Yesterday, on day two of the Jamaica Observer’s Design Week JA 2021, Dezign Diva and Karen Booker Design Group principal Karen Booker enthralled online viewers with an episode of Couch Conversations. The talk show-style programme saw Booker chat with four guests, each bringing their individual style to enrich the broadcast.

Booker’s first guest was EdgeChem Jamaica Limited Marketing Manager Sophia Hickey. EdgeChem, a woman-owned Jamaican company, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. With 23 stores islandwide, it manufactures decorative, furniture, automotive and industrial paints. Before being engaged as an EdgeChem brand ambassador, Booker had admired the brand’s paints, often using them in her interior design projects. The products, she noted, stand out for their quality, performance, low odour, non-toxicity, and colour variety. For example, EdgeChem Colour Glow has 32 vibrant colours. In many cases, just one coat will do.

Next on the Dezign Diva couch was Lasco Microfinance Limited Sales and Product Manager Marsharee Burrell-Johnson, who revealed that Dezign Diva and the financier have partnered to offer home improvement/design loans. The Re-Dezign Loan Programme allows approved applicants to access up to $400,000 to “redesign, refresh, or re-energise your space with the help of the Dezign Diva”. According to Burrell-Johnson, the Re-Dezign Loan is available to traditionally employed and self-employed individuals. It aims to level the playing field so that people from all socio-economic levels can access home improvement loans.

Neish Creative Group Managing Director Jason McNeish is a young entrepreneur making his mark in the creative industry. During his previous marketing role in corporate banking, he conceptualised a televised interior design competition. Six years later, his dreams have come to fruition. Courts Home Coach: Jamaica’s Top Interior Design Challenge, due to air in a few weeks on TVJ, Sundays at 5:30 pm.

Last on the couch was Life/Corporate Coach and Transformation Facilitator Fabian Thomas, who encouraged viewers to be their best selves, which sometimes requires trailblazing and thinking outside the box. Especially in Jamaica, where “the gatekeepers make the box and aim to keep people in it”.

The guests on Couch Conversations shared helpful information, allowing viewers to think of design in ways that can improve not only their homes, but also their souls.