Sarah Richardson interview, “Sarah’s House, Season 3” The Farmhouse

By Anne Brodie Feb 26, 2010, 21:56 GMT

Given Richardson’s extreme attention to detail, it’s remarkable that she gamely carries on talking. You know she is mentally multitasking, a skill that has taken her to the top of the television design business in Canada. All photos coutesty of HGTV

The always calm and collected Sarah Richardson lets out an uncharacteristic little gasp.  We’re speaking with Canada’s TV’s design queen on a working renovation site and she has noticed something’s wrong. 

Given Richardson’s extreme attention to detail, it’s remarkable that she gamely carries on talking.  You know she is mentally multitasking, a skill that has taken her to the top of the television design business in Canada. 

She is a sunny optimistic who typically finds the silver lining.

Sarah Richardson, courtesy of HGTV

I’m standing in space were working on right now, and the client’s out of town.  I was standing in the bedroom and I looked over at a wall and panicked because the fabric and paint … I don’t think we checked if they’d work together.  There may be some repainting!  The lesson on the show is that there is always something to be learned.  The educational aspect is that each one of us learns every single day. 

By the way, the wall sample is okay!

This is just what fans have come to expect of the tiny Toronto-based designer and décor doyenne.  Richardson is the number one personality on HGTV (Home and Garden Television) in Canada thanks to her popular home makeover series Room Service, Design, Inc., Sarah’s House, Sarah’s House 2 and Sarah’s Cottage. 

The perky and engaging mother of two has remodelled and decorated dozens of homes with her unique sense of style.  The Sarah series takes an entire season to renovate a single home, allowing viewers to get down and dirty inside the details and feel part of the final result.  Although Sarah’s personality and practical creativity drive the show, she is aided by her sarcastic sidekick / muse Tommy and team of blonde designers. 

Sarah’s latest venture takes place three hours outside of Toronto; a battered century farmhouse is to get the Richardson touch!  She aims to modernize and personalize the existing space, add a wing and tame the extensive but dilapidated grounds. 

She and Tommy, a confirmed city boy, take a serious design turn, abandoning chrome, granite, and ghost chairs to embrace plaid, barn board, flea markets and crop circles and the occasional critter in the rafters. 

Monsters and Critics chatted with Richardson about her bucolic sojourn, but wondered if her fabulousness is ever a problem.

AB - Are friends reluctant to invite you over because they don’t feel secure about their environment? 

SR - My best friends aren’t reluctant but other people are.  I can assure everyone im there I’m not there to judge and my house doesn’t always look picture perfect on camera. 

It’s a busy life with two kids and a husband and if you showed up without warning, you’d be surprised.  I’m thinking what’s lying around in the hall, tutus and magic wands and my one and a half year old wearing her Pull-Ups over her pyjamas.

AB - Do you tend to deconstruct spaces the moment you enter? 

SR - What makes me good at my job is that when I see a space, if I’ve never been through it, I tend to get a first reaction, like a vision that comes to me and there’s an initial impression. 

The more time I spend in the space, the harder it is to do that.  If it’s a familiar space or my own, it can be trickier.  I love a fresh reaction. 

On Design Inc., I’d never seen the spaces.  I saw them for the first time when I showed up to see the clients.  It is always good to have fresh as an idea as possible.  The thing for me is that we are so busy all the time, I suppose I could take months to think about the best solutions but I find going with gut instincts creates the most natural result.

AB - Alternatively do you go into people’s homes and find your work there? 

SR - I get a laugh when I complement a space and people say ‘where do you think I got that idea?’  It’s flattering.  But, no I’m not looking for visual cues.  

AB - Do you recognise that you have influence and power? 

SR - On the set you wouldn’t think that.  No.  The way I think about it is that I have a really great job and when I think about power, I think my job being to give people the best information and deliver solutions that will work for them to achieve great results they can be proud of. 

I think of myself as a teacher, to educate and inspire, I wouldn’t say my job is to intimidate.  A key element for me is that there are lots of shows built on dramatic reactions, jumping up and down and getting mad.  The world needs to be encouraged to take a more positive outlook and know that there is a solution; that everything is solvable and nothing is critical.

AB – The new series is a celebration of country living.  You’re making it okay not buy into the universal granite and steel mantra, and making it okay to use florals and homey stripes.

SR – Tommy and I have been talking about it for ages.  We’ve been doing the contemporary thing for so long.  Both of our background is in the classics –history, architecture, and antiques and that’s what’s left me feeling short changed. 

The contemporary look is boxy and has no soul.  Being able to take a century old farmhouse – what’s not to love about that?  Everyone who’s smart enough to live outside the city knows.

AB -How many spaces in all? 

SR – Over ten episodes we cover 12 rooms including bathrooms, but we can only show a certain amount, so there’s an entire finished basement of 1500 square feet you don’t see.

AB – You don’t stint in your designs and your clients will pay for the best.  Did you notice the recession?  

SR - Not really.  It had only a small effect on the business.  People didn’t stop buying houses and renovating.  Everyone put their plans in check a little bit and notched down ever so slightly from what they’d done before and what they were thinking about doing.  It wasn’t mass pandemonium.  People were practising economy.  But I wasn’t!  I was doing my best to stimulate the economy!

AB - Do you read the newly rediscovered classic decorators of the last century - Elsie de Wolfe, Edith Wharton, Dorothy Draper, and Billy Baldwin?

SR - I love them.  So much of my education for furniture and architecture came from my father who was a professor of historical architecture.  I grew up around old buildings and antique furniture.  That’s my background. 

Also, Tommy and I love going to auctions and over the years they’ve proved to be a great educational experience.  I’m learning more about furniture and what things sell for.  For this series, we spent an entire day at an antique market and bought a ton of stuff for the farm. 

It’s an incredible resource.  We also love the gritty estate auctions.  The best adventures are finding the unique and expected in unusual places.  It’s not nearly as interesting to go to a brand new showroom, where you know walking in what you’re going to see.  The spectacular mudroom lamp only cost 150 dollars.

AB - What happens now that the farmhouse is completed?

SR - We’re shooting a brand new show.  We’re in week four of Sarah 101 to start airing in January 2011.  It’s thirteen episodes of back to basics, the building blocks of design, compartmentalising the ten building blocks and breaking down for each room, tips on how to think about your space.  We want to make it all accessible, the best of the shows. 

Sarah’s House, Season 3 debuts on HGTV Canada on March 9th and Fine Living Network in the US - Season 1 on FLN schedule weekends at 11:30am ET, and HGTV (U.S.) is currently airing Season 2 on Saturdays at 8:30pm ET.

Sarah’s House, Season 3 will also be available online here featuring special webisodes and tips.