Grand article - Leslee Squirrell by Design

INTERIORS
Melding psychology,
vision
business smarts
LESLEE SQUIRRELL FOUND A NICHE
IN MERCHANDISING MODEL HOMES
By Deborah Birkett
Photography • David Bebee
IF YOU’VE EVER SEEN a model home in
southwestern Ontario that made you want
to whip out your chequebook on the spot,
chances are good it was designed and
decorated by Leslee Squirrell.
The Waterloo-based designer has specialized in the merchandising and presentation
of model homes for almost two decades,
winning more than 20 awards for her work
from local and provincial home builders’
associations.
Squirrell, who also does residential design
for individuals, has pursued a bit of a
niche market in the design business by
specializing in merchandising model
homes. “Not just the interiors,” she
explains. “I’ve gotten involved, very much
involved, with the project development,
product development, and landscaping.”
Typically, she gets engaged so early that
builders are still coming up with concepts
for a subdivision, and her expert advice is
sought at every stage. In one London
subdivision she even helped name the
streets.
Born in Waterloo, Squirrell has roots in
this area that go fairly deep: her ancestors
on both sides were Waterloo County
homesteaders with towns named after
them. “My grandmother was the last
Hawke born in Hawkesville,” she says,
noting that St. Clements was once known
as Meyer’s Corners after her great-grandfather’s large family.
As a child, Squirrell knew she wanted to
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Leslee Squirrell’s Waterloo bungalow is elegant and inviting. Above, displayed in the dining room are
two unusual conversation pieces Squirrell spotted in her travels: the botton half of a wood door from
an old colonial house in Egypt, and a bird sculpture carved by a master craftsman in Borneo.
be an artist. At 11, she read The Agony and
the Ecstasy, Irving Stone’s biographical
novel about Michelangelo, “and I swore to
myself I would get to Italy before I was 50
and see as many Michelangelos as I could.”
In high school she took every art course
she possibly could, and also took painting
lessons outside of school. One of her first
instructors was Peter Etril Snyder.
It was a high school teacher who gently
steered Squirrell away from attempting to
make a living as an artist: “He said to me,
‘You know, there’s really no money in that;
you can’t really have a career in that. You
should look into interior design.’ ”
Squirrell’s glad she did, because the field
of interior design has allowed her to draw
all her skills and interests together in a
creatively satisfying and financially
rewarding way.
She graduated from Fanshawe College in
1977, and for the next 10 years worked for
several of the interior design shops in
Waterloo.
It was 1986 when she realized merchandising for builders’ model homes would
allow her to use all the things she’d studied
at college, including landscape and graphic
design. She built on that with specialized
courses in merchandising through the U.S.
National Association of Home Builders.
In 1993, she started her own business,
Leslee Squirrell By Design.
For 20 years, Squirrell has focused on
merchandising model homes from
Burlington to Sarnia, though the majority
of her work is in Waterloo Region, Guelph
and London.
Preparing a model home for presentation
isn’t quite like designing for a residential
client, Squirrell explains during an interview in her Waterloo office, which is decorated in rich neutrals and accented with
watercolour block prints.
“You have to understand that what you’re
doing is helping builders sell models,” she
says. “It’s not an opportunity to try the
weirdest and wackiest decorating idea
you’ve never been able to convince a client
to use. And if you do go at a project with
that attitude, you won’t get the builder’s
work again next year.”
Model homes require a different mindset.
“You’re marketing a home and the decorating should never overwhelm the home;
you’re not trying to prove your ability to
decorate it, you’re trying to help enhance it
to sell houses.”
In planning a new model home, “I come
up with an imaginary family at an imaginary age and stage in life, and then make
decisions on the finishes in the house and
the furnishings that go into it that I believe
someone at that age and stage of life would
use. However, if I feel I want to zig away
from that, just for some visual interest and
impact, I do that to create what you call a
‘memory point’ in a model home.”
Builders like Evan Shear, principal of
Cityview Homes, have been thrilled with
Squirrell’s work. Squirrell and Shear
recently collaborated on a 70-unit subdivision called the Vales of East Guelph,
Cityview’s first project in Guelph.
“She has a vision for the project; certainly,
she does her research to gain that vision,”
Shear says. “She has a lot of confidence in
how to carry it out.”
He praises her professionalism and the
fact that she came in right on budget,
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Above: Lynn Swanson, a longtime client of Leslee Squirrell, relaxes in her renovated kitchen. This is the third kitchen makeover Squirrel has managed for Swanson’s home.
Left: Striking pieces of art, including a painting by Toller Cranston, enhance the opposite end of Leslee Squirrell’s great room.
although that budget may not have been
as lavish as some other builders provide.
Shear says he recognized some time ago
that the economic wind was shifting and
he would be selling in a buyer’s market: “I
think the builder has to work twice as
hard, or maybe even more, to get the same
sale. The main thing Leslee did for us is
helped make the model home stand out
significantly compared to the competition.”
Shear adds, “She’s the best I’ve ever
worked with, for sure.”
Jay Rickard, president of Castlebrook
Homes, has worked with Squirrell for 10
years, during which time she’s done nearly
as many model homes for his company.
