A look into Liberty Home From A High School Co-op Perspective By Lisa Friesen

Lets face it, we all wish for our homes to look like those pinterest posts!! But let's be real, most homeowners don't have the time nor the motivation to completely redesign their home while taking care of a family and working full time jobs. It can be overwhelming because many do not know about colour palettes, balancing symmetry and using focal points. So with that in mind, when it is the right time to make an investment in your home, you want to ensure you do it right. So who do you call? 

Liberty Home is an amazing team of organizers, designers and interns that bring clients home dreams to life. In addition, they have the project management skills to communicate the vision to contractors ensuring the beautiful designs that they create are executed to perfection. From creating custom made furniture pieces, to reaching out to local artists, to full home renovations, the experienced design team makes sure all the pieces of your home are pulled together perfectly. Liberty Home involves the clients in the decision making process from start to finish in the design process. Erin personally presents completed thorough design boards with detailed furniture pieces from quality stores and 3D layouts for customers that want to see the end results. In a short amount of time, Liberty Home has established a strong and reliable business that can be trusted with every aspect of your home.         

Let me introduce you to the Liberty Home team!

                                                Erin Liberty

Erin is the CEO of Liberty Interior Design and co-owner of Liberty Home. She has varied education and experience studying business accounting Laurentian University and achieving her Certified General Accountant of Canada designation. She started working in the grain industry and later joined Union gas spending 16 years in the gas industry. She had many opportunities working in Finance, Business Development, Regulatory, Forecasting and Storage and Transportation. In 2015 while looking for a creative outlet she completed the Interior Design Institute of Canada course and in 2016 Liberty Interior Design was established. Erin loved her corporate career but with more responsibilities she had less time to spend with her family and business. Erin is a family oriented person and values the time with her family; the farther she drifted from home life, the more disconnected she felt. In June 2020, she began the journey towards better work life balance and reconnecting to her true self. In the interview she stated that she loves to create something beautiful and bring her clients vision’s to life. Erin is truly talented, she respects her clients, creates long-term friendships and does her best to make their home dreams come true. 

Joe Liberty 

Joe is the co-owner of Liberty Home and is responsible for the renovation side of the business.  He grew up in the country between Thamesville and Dresden and attended the University of Windsor to receive his bachelor of commerce then also attended St. Clair college to receive his marketing degree. Upon completing his degree, he started working at Union Gas where he worked for 20 years and met Erin, his wife and business partner. He and Erin have built this business from the ground up. They are married with two beautiful and talented young boys. What makes Liberty Home stand out from the rest of the Interior Design businesses is that they also design and create signature custom handcrafted furniture pieces. Joe personally designs and handcrafts one of a kind high quality custom pieces (you can see his beautiful work featured in the gallery). With every custom project he feels a sense of pride to create something beautiful out of nothing. Joe’s favourite part of working in the Design Industry is the relationships that he creates with his clients that turn into long term friendships.

Cathryn Dick

Cathryn is the Director of the Marketplace and Artisan Relations. She met Erin in elementary school and has now reconnected with her to become a part of the business. Cathryn received her Bachelor of Business administration from Laurier University in Waterloo where she focused on accounting and business. She has worked in the audit field, natural gas and grain industries. She is happily married to her husband Jason and has two lovely children. As their family grew, Cathryn also felt like she needed to step away from the corporate path to spend more time with her family and figure out what she really wanted to do. This is when she reconnected with Erin and joined the Liberty Home team, becoming the Director of Marketplace. She is always on the lookout for new artisans and ways to to support local businesses. Check out the marketplace to see what she has been up to.

Genesia Hartford

Genesia is the Marketing Manager for Liberty Home group of companies. She completed a SSW diploma from Fanshawe College and is currently working part time in a public school in London Ontario. She is passionate about photography and started her own business in 2021 called Nessa Jean Photography. She was hired to take family photos for Erin, Joe and the boys and learned about the Liberty Home business. She fell in love with the family, admired their energy and wanted to be a part of the growing business. For Liberty Home she is responsible for managing multiple social media accounts and for creating all of the social media creative content. She loves working for Liberty Home because it is a positive and supportive environment that gives her the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally.

Our Interns:

Brittany 

Brittany is one of Liberty Interiors interns. When Brittany was younger she enjoyed watching interior decorating channels and was fascinated with how different a room can evolve just by changing a few details. She's originally from Sarnia, where she got her High School Diploma, but then bounced around throughout London for a couple years until she settled down in Chatham-Kent. She worked as a personal support worker where she took care of people who were ill and elderly people who needed help getting everyday tasks done. Just like Erin and Cathryn, she took initiative to follow her dreams and strive to achieve what she actually wanted to do. She then applied to be an intern at Liberty Home and began to learn the basics about Interior design. As an intern she completes 20 hours a week doing research, creating design boards and answering questions that she is given about interior design. She uses her spare time to improve her previous design boards with what she has learned through the week, constantly improving and becoming a better intern. When working with Erin she feels like she can relax, be herself and suggest ideas knowing there will be no judgment towards them. These are the things she loves when working with Liberty Interior and she hopes to have her business one day too. Brittany wants to focus on tiny homes and restoring old historical buildings that she feels have a lot of potential. With the opportunity that Erin has given her, Brittany too has the chance to follow her dream and create her own business. 

    Jeral 

Jeral is one of Liberty Interiors interns. She has been married for 21 years and has 3 beautiful kids. She owns her own home care business caring for seniors' basic needs. Jeral has always loved event planning, DIY projects and using her creative skills to make something beautiful. She is more interested in the decorating aspect of the business rather than the actual design, where she can choose which furniture to use and where to place it. Jeral also completes 20 hours a week doing research, creating design boards and answering questions that she is given about interior design. She attends team meetings every Monday and Friday from 1-3pm, going over questions throughout the week and to summarize what they have learned. In the next 5 years, Jeral hopes to create her own successful interior design business designing homes in Chatham. When working with Liberty Home, she loves how they hit every aspect in the Interior Design business including renovations, marketing and the actual designing. With that being said, Jeral would love to work with Erin and her family to redesign her 4 generation home to her dream home. With the help of Erin and her intern course, Jeral is well on her way to creating her own design business.