Anna reconnects with Janine Sharell, a TV producer who shares her personal experience working with Anna and how she's now living the life she's always wanted.
From Janine: I met Anna Marshall six years after my marriage had ended. In the divorce, I got the house — a reminder of a 10-year marriage that didn’t work. My little 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath ranch style home was supposed to be a starter house, one we’d live in for a few years then sell and buy something bigger and better. But plans don’t always work out. Although my husband had moved out years ago, the same paint was on the walls, the furniture was in the exact same position, and the same sad feeling — that what I had could have been so much more — still remained. My house brought me down. It wasn’t warm and welcoming. Instead, it was cluttered, physically and emotionally, and I felt stagnant. Even the sound of the doorbell made me cringe! I didn’t want anyone to see what a mess laid behind the front doors. I knew I was ready to move on but everything felt the same.
Enter Anna Marshall. Anna’s daughter and my son played on the same little league team. She and I were the first to arrive at the team’s awards banquet and we sat together. She asked what I did for work. I explained that I was a reporter and producer at CNN for many years, and at the time, I was freelancing, which is code for sitting by the phone, looking voraciously for work, and jumping at any job that came my way, even those I once would have thought were below me. Anna said she was a home stager who wanted to start using her talent to heal spaces and change people’s lives. She explained that she would enter homes that weren’t working, whip them around, and make them sing! She’d done just that for a man who had recently inherited his family home only to find he couldn’t live there because the memories were crowding him out. She had transformed his home, and he was able to start a new life there. It dawned on me that what Anna did was what I needed most.
After speaking with her, I realized it wasn’t the house that was bringing me down, it was the energy in the house, or lack of it. She said objects carry energy and that things needed to be moved around, and possibly removed, for me to start feeling better — the clutter, the mix of overcrowded spots and underutilized places, and the all too familiar reminders of what was and what wouldn’t be.
I wanted my space healed! From the day Anna walked into my home, things changed, starting with letting go of items that I no longer needed or that I had inherited but never used. She painted my bedroom and turned my bed to face the beautiful view of my tree out the window. She said she needed to change my perspective, and boy, was she right! Anna also transformed my children’s playroom into a home office for me, re-purposing the over-sized armoire, that ate up most of my bedroom, into a storage closet for the office! In the office, an unused closet with no doors got shelves and became instantly useful for my printer and paperwork!
We rarely used the living room, mostly because I didn’t know how to set it up; my desk was in the corner facing the wall, and the fireplace read LOG CABIN! What do you do with that? Anna was amazing. She faux-finished the rocks on the fireplace, which softened the color. She re-aligned the furniture and turned the room we NEVER used into the room we use MOST! After years of no use, it became our family’s favorite room. Blocked doors that once were never used had swung open with possibilities.
We could feel the energy change that Anna said was needed. What Anna did not only had a profound effect on me, but it touched my two children in a way that surprised me. Eight and eleven, I thought they were too young to care or notice how our house looked. How wrong I was! They cared, they saw how happy these changes made me, and they got it! They saw me sitting at my desk in my new office being happy to be there. My desk was no longer in a corner of my living room facing the wall; it was in a brand new space, one that allowed creativity to flow and work to get done!
Within weeks, I landed a new job as a producer on a reality show. It was the full-time staff position I longed for but thought was out of reach. The changes Anna made to my life and my children’s lives are immeasurable. Another amazing thing happened! Just as the old energy and memories were painted away, a wonderful man came into my life and I found love again! It was something I had hoped for but thought would never happen. My home and my life now flow in a positive direction. We are grateful for her work, her vision, her heart, and her fabulous taste!
Get Anna's new book, D.R.E.A.M Home: Detox Your Space, Transform Your Life today!