“One of the most notable success stories
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is that all of our models have sold
completely decorated, at a premium,”
Rickard says. “People are liking what they
see in the house, and they’re buying the
furniture, the drapery, the wall hangings,
the knick-knacks, the lamps … we call it a
turnkey sale. Just lock the door and the
next day they move in with suitcases.
“That’s exceptional — that the product
was that well-received and that people
liked the co-ordination so much that they
just kept everything with it.”
While she concentrated on merchandising
model homes, Squirrell also works with
residential clients, particularly those with
sizable projects such as a house construction or renovation. “I love to do (home-
owners’ projects) and want more. I have a
lot of experience in construction materials
and understanding of construction.”
Psychologist Lynn Swanson, one of her
long-term residential clients, first hired
Squirrell almost 20 years ago to help decorate her new home in the Upper
Beechwood area of Waterloo. The two have
worked together ever since, and Swanson
just completed her third kitchen makeover
with Squirrell.
One of the things she most appreciates is
Squirrell’s considered approach to decorating a family home: “Leslee always seems
to take into account the longevity of
choices, so something we might see in a
model wouldn’t necessarily be what she
would recommend for us to put in our
home. I appreciated that because it was
clear that she was really thinking it
through, what would work for us in the
long run, and trying to help us make
choices we would be happy with for a long
time.”
The hot housing market since 2000 kept
Squirrell on the go — she’s logged more
than 50,000 kilometres a year on her car
driving to building sites around Ontario.
Some projects required her to create five
to seven models for a single development.
The challenge in that situation is to make
each house distinctive, yet unmistakably
convey the builder’s style.
Somehow she finds time to put her
undergraduate degree in creative writing to
use, writing a monthly column for the
Ontario Home Builders’ Association magazine, Ontario Home Builder.
Her services as a speaker and trend expert
are also in demand.
Squirrell says her inspiration is more
likely to come from artists and travel experiences than from other designers.
She has been influenced by time spent in
Provence, as well as in Mexico where she
made friends with Canadian artist and
former figure-skating superstar Toller
Cranston. Squirrell’s next painting-related
goal is to accept Cranston’s invitation to
paint with him in San Miguel de Allende.
Although she missed her Age 50 deadline
by a couple of years, Squirrell’s lifelong
dream of going to Italy and seeing
Michelangelo’s work recently came true. In
September, she rented a house in Tuscany
and spent three weeks immersed in the
spectacular artistic legacy of Italy.
She loves the stage of life she’s at now.
With her two children out on their own,
she has time to enjoy her passions —
painting and golfing — and the opportunity to develop new interests such as
photography.
Squirrell still finds design very satisfying:
“It’s hard work, but I’ve been blessed with a
great career and being able to say, ‘What do
I get to do today?’ instead of ‘Do I have to
go to work today?’ ”
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“LET’S BUY THE LOBSTER HOUSE”
One of the most creative and important
aspects of designing effective model
homes is coming up with what Leslee
Squirrell calls “memory points” —
tableaux that will grab people’s attention
and make them remember that model.
“What you’re really saying to them in a
subtle way is, ‘I know who you are. I
understand your life and your interests
and your stage in life,’ ” Squirrell explains.
“And when you do that, they start to
believe ‘This builder knows who I am,’
and you get them to bond with the possibility of having a home built by this
builder. That’s what my job is — to bring
those two people together.”
Some of her most inventive memory
points:
• The Lobster Party. “I did a lobster
dinner party in a model out in Deer Ridge
(in Kitchener). We did up the kitchen, the
butler pantry and the dining room table as
though the people were having a dinner
party and doing lobster. I actually had
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Over 20 years, Leslee Squirrell developed her design and landscaping interests to the point where she is often involved
at the concept stage of a project. In one London, Ont., subdivision, she even helped name the streets.
fake lobsters and this big pot on the
stove,” she laughs. “People remember
that.”
• The Shower: “I’ve done a model home
where it looked as though the woman was
hosting a shower for someone, so there
were lots of those little gift bags and
shower paraphernalia around.”
Squirrell emphasizes the importance of
appealing to women “because women are
the ones who encourage their husbands to
come out and look at model homes.”
• The Hog: It is possible to hook male
home-shoppers, too, Squirrell says.
Men really love a beautiful garage —
“the garage organizers today, the lockers
and the padded floors and all of that type
of thing.”
Although most people’s expectations for
the garage aren’t high, Squirrell surprised
buyers at one model home by parking a
shiny Harley-Davidson in the garage.
• The Spa Room: “I did a model in
London last fall and we designed the master
and ensuite wing with a spa room. So I had
a massage table and a little waterfall going,
and beautiful music and luscious drapes and
a crystal chandelier … and all the women
were just ‘We want a room like that!’ ”
• The Dog Spa: Spas aren’t just for
humans. The Vales of East Guelph struck
gold with this unique offering: a laundry
room featuring a tiled dog bath, complete
with shower spray attachment.
Squirrell had lots of fun with this model:
“I bought a beautiful prop dog that looks so
real you can’t believe it. I stencilled these
dirty footprints all over the bath area.
People walk in and they’re just blown
away. And they will always remember that
house.”
This Vales of East Guelph model home was
decorated by Leslee Squirrell. Her goal is to
make each model attractive and appealing
without allowing the furnishings to overwhelm the design of the house itself.
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