Kristine ‘Kris’ Brigden said she could hear the calling.

“You see, I have a bit of a sickness,” she said with a laugh. “This building was screaming at me, ‘Reno me, reno me.’ Every time I drove by I thought that I had to get my hands on that building.”

The building she is talking about is the home of her new business, North Muskoka House Ltd. The new design house has been operating since late May at the former Sandpipers Restaurant, located on Hwy. 60.

Brigden said she had driven past the building for years when her family came  north to visit her husband’s family and each time she felt an attraction to the property. She said she looked at the structure with her professional eyes and felt she could do a lot with the property.

The building eventually went up for sale, and although she had visions of acquiring the property, Brigden knew it was not a project she could undertake at the time. “I knew what kind of work it needed to bring it up to my standards, which would have been exorbitant. So it drove me crazy, but I just left it.”

She left it until about one year ago when her husband Chuck McDougall told her he happened to know the new proprietor. She contacted the owner and deal was soon struck for what is now North Muskoka House Ltd.

“First off it is a design firm. That covers off commercial interiors, residential interiors, renovations, custom-design builds and landscaping. Then you add the retail component, and that affords you to a have a showroom. I have a line of Canadian manufactured furniture downstairs, which is exclusive to me. That allows my clients to come in and purchase.”

The business traces its roots back to 1995 when she opened the Kris Brigden Design Company, where she designed residential and commercial interiors in the Caledon region.  

When she and her family moved to the Muskoka region six years ago, she continued her profession working with her new Muskoka clients.

However, Brigden said she faced a problem in trying to service her clients’ needs.

“I found that there was a niche here. All the clients I was getting from Muskoka I couldn’t find what I needed here. I was constantly going down to the city with a truck to load the type of furniture I needed here. A lot of my clients are Baby Boomers looking for full-time living here and they don’t want rustic furniture; they want a home.”

“I thought this was crazy. I was spending all this time and money to bring the items up here. At that time I had six clients on the go and three of them were full houses. My thoughts were do I kick it up a notch or back off a little. Once you have children you have other priorities. But in the end I decided to kick it up a notch.”

She decided to offer a retail outlet featuring top line furniture and products in her showroom and the rest is history.

Now occupying around 11,000 square feet of space in the building, Brigden said she is pleased at how far the business has come in less than two months. “It has been great. We have really positive feedback and it’s been a lot of fun.”

For more information, call North Muskoka House Ltd. at 787-0330 or visit them online at www.northmuskokahouse.com.