Hello, Friend!

My name is Sharleen Thomas, I am an interior designer, wife, and Mother to 3 (William, Alice, and Pepper). When we aren't at the rink we enjoy our days exploring our backyard in the countryside of Leduc County. A little history about me, I graduated from the Interior Design program at NAIT in 2008. That summer I met my now-husband Steve at a friend’s birthday party. Work that first year consisted of being bounced around from designing museums, hotels, and restaurants. Those jobs were exciting at times but were also repetitive, something was missing for me. I decided to make a change and leave the big city, I moved to the small town of Calmar to be with Steve and start my own business. Residential design is where I found my true passion. It started with my Dad coming up to me one day and asking me if I would like to “build” a house with him, so we did! I learned a lot, well we both did. For example, an important lesson was to not use spray foam when it’s windy out… and I’m not great with an automatic paslode. We did it all from laying tile, shingling, installing laminate flooring, and painting the whole house. That house was a great starting point for me as I then moved on to paint other homes for clients and give them design consultations. As my business grew, so did my relationship with Steve. After a year of in-town life together we move a mile and a half out of town to his parent’s land. That is 80 Beautiful acres with farmland and pasture, a tin roof red barn, and a 1951 farmhouse. The farmhouse needed a lot of work before we could call it home. I would spend my evenings fixing it up, yet there was only so much I could fix. The septic would back up every spring and the furnace sounded like a monster in the creepy old basement. Sometimes the furnace would, unfortunately, stop working in the dead of winter and then randomly start up again. There were also a few months in the winter when I had to take a sub-pump and pump out the septic across the driveway, so I could shower or do laundry. I think Steve was testing me to make sure I could handle this “living in the country” lifestyle.

Growing up, I was raised as an in-town girl. I remember telling myself I was never going to live on a farm and well they say “never say never” because I fell for a farm boy. We got married in September of 2012 on a beautiful day down by the McCloud River. On our wedding day, we began a fast-track into farm life when my family thought two goats would be the perfect wedding present... almost 10 years later they are still kicking! However, I can’t say the same for the potbelly pig that my lovely Aunty gave us as well. As our little farm started to grow we decided to expand our family and had our first child, William. He was born in December of 2013. He is such a happy and fun-loving little man. Ever since we moved out to the farm I knew that we needed to build a new house with more room and fewer issues. With William being three months old we decided this was the time to build. We moved the old house off its foundation and Steve's Aunty took it to her land. We wanted the new house to be built in the same location. Our build took roughly six months from start to finish. We moved in with my sister, her husband, and my niece that is just six months older than William. In which case they became like siblings! In the summer months, we spent more time in our tiny camper parked in our yard to take care of the animals and keep a close eye on how the house was coming along. As campers usually go, little sleep was had. William would “sleep” in the tub as a crib. He did not like it as he spent most nights with us in our bed cranky and teething. Meanwhile, we were also juggling our work schedules. I remember carting William around with me or leaving him with family while I worked. I was busy with designing our home as well as my parents that were building at the same time as us and I had multiple painting clients as well. After a long spring and summer, our house was ready to move in on our 2nd Anniversary. It was the best present ever! That night I sat on the couch with my wedding dress on and had a glass of wine. I then realized that dreams do come true. As time went on, if I wasn’t working on a client's house, I was working on a project for our home. Steve is the type of man that likes things simple and doesn’t fix them unless it’s broken. Our brains work differently. All my project ideas would seem a bit too overwhelming for him at the moment. For me, when I have a vision, I always want to make sure I see it through even if it takes a year or more to bring them to life, my patience has gotten good between renovations and kids! Thankfully, Steve has gotten used to this over the years.
As the house started to become a home, we were expecting our 2nd child, Alice. She was born in September of 2015. She is as fierce as she is beautiful. After having her, Steve and I decided I should take a break from working and stay home with the kids full time. I thought it was a great idea, but I had warned him that I will be working on more projects for our house. As time went by, I would do a small project here and there or helped family with a project to help feed my passion. One day, I was itching to finish up a few projects I had on the go. So, I dropped the kids off with family for the day. Steve came home to see my projects in progress everywhere, he looked at me and said, “You need to go back to work”, hence stop working on so many projects for our house! Like I had said, I warned him.

I started working with clients again and finding the balance between Mom life and work. That’s when we decided to expand our family again. Pepper was born in February of 2018. She is patient and adventurous. As our family keeps growing, our 1700 square foot house is seeming to feel smaller and smaller. William and Alice are currently sharing a room and with no playroom, toys are overflowing. That is when we decided to get a move on and finish the basement. It is going to give us that extra space we desperately need. We added 3 bedrooms( Williams room, guest room, gym), a bathroom, and a large rumpus room for the kids to play. We are currently on the last steps to finishing our basement. We did most of the work ourselves with the help of friends, Steve's Uncle Brian, and my parents, gotta love family labor! I thoroughly enjoyed sharing all my projects, a behind-the-scenes look, and the progress on my Instagram and Facebook with my followers. Not all my projects went as planned (ok a lot didn't) and it helped me to grow, learn and connect to my followers. Showing them the good, bad and ugly. I learned it's ok to make mistakes, learn from them, and that I'm not a quitter, it may take longer but I see every project to the end! With my community growing on Instagram I decided to rebrand my business Where My Love Grows, as I was known on Instagram but my business was formally Uncovered Design.

After doing some internal growth during the pandemic I realized I wanted, needed to find a way to bring my community together to uplift everyone's spirits. I wanted to find a way to give back to my community and share my talents with them. Therefore I created the Mother's Day Makeover Project with help of my community. We had our first successful year in 2021 and continue to do it each year.
As my family grows and I strive to be the best Wife and Mother I realize that my soul craves design and making spaces beautiful. I am a better Mother and Wife when I spend time doing what I love. I want to inspire and help you fall in love with your home again. I am passionate about creating functional yet beautiful spaces that will allow your family to thrive and that you will love coming home too.

Thanks for stopping by my page, I would love to hear from you and how I can help you to love the space you are in!