Toniya Nayak’s simple home renovation tips

Toniya Nayak went from looking in people's ears to looking into their homes and making them better places to live. You may know Taniya's interior design expertise from HGTV or The Food Network. She will be at the New Jersey Home Show this weekend at the New Jersey Convention Center in Edison.

Among the many jobs Toniya had before getting into interior design was working for a hearing aid technician, "enough earwax led me to having that sort of AHA moment of thinking 'I'm too young to be doing a job I don't love,' so I made the big career switch and when that happened everything opened up." Mayak was born to this, "It's in my blood, my Dad's an architect, I went to school for it."

So what basic advice would Nayak offer to getting started on home renovation. "When you walk into a space, the key thing is to ask yourself 'how am I going to use this space?' Why are you doing the renovation? Are you doing it because you don't like the look of it or because it doesn't function well? Figure out what the problem is first and then you can tackle the solution."

As for designing Jersey homes, "I've seen it all from the shows that I've done. I think Boston homes and Jersey homes are very similar. You don't have to spend a lot of money to love where you live."

Storage is a big problem in many New Jersey homes, "There's a lot of stuff that we don't need. The key to getting rid of the clutter is to set a day when you're going to do it, have a game plan and when you get rid of it, you feel so good."

Get more personal advice from Toniya at the New Jersey Home Show.

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