Designer brings warmth to homes ­— and the needy

[attach]1689[/attach]Alison Doyle has always been inspired by empty space.

“I’m the kind of person that walks into a place and I get a download inside my head of ideas to do with what I call the ecology of the place,” she said.

Doyle, who last year opened A Sense of Space, an interior design and home staging business, says her passion for making rooms beautiful is rooted in childhood experiences.

At 10, she would play with Barbie dolls, but spent more time creating a living area for them using items she found around her house.

“I absolutely loved making penthouse apartments out of coffee tables with the cupboard in the middle,” she said.

“I would literally spend two-thirds of time creating it and a third playing with the dolls.”

Doyle opened her business because she wanted to turn her passion for interior design into a career.

Her goal is to create warm and welcoming spaces that bring out personal expressions.

“It’s great to have nice furnishings and drapery, but it’s not the place to start,” said the Bloor West resident. “How do you want to feel
in your space? What do you want to be inside of when you’re there?”

By creating a feeling of warmth in a house, Doyle says she makes families feel at home and comfortable in their surroundings.

She’s also keen on making people comfortable outside of the rooms she designs.

Doyle feels strongly about poverty and families who can’t afford necessities. She began an initiative called Project Warmth which started when she realized her young daughter had lots of clothes that she no longer wore.

“I thought if this was my circumstance, I was sure it was the same in many households,” she said.

With the help of family and friends, they gathered new and used items of clothing to donate to organizations that work with poor families.

After five years Doyle has expanded the initiative to include collecting other items which are given out as care packages.

Each basket contains a variety of objects, including socks, shoes, sweaters and books.

“We went a step beyond donating and putting together packages that someone feels warmed to receive because of the care and attention that has gone into it,” she said.

“Making the world the place that you want it to be isn’t up to somebody else but to each one of us.”