either don’t want to be bothered or they just don’t know what to do,” she said. “There aren’t for basic stuff, unless you get into the field. That is why they come to us, we are the professionals.”

She said Bermudians tend to be conservative when it comes to the way they decorate their homes.

“Every now and again, I get a customer who is willing to experiment and go a little out,” she said. “I like that kind of challenge. I find it fun, when I get the customer who is out of the ordinary. They come in and say ‘I want something different’. I have to find out different, how. So I’m like, ‘Bam!’, I’m on the case. Once I get a feel for them, I can take them there. I like those customers because I can get funky and creative. I don’t mind conservative and semi-conservative, I love to work for them as well.”