Althea has been assessing kitchens for 23 years, first as a real estate agent with N.B. Taylor & Co. in Sudbury, and with other agencies from Concord to Marblehead. She obtained her Certificate of Interior Design at Massachusetts Bay Community College, while working with her mentor, interior designer Eileen Feldman (ASID). Althea spent one year as a bath designer at EXPO Design Center in Burlington, designing and selling 33 bathrooms.

Althea especially enjoys working with space to make rooms more functional and livable, and loves blowing out walls to find more of it. She lives in her dreamhouse, a hilltop Deck House, which has 48 feet of glass walls facing the Boston sunrise. The guest bathroom has a sink in a converted Victorian dresser and Mexican tiles on the floor and tub surround.