Before and After: Funky, Eclectic Living Room Redesign

Before, living area

Before the makeover the decorating issues in this home included a lack of proper workspace, inefficient lighting, a collection of mismatched furniture and a need for additional window treatments.

Before, workspace

The Dilemma

Snijders discusses his Moulin Rouge meets funky coffeehouse design ideas with Summer Baltzer and Charles Burbridge, which include lush textured fabrics for the windows and walls, new lighting and more room for Santoro to work. They choose a wine color for the walls and divide up the projects. Baltzer will create a funky French-inspired chandelier while Burbridge will be responsible for Santoro's workspace.

After, workspace

The Solution

The design team transforms the lifeless space into a funky, eclectic room — here's how they do it:

• The room is immediately brought to life with a rich purple paint color on the walls.

• Baltzer shops for chandelier inspiration and finds a French-inspired piece that shimmers with crystals. Since it's out of the budget, she hits the garage-sale scene and nabs a brass chandelier for $5. She tones down the finish and adds glass beads to create the luxurious look of the inspiration piece.

• Burbridge purchases a desk from a home store and adds visual interest with a gold stencil treatment on the top and gold fringe hot-glued to the edges.

Faux rubies add a touch of elegance to the theater-inspired valance.

• The windows are dressed up with yards of red velvet trimmed with gold fringe, white sheets and a dramatic valance constructed by Burbridge. He creates the valance out of 1x6 planking and secures the pieces with small metal L-brackets. He paints the face of the valance the same color as the walls and then paints the edges with gold paint. He further enhances the piece with a stencil and faux ruby jewels.

• Snijders creates his own artwork using frames and mirrors. He gathers an assortment of frames and faux finishes some with gold and black paint. He adds mirror pieces to the back and then attaches the frames to each other to create two three-dimensional art pieces.

• The team brings Santoro's furniture back into the space and angles the arrangement in one corner to make more room for her workspace. New throw pillows in deeply saturated hues help bring a cohesive look to the grouping.

• Two new side table lamps with black shades and Baltzer's chandelier in the corner add the necessary lighting.

The Cost

Fabrics - $372

• fabric for side tables: Jo-Ann Fabrics - Cranberry Casa Crepe #4491304
  
• velvet fabric; blue, gold, red, gold fringe: Home Fabrics
  
• drapes: IKEA

Furniture - $166

• work tabletop and legs: IKEA - Curry/Amon, #18273 top/#30032434 legs

Lumber and supplies - $135

Lighting - $135

• lamp: Office Depot - lmp,bnkr,dsk,pacif 2201170528
  
• lamps: IKEA - #464900
  
• clear, burgandy and gold beads: Creative Castle

Accessories - $133

• storage containers: IKEA - Beckna/Sallsam, #15467/#19508

Paint and supplies - $59

• wall paint: Benjamin Moore - #2074-10 Grape Juice

Project Total - $1,000