Vintage-KC-Magazine-Fall-2018

design industry? A: Locally, we have some really great designers - Sarah Noble, Mark Sudermann, Carrie Frasier. There are lots of great designers here in Kansas City. On a national level, I’m a social media hound. I am constantly on social media looking at different designers all over the place. Those I really like include Studio McGee, Becki Owens, Emily Henderson and Amber Interiors. I’m constantly inspired by them. Q: How do your children inspire you? A: They are hysterical (laughs). They are really fun. My daughter, Nora, has picked up on what I do and I will bring her to a house and she will say “I think the kitchen should go right here Mom and you should put a sink there.” She’s always thinking with a design mindset so we always talk about someday she’s going to get to work with me. One of my boys loves building so I think one day he will be an architect or contractor of some sort. He puts money into an envelope and I match it so someday we can have our own business together. Q: What is an inspirational quote that you live by every day? A: “Try is an excuse to fail.” Q: What is a vintage accessory that you wish would come back into more modern homes? A: Wallpaper! I use at least two to three wallpapers in every project I do, I love wallpaper. I was installing wallpaper this morning actually in one of the houses and I love it. It’s one of my favorite accessories. I think it’s making a huge comeback and you can definitely make it modern and fun. Q: What do you believe should be a staple in every home? A: Children (laughs). Big houses need lots of children running around in them. Q: What is the most personal piece in your home and why? A: Our kitchen island is the most personal because when we built our home in 2008 I had this big, fancy island designed with a copper sink planned and all these fabulous things but it was insanely expensive so we decided to do that a little bit later. In the meantime, I was like “I’ll just find a piece of furniture and use it for the countertop and storage space”. We never got around to replacing it because what I found

of fun things with them. Balancing the fact that I love what I do but making sure I don’t spend all my time working is challenging. Q: What is your favorite thing that you’ve ever done in one of your homes on “Bargain Mansions” and why? A: Last season, one of my favorite details was probably the island where we did the dovetail feature with the side being wood and the top being quartz. When it was dovetailed together it was really beautiful. It’s all those little bitty details that I love so much. The Locust house, the big blue one with the pink front door, was my favorite project overall. A: Kansas City is the best city. We’ve got all of the culture you could possibly want, plus historic museums, restaurants, entertainment, amazing houses and great areas to live. We have fantastic people and the cost of living is great. We are in the center of it all so you can easily travel to either coast or anywhere you want to go. Q: Why is being a strong, female leader in the Kansas City community important? A: I guess I don’t think of myself as a strong leader in the community but I think that it is important that other women see women doing exciting things all over the city because there are so many of us. That’s been one of my favorite things about doing the show is meeting so many women all over the city doing so many cool things. I don’t think Kansas City has had the spotlight shown on it enough to show how many awesome people are truly here. Q: What makes Kansas City so unique as a place to live? Q: What do you want people to remember most about you as a designer? A: I think something that’s really important to me is that no house looks the same. Every house that we do has a character and a personality to it. As soon as we walk in, I can look at it and say “this house feels like this to me” and that it’s never just the same thing over and over again so that viewers never really know what to expect from one house to the next. It always has that happy vibe about it that I think that Growing Days has, that color and that brightness, it’s important to me.

Tamara’s favorite staple in her home, her kitchen island because it feels “more homey and comfortable and my kids have grown up climbing on it.”-Tamara

A south Country Club Plaza home that will make its debut on Season 2 of “Bargain Mansions”.

Q: Who are your biggest inspirations in the

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