Thomas Island decorator to be featured on 'Fix It & Finish It'

ELIZABETH BUSH
beth@thedanielislandnews.com

Sharon Payer graduated with a degree in Chemistry from West Virginia University some 17 years ago. Although she didn’t end up with a job in her field of study, she still found a way to mix things up for her customers. As a self-taught interior designer, the Thomas Island resident is triggering plenty of positive reactions.
“I don’t have any formal training,” said Payer, a former medical sales representative and realtor who lives in the Shell Ring community. “It’s just being creative…I may not know the different eras of the designs, but I have a good idea of what looks good together and what works.”
Her love of decorating was first sparked when she and her husband purchased a home in downtown Charleston in 2002.
“It was in a transitional neighborhood, and it needed a complete gut job,” added Payer. “It was wonderful! It was through the renovation of this house that I realized what my true passion was - interior design and style.”
Payer’s talents yielded yet another good outcome earlier this year, when she was selected to take part in an episode of the popular television show Fix It & Finish It, which airs on a variety of networks nationwide. The program, hosted by Antonio Sabato, Jr., is a renovation and design show that seeks to overhaul one space in one home every day led by a team of contractors and designers. When the show announced they would be coming to Charleston to tape several episodes last February, an acquaintance of Payer’s recommended her for the design team.
“She passed my name along and a few days later a producer in California called and asked if I would be interested!” recalled Payer, who enthusiastically accepted the challenge.
The couple on the receiving end of Payer’s efforts, Teresa Errico and her fiancé Kyle Griffis, had recently moved into a home in West Ashley after enduring a difficult living situation in their previous community (a police officer had been shot and killed in a neighboring apartment). Looking for a fresh start, they bought a new property and moved in, but had little to no money to invest in decorating or design. “Fix It & Finish It” selected them for the show, but wanted it to be a surprise. Payer, who was in on the secret, met with them to begin planning out renovation work on their living room and dining room. The couple was initially told they were under consideration for the show.
“From the time I found out about the opportunity, I had 10 days total to meet with them and put the whole plan together!” said Payer. “It was a lot of fun because I like being under pressure like that, with a time constraint…They gave me what they liked, the style they wanted to go for, some of the colors that they liked, and the feeling that they wanted the rooms to have.”
Once Payer got a design blueprint together, the team showed up on the couple’s doorstep and yelled “Surprise!” The group had a total of 12 hours to transform the space.
“It was so great,” she said. “It was such a rush!”
Payer was given a $2000 budget to redesign the couple’s living room and dining room. Orvin’s Furniture provided some new furniture pieces and Lumber Liquidators provided the flooring. Rick’s Lighting and Rug Masters also stepped up to help, and Benjamin Moore supplied the paint. In addition, the space received new blinds, window treatments, and accessories.
“To get creative, I also used rattan circular door mats that I got for $10 each,” said Payer, who describes herself as being ‘inspired by nature’ and ‘motivated by the reclaimed.’ “I put them on the wall for wall art. I really tried to think outside the box and use something that was unexpected in a different way.”
In the end, Payer came in under budget at $1923.
“It doesn’t sound like a whole lot,” she said. “But once you add it all up, it goes fast. I had a real thick piece of cypress wood left over and I got some mounting brackets and hung it low enough to use it as a wall-mounted sideboard.”
The show also wanted Payer to take on some “do it yourself” projects with the homeowners.
“Teresa had some wonderful oil paintings from her grandmother that were just gorgeous,” said Payer. “But they weren’t framed, so again, in order to save money…we just painted the edges all the way around to give them a finished look….Then I found an old window and painted it and used that for a new fireplace screen.”
The finished product, a mix of what Payer called an “eclectic Bohemian style,” earned rave reviews from Errico and Griffis.
“Sharon was incredible to work with and her genuine love for what she did made so much of the process leading up to the show exciting!” said Errico. “She transformed simple ideas, such as the basic colors my fiancé Kyle and I liked or a few adjectives describing our style, into a room beyond anything we ever imagined. She took a room that Kyle and I weren’t very proud of, one that was cold, with broken fixtures and holes in the walls, and turned it into a true living space. We spend all our time there now and love entertaining people. And the whole time she kept the end results all a secret!”
“It was just so much fun,” added Payer. “I loved it! I have never done anything like that before…Teresa and Kyle were just so energetic and so appreciative. It was just so great to be able to do something like that for them.”
The Fix It & Finish It episode featuring Payer, Errico and Griffis will air on Thursday, November 4, at 9:30 a.m. in Charleston on CBS (WCSC-TV). For more information on the program, visit http://www.fixitandfinish.com. Additional details about Payer’s work can be found at www.sharonpayerdesign.com.