Life by Design
Mona Home Remodel designs by Liv
BY SARAH KITTLE
Many people would be intimidated by the idea of decorating a 7,100-square-foot home, but not Olivia Mona. She was born for it.
Mona has always had an eye for design but three small children and a busy household didn’t leave much time for career experimentation. Being an active mom and helping to decorate for her kid’s school events satisfied Mona’s creative urges for many of her children’s younger years, but now that two of them are in high school, and the youngest in junior high, it’s time for mom to shine.
The seeds for Mona’s business, Designs by Liv, were actually planted after she and her family moved into their spacious Bloomfield Hills home a year ago. Mona spent the next nine months completely decorating it from top to bottom. When a neighbor came inside and saw the home’s transformation, she wanted to know who Mona’s decorator was.
Working from the ground up, Mona had overseen the removal of walls and the replacement of all the flooring in their 3,000 square foot basement. With five bedrooms upstairs there was space for each child to have their own room, a guest room and an extra room that Mona would turn into a home chapel for her family.
The chapel is Mona’s favorite room. “It’s so peaceful,” she says of the space. “It’s the most beautiful room in the house.” She had collected religious art for some time and the opportunity to actually put it into a design project was irresistible. The family uses the chapel for meditation and prayer. In addition to an altar, there’s a kneeler (or hassock) in the traditional Catholic style.
Most Chaldean families have an area of their home dedicated to worship, but not many have a whole room. “It’s a special room.” Mona brought in artists to hand-paint “the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” plus angels, lovingly crafted recreations of artwork from St. Thomas Church.
The neighbor was so impressed with Mona’s décor that she pushed Mona to go pro and hired her to decorate a clubhouse for an apartment building in Petoskey. She’s also working on a kitchen renovation in Rochester Hills. And she’s not even done with her schooling yet!
Mona will receive her certification within the next few months from the New York Institute of Art & Design. There she’s learned how to sketch out her design ideas and create mood boards plus how to share them with a client. Computer Aided Design (CAD) might be the next thing she studies but for now Mona prefers to illustrate her design visions by hand.
Much of what Mona has learned about design so far has been acquired through working as a hands-on decorating consultant for family and friends for more than a decade. Even though she never charged for her services, Mona knows that much of what she brings to her current business was a result of past decorating experiences which also allowed her the opportunity to make important connections in many different trades and establish relationships with professional colleagues in the fields of cabinetry, flooring and paint.
Stylish staircase in West Bloomfield home remodel
Mona home remodel grand entrance
Mona is also a certified Sherwin Williams Paint Specialist and says that along with helping people decide what color paint to use where, the majority of her clients need the most help in making decisions about things like flooring or which type of cabinet goes with their design style.
Many people that Mona talks to are still into traditional design but more and more are moving toward “transitional,” a design term defining the look that is a marriage of traditional and contemporary furniture, finishes, materials and fabrics equating to a classic, timeless design. Furniture lines are simple yet sophisticated, featuring either straight lines or rounded profiles. It’s Mona’s favorite style.
Modern, sleek and white are all “in” right now, as well as a return to minimalism. Chaldean style has in the past been super-traditional, even over-the-top “extra.” That’s changing as millennials become homeowners in even greater numbers.
Mona is ready for it all. She’s a great resource with her own great resources. She had fun being interviewed on Keeping Up With the Chaldeans, and wants to remind us all that she is there to help.
Designs by Liv offers a free one-hour consultation during which Mona gets acquainted with potential clients and gets a feel for their likes and dislikes when it comes to interior design. They ask questions, and she asks questions, says Mona. After that, “If they call me back, the process starts.”