Fran's Redesign

Fran asked me to help her with the great room arrangement of her condo. She had lived there for four years and always felt there was no other way to arrange the furniture.

Fran's great room is long and narrow with one long wall. The problem with this wall is in one corner there is a two-sided fireplace that is within a few feet of a big entertainment unit. The couch is facing away from the view of a golf-course and only one chair faced the TV.

We had the entertainment unit moved to the opposite side of the room before we arrived. With a little juggling of the couch and carrying two chairs downstairs and bringing one back upstairs we finally managed to get the seating correct. The seating now makes sense with a better conversation area and facing the TV. The fireplace is not being suffocated by furniture. Also added, was a nice quiet reading chair facing the fireplace for the cold winter days here in Michigan and a nice view of the golf course.

Decorating Spring Fling

The Decorating Voice blog is having a Decorating Spring Fling with the chance to win an iPod nano. You have to come up with a Spring Vignette using what you already have around the house. The challenge goes out to everyone.

Go over there to check out the rules, leave a post, and come back to my site to read an older post about The Secrets of Decorating. Then go to your own blog and show us what you can come do.

Interior Redesign For Jackie

My mom's friend Jackie received a redesign for her birthday from the members in her band - The Dippsy Doodles. I'll have to write about them some day.

Jackie's home is very unique in that you have to walk through a main room in order to get to the kitchen, and this main room is small and narrow making it difficult to arrange the furniture. Everything is lined up around the perimeter. The walking path cut through the room. It's important to not have your main walking path cutting across conversation or in front of the TV as in Jackie's home.

Notice in the top photo in order to watch TV everyone had to turn their head. In the above photo do you see the only chair facing the TV is almost in the kitchen and in the path of the door wall?

We tightened up the space and made the TV viewing easier as well as moving the main walking path to the kitchen outside of the seating area. You will see the TV is moved to the left, to add the chair and another light. A wicker chair was introduced to the room giving it more of a cottage feel with a table and lamp for another light source. We now have three lights around the room forming a triangle. Entertainment centers do not always have to be placed in the center of the wall. The chair that was almost in the kitchen was moved to another room. A hutch in the kitchen was separated and the bottom was used as the sofa table. The top part of the hutch was taken to the basement.

Another Before and After.

Are you a Jackie? Do you have a walkway through a main living area?

Family Room Redesign

Teen Bedroom Redesign

This teen wanted a room to call her own that was all about her, and different from her friends.

This is storyboard 1

... and storyboard 2

Now I'm just waiting for the "OK" from mom to get started.

Resources from Target and Ikea