Silvergirl creates interiors with personality

Debi Devigili puts the finishing touches on the corner of her Hamilton living room. She gets to know her clients and pulls design themes from their interests and activities. Photo by Chris Sturgis. By Chris Sturgis From an academic standpoint, Debi Devigili became an interior designer when she completed her course with the School of Interior Decorating at PCDI and received her diploma, now framed proudly in her office. Yet, she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t rearranging furniture, changing the artwork and finding new accessories. She added and subtracted items until her environment was just right. At times, her preoccupation with decorating seemed like more of a curse than a blessing. “My mother and I call it Obsessive Compulsive Designing Disorder,” she said. Take a ride to Devigili’s Hamilton street, and you can pick out her home by the quiet warmth, comfort and order it exudes. An otherwise ordinary mailbox stamped “U.S. Mail” is dressed up in a wooden flower box. Her living room is done in warm colors with a luxurious couch. Even her yard has a seating area featuring an antique cast-iron chair draped in hanging vines. She works intuitively, getting to know the client’s personality and interests. She pulls together a new look that combines the client’s furnishings with new pieces, new accessories and a new arrangement. She has subcontractors for remodeling, updating kitchens and bathrooms, adding decks and sunrooms. Devigili has dressed homes for real estate open houses, usually a case of removing clutter, painting, and organizing, she said. Right now, she’s working with a mid-40s bachelor who decided to move into a house he had kept as rental property. Too busy with his career to decorate, he had little more than a couch and a bed he had slept in since high school. Now, she’s converting his living room into a dining area with seating where he can entertain friends. She’s also helping an elderly Italian couple unpack from a move and place the treasures of a lifetime in a new space. Devigili found the name Silvergirl Designs in the Simon and Garfunkel classic, Bridge Over Troubled Water. She was devastated when her house in Trenton caught fire in February 2006, leaving little more than a picture of Jesus and a bag of chips. She took it as a sign to pursue what she wanted to do instead of what she should. She found comfort in the lyrics, “Sail on silver girl, sail on by; your time has come to shine; all your dreams are on their way.” After the fire, she found she was a different person, who didn’t fit in old life, anymore. She had been an assistant to the vice president for Public Affairs, John Thurber, at Thomas Edison State College for five years, where she organized galas and golf outings. In the wake of the disaster, office work seemed too confining. She had been decorating for years informally, but now decided it was time to do it professionally. She and her aunt put their resources together and bought a house in Hamilton, which Devigili decorated, creating a jazz theme with prints and sculptures of musicians, all anchored to the upright piano. Although she tailors her business to middle-class people with tight decorating budgets, Devigily isn’t afraid to think unconventionally. She couldn’t tolerate the mass-produced ugliness of the interior of her 1977 Chevy Nova. After she put floral contact paper on the dashboard, the car was one of a kind. During a brainstorming session to create a signature for her business, she was sketching ideas for a cousin with graphic arts background. She wanted to create the image of a happy, busy designer, so she sketched a woman with a painting in one hand, a flower pot in the other. With no hands free, she carried a lampshade on her head. Her cousin, Miri Traube, fashioned this idea into a logo, a lady with design on her mind. A Metuchen native, Devigili lived in North Carolina before coming to the Trenton area to raise her son, Adam, who is going to be a freshman at Nottingham High School in the fall. For more information on Silvergirl Designs, call Debi Devigili at (609) 658-3965 or visit silvergirldesigns.org, which will be up and running later this month.