Dan Canavan This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Insights & tips for home sellers & home buyers

   www.chicagometroarearealestate - [Cached]

   Published on: 10/9/2006   Last Visited: 10/28/2006

   By Dan Canavan, Home Makeovers
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   Dan Canavan
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   Guest blogger, Dan Canavan, is a redesign specialist for Home Makeovers in Chicago. Dan can be reached at 773.818.3112 or by e-mail at dc@home-makeovers.biz.

2. 2. Room to move

   www.dailysouthtown.com/index/1 - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/17/2003   Last Visited: 1/19/2003

   Dan Canavan can redecorate your home just by shuffling items you already own.
   
   Friday, January 17, 2003
   
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   Dan Canavan, owner of Home Makeovers in Chicago, insists it's not.
   
   "Most people hate shopping or hate decorating," he said. "People don't realize they already have nice things."
   
   Canavan owns a start-up design business, Home Makeovers, that renovates rooms primarily by reorganizing space. Using the furnishings you already own - and some you didn't realize you had - Canavan can transform a room, his clients say.
   
   That cluttered living room that doesn't look better, even after you clean, is prime stomping grounds for Canavan. The hutch in the dining room, muddled with knickknacks and china, is a blank Canavan canvas. The furniture-jammed bedroom that requires shin-guards to navigate is simplicity waiting to happen.
   
   While organizing and cleaning is part of the package, Canavan adds flair, too, by incorporating pieces he finds in other parts of the house. Don't be surprised to find him rummaging through your garage or basement in search of a funky old lampshade, an antique garden tool or your kids' artwork.
   
   "I found an old trunk once that had postcards inside from the 1920s. We made a collage in a simple black frame," Canavan said.
   
   Client Suzanne Mogan of Hanover Park said when her mother died, she felt overwhelmed at the thought of combining her mother's things with her own.
   
   "I inherited all of her furniture. It was too nice to throw away, but I don't have huge rooms, and I didn't know what to do with it," she said. "It was sitting in the garage."
   
   She hired Canavan.
   
   After clearing out the living room - the first order of business in any Canavan project - he began piecing it back together with furniture and artwork from all over the house.
   
   "He put an oil painting in the upstairs family room over the buffet. It matched the coffee service my mother had," Mogan said. "Everything was balanced. He mixed more contemporary pieces with the antiques. He listens to you."
   
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   Canavan begins his projects with a client consultation.
   
   "If I'm going to make over a room, I want to know how the client uses it," Canavan said. "Is it the room where the family relaxes? Is it more formal?"
   
   On the day of the project, he asks his clients to leave the house for the day. He spends the first couple hours removing furniture and artwork from the room he was hired to make over.
   
   ...
   At the home of a Morgan Park client, Canavan pumped new life into a TV room by rearranging the furniture and incorporating mirrors and other things he found around the house. He was hired back to spruce up the kitchen; he replaced appliances visible on open shelves with decorative plates and pitchers.
   
   "The TV room was always a problem," the Morgan Park client said. "I had what I needed in there, but I never knew how to arrange it. It always looked like a big box."
   
   Canavan grew up at 85th Street and Lawndale Avenue. In addition to Home Makeovers, he works for the Cook County Sheriff's Department coordinating drug prevention programs.
   
   He discovered his knack for decorating while rearranging furniture at the home where he grew up. His brother was living there at the time and wanted to spruce up the house before selling it.
   
   After Canavan worked on it, his brother insisted it looked like a brand new house.
   
   Canavan eventually signed up for an interior design class and learned about the Interior Arrangement and Design Association, a group specializing in transforming rooms using existing materials.
   
   "I like the hands-on work," he said. "I saw this was something I could do."
   
   Design mistakes he likes to correct include down-sizing knickknacks. He encourages clients to rotate collectibles rather than crowd them into limited space.
   
   And rather than buying coordinating bedroom and bathroom ensembles - like bath rugs that match the shower curtain that match the soap dish that match the towels - he encourages people to mix and match their own unique items.
   
   He charges $75 an hour and usually spends about six hours redoing one room.
   
   "I didn't want to spend $10,000," client Mogan said. "I wanted to use what I already owned and have something I could live with rather than be frustrated by having all these new pieces in one room."
   
   "It's decorating for real people," Canavan said.
   
   For more information about Canavan's business, call him at (773) 506-1979.