LAKEWOOD - When Margalit Lankry moved here 35 years ago, she made her apartment beautiful on a budget.
She decorated it with a set of carefully curated items that she found in the garbage or at flea markets. Back then, she didn’t have much money. She had just gotten married, her husband was a student at Beth Medrash Govoha and she was a full-time mother.
“Our finances were challenging at the beginning. I didn’t have a lot to play with, but I would go flea market shopping or find things in the garbage and then clean and spray paint them, so I could decorate our apartment and make it look beautiful,” she said.
At home, she would spend a great amount of time rearranging furniture, doing creative projects with her children and decorating for the holidays.
One day, after eight years living in Lakewood, she decided to try offering her services as a decorator to others, and Margalit Lankry Designs was born. She was very nervous, but not intimidated.
“You've got to give it a shot," Lankry said. "If you never try, you never know. There was a lot of things I didn’t know. But don’t think because you haven't done it before it means that you can’t do it. Just learn on the job and ask questions.”
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'Space for opportunities'
After knocking on doors around Lakewood, Lankry got her first gigs decorating storefronts. It was early 2000s and the township was growing with multiple new businesses and new construction everywhere. “I saw in every construction project a space for opportunities,” Lankry said.
Word of mouth got her more clients. Besides storefronts, she started decorating venues for special events, and as she gained more experience and recognition, she started designing home interiors.
One of her clients loved her work so much that he offered her the opportunity to work on a nursing home in Cherry Hill, which Lankry revamped.
“The place was old and dark. I refreshed the whole space. We changed the lightning and we put new materials in to give the space a hospitality experience,” Lankry said.
Designing the nursing home was a turning point for Lankry’s career. She designed other commercial spaces, and multiple other health care facilities, eventually specializing in commercial interior design.
“People walk into a health care space stressed out, injured or sad. So for me is very important that the space reflects how we want patients to feel: comfortable and serene. But the place has also got to look professional, so the patient feels that the staff know what they are doing,” Lankry said.