DURHAM - She got hooked, it became an obsession, she thought of little else. So began Sharon McCormick's love affair with the world of designing.

The former certified public accountant recalls falling into her present vocation. She was bitten by "the designing bug" when she and her husband, Mark, bought a house in Durham that needed extensive work. She and her father tackled the job, and she says she was amazed by the "before and after."

Soon, she was "reading tons of decorating magazines, and thinking all day about what I would do when I got home."

She knew she had to change careers. After attending Paier College of Art in Hamden and working part-time for two designers, she started her own business in 2002 - Sharon McCormick Design, LLC.

For the past year and a half, she has been part of a design team for "Room for Improvement," a weekly segment for an NBC news station in Boston. The producer matches up the designers with people who want a room redecorated.

She was recently matched with a young newlywed couple in Marlboro, Mass., Michael and Janice Cooper, who wanted to redecorate their home office with a contemporary design.

"The biggest issue was that there was stuff everywhere," the designer explains.

"They had things from their college days mixed in with, as they described it, their 'junk.' I needed to make the office functional for both of them, and to store away their stuff. I had to make it look contemporary, and I had to make it fun."

She did all that, in great part by bringing in a custom-made partners desk (made by Jason Dixon of Durham). A desk wider than the usual, it allows them to sit across from each other. Each person has files on his or her own side, and an end panel opens up with a printer on it.

The best part of the job, she says, was working with junior designer Sara Hartley, who chose a lot of the accessories.

None are paid for their labor on the TV show. The payoff is the air time they get on "Room for Improvement," showcasing their work. "We get two minutes of primetime in a major market, four times in the week that it airs, for a total of eight minutes."

More people are using designers now, McCormick says, because it's become more mainstream. With the decoration shows on television, the service is not just for the upper class anymore.

"People are more hesitant to decorate on their own today," she says, "because they are overwhelmed by the multitude of choices on the market.

"There are so many decisions that people don't realize they have to make. There are literally thousands of them.

"Without a designer, people feel overwhelmed, and so they tell the builder to do what he wants. But then they lose that personal touch. Their house is like everyone else's."

McCormick likes to custom design things and she likes big jobs. She especially enjoys decorating an entire house, either new construction or renovation, because she gets to choose everything.

"I love everything that is not ugly," she says, referring to her eclectic tastes. And she likes what's new to her -  like the log cabin she is working on.

"I've never bought an antler horn chandelier. It never came up before, but it's totally appropriate for this house. Animal lovers, fear not - the antlers were naturally shed."

She has a practical nature, McCormick explains, and begins her designs by first determining function.

"I know I can make it beautiful later, but first I have to make sure that the things I put in the space will function the way they're supposed to. I like to problem-solve. I think outside the box, not just about what's in front of me.

"A lot of houses are designed to look good on the outside, but they're not thinking about where the furniture will be placed. That's why it's good to be on the ground floor, when they're building the house. I can suggest a little change in structure, like changing a door, which will save them thousands of dollars by not having to replace the furniture."

McCormick tries to make people's lives better through design, so that they love to come home. And she always wants the house to reflect the people living there. "Your house should say something about who you are."

Jarrett and Jody Stern, clients who own a 6,000-square-foot house in Ridgefield, have nothing but admiration for McCormick. Says Jody, "I think she's fabulous. She's really, really talented, but she's not pretentious. She makes it very easy to work with her. She has taken a lot of the stress out of all this, and has made it fun.

"My husband and I work long hours and don't have the time to design a house. She came in with no preconceived notions, and I'm amazed at how well she knows our tastes. That occurred after just a few meetings. This isn't just a job to her. She has really taken the time to know us."

With clients in New York and throughout New England, and a stellar year with new projects scheduled to start in June, McCormick has never regretted the day she woke up saying, "I have to change careers."

"I like not having the same day twice. Every day is different and brings new challenges. It's phenomenal to be able to make a living doing what you love."

To learn more about McCormick's work, go to her Web site at www.sharonmccormickdesign.com. Contact her by e-mailing her at sharon.mccormick@mindspring.com or by calling her office at (860) 349-1349.