Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
Both children were in school, so her days were free.
She had gone to work part-time at the bank, where she used to be full-time. But it was bought out, and she didn’t have a desire to start over with a new crew.
Sitting around the house was not an option.
“I can not stay home and do nothing.”
So, having a business degree, but an interest in interior design, she started hanging wallpaper. An interesting way to pass the time, but you could say, it ran in the family.
“My grandfather had been a wallpaper hanger. I had some of his old tools. I had re-papered our bathrooms.”
But that wasn’t enough.
“One night, after everyone went to bed, I decided I was going to hang paper until about midnight, then I would go to bed. My husband got up the next morning at 5:30 to go to work. I was still in the kitchen hanging wallpaper. I stayed up all night long.”
And before long, her passion for hanging wallpaper started bringing in a nice income.
“(In the late 80’s and early 90’s), people were papering everything. There were paper ceilings. Everybody’s bathrooms were paper. Their kitchens were paper. Their entryways were paper. Their dining rooms were paper. Even their bedrooms.”
And those people were willing – happy, in fact – to pay for her services.
“They would say, ‘This will save my marriage. Instead of us doing it, we’re going to pay you to do it.’”
Janet Meier, the recently-turned 69-year-old who is one of our area’s most sought-after interior designers, told me that story – and her story – during lunch at a place she chose, Taziki’s Mediterranean Café’. Janet had the Grilled Chicken Gyro and a side of fruit salad. I enjoyed the Mediterranean salad with grilled chicken, and a cup of Homemade Greek Lemon Chicken Soup. We both drank water.
“Early on, I loved doing what I do. I loved arranging the furniture at home, or moving things around. I always wanted to do what I’m doing.”
These days, Janet isn’t hanging much wallpaper. Instead, she’s helping homeowners who are building or remodeling, pick out wallpaper color and design. She’s choosing paint colors. She’s selecting just the right table and chairs to make a house look – and more importantly – feel like a home.
“I struggle sometimes with what I do, because I think it is too materialistic. But on the other hand, I’ve had many people tell me my home is my solace. That’s my sanctuary. I want to come home and feel good about it. That is a service – not just something materialistic . . . . If things aren’t comfortable when you walk in, and you don’t feel good when you take that breath when you’re home, that’s not good, because you’re day may have been not so good.”
Janet was born in Oklahoma, into a military family (Janet has a brother 12 years older) which moved four times before she finished first grade. When Janet’s father retired from the Air Force, everyone relocated from Watertown, New York, to Shreveport, where Janet’s mother was from. Janet began college at Louisiana Tech, with eyes on a career in fashion merchandising. But she came home because she was “in love. Then that fizzled.”
Janet chose to stay home and graduate from LSUS. She worked in finance and banking, but knew she had a talent for turning something old into something new, or for bringing warmth to a cold space.
“I was dabbling with friends who wanted to do something with their houses. ‘I’ll go with you! I will help you pick out that thing! We’ll pick out some new wallpaper!’ I was doing it for people for free.”
Eventually, one of Janet’s longtime friends who owned a design store asked Janet to give up her freelance wallpapering job and come to work for her, and put her real talents to use.
“I’ll be truthful. I was a little skeptical. I knew I could stay busy every day of the week hanging paper. I could get my kids off (to school) in the morning. I could quit at three o’clock, clean it all up, and say, ‘I will be back tomorrow’ if I didn’t finish. I could meet the (school) bus. It was great.”
But Janet knew she could do more than hang wallpaper. She worked for her friend for 19 years, helping people realize their dream home, until the business was dissolved.
“I wasn’t ready to quit.”
So, in 2010, Janet took out a loan and opened her own store – with her own name. Smart move, considering so many people knew of her work.
“I was excited. In my heart, I never really felt like it wouldn’t work. I guess my thought was, ‘Can I pay for all this stuff? Can I really do this?’”
The answer lies in the fact Janet never went back to the bank for a second loan.
“We brought a lot of (past clients) with us and (business) was really good.”
And guess who went to work for Janet? The same lady who gave Janet the opportunity to do more than hang wallpaper. Pretty cool.
Janet’s talents can’t be taught in a classroom. You could argue they can’t be taught at all. She was born with the ability to see what you and I can’t.
“I can visualize. I can’t draw it for you, but I can see it. I really think I’m a color snob. I can really tell if the color is not quite right. If the paint color is a little off, I’m like, ‘That’s not what we picked.’”
Oh sure, there are other interior designers. But can they sing? For 50 years – that’s right, 50 years! – Janet has performed Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings as part of the Noel United Methodist Church choir.
“It’s very meaningful,” is how Janet describes music. “It’s very emotional. I think the compilation of the right words and the melody can just move you, where talking doesn’t get the message across. Music is very much a healer. It’s like medicine for the soul.”
Worried Janet had formed an unfavorable opinion of me after I told her I thought a black tuxedo and brown shoes look good together, I decided to ask my final question. As always, what is it she wants people to take from her life story?
“You can never go wrong when trying to help. I hope everything I do for somebody is in an effort to try and help their situation. Help the way things look. Help the way they feel about it. I’m a big proponent of helping others. You can never out-help someone else.”
Just ask the many people whose house would, without Janet’s help, look like a black tux with brown shoes.
Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.
The Journal’s weekly “What’s Your Story?” series is sponsored by Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers.