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Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Eye for Style: Pat Cihi, who recently retired from Murison's Flooring America after 12 years, had a innate talent for interior design, a career she started in her early 40s.

Murison's Flooring America retiree had a great following at the shop

By Victoria Gottlieb

After creating beautiful homes for 25 years, Pat Cihi decided it was time to retire.

She closed out her career with Murison's Flooring America on Lincoln Avenue, where she had worked for more than a decade.

Cihi, 69, began her interior design career well into her adulthood. After marrying John in 1959, she settled down and focused on raising her three daughters, who are now in their early 40s. Once her daughters were grown, Cihi decided it was time to pursue a career of her own. She enrolled at West Valley Community College in Saratoga, where she spent three years as a part-time student in the interior design program.

Eager to start her career, Cihi plunged into the field just shy of earning a degree in interior design.

"I was older when I went back to school," she says, "and I was ready to go to work. I didn't want to fool around too much longer."

She also says the degree wasn't a criteria with the small businesses she worked with.

"I learned a lot in school, but you learn by doing mostly," she says.

The transition into the workplace was unnerving at first.

"When you go back to school or go back to work, you kind of lose a little bit of confidence," she says. "You don't know how successful you're going to be in a new career."

She began at Color Carousel on Curtner Avenue. She worked there for more than 10 years, until the company's financial troubles forced its owners to downsize the staff.

Cihi suddenly found herself unemployed, but she wasn't out of work for long.

Ed Lacina, the owner of Murison's Flooring America, knew Cihi from the drapery workroom that they both used. Lacina's interior designer had just gone on maternity leave. Desperate to find another designer, Lacina called Cihi. That was 12 years ago.

Cihi worked for Murison's Flooring America as its interior designer, developing close relationships with customers and co-workers alike. "Pat had a tremendous client base, and a great following," Lacina says. "It was one of her real strengths."

Though Cihi chose 2006 as her year to retire, the decision had nothing to do with any diminished love for her job.

"I think you kind of know when you're ready to retire," she says, "but I was still loving and enjoying what I was doing."

Cihi is still working on some unfinished design projects, saying she didn't want to leave clients "in a lurch."

Aside from the ongoing design projects, Cihi says she is enjoying her new found freedom from a day-to-day work schedule. She and her husband, who has been retired for 12 years, have been taking more day trips and working on gardening projects together. The couple is looking forward to traveling more, and recently returned from a springtime trip to China.

"I'm keeping him busy," Cihi says.