Party Room

Jennifur Brandt is a writer with a sophisticated sense of style. She has already decorated the upstairs of her Spanish-style bungalow, but her downstairs space is just a big white box. She likes to get her friends dancing by playing DJ in her downstairs living area, but needs help creating a vibe that suits her style. The Design on a Dime team stops by to help this hip DJ find her design groove.

Before: Jennifur's party space lacked ambiance.

After: The new space has an underground lounge feel.

The Dilemma
Jennifur would like her living area to have an underground lounge vibe. The plain white room lacks color and seating. She also needs a cool, yet accessible, storage solution for her vast album collection.

The Solution
Host Lee Snijders, along with design coordinators Charles Burbridge and Summer Baltzer, stop by with a plan to turn this boring space into party central. The team gives Jennifur new seating that can be moved around to make plenty of room for dancing as well as lounging. They also bring in a stylish and functional storage unit to transform the DJ platform into a focal point for the room. Dramatic lighting and fabric wall treatments create ambiance in the space. Here's how the team gets the party started.

• First, the team gives the space a coat of paint in a warm green color.

• Next, Lee and Heather get to work on the wall treatments. Using gold, copper and olive-colored satin fabric, they create fabric "sails" for the walls. The fabric is cut into triangular shapes, a pocket is sewn into the broad end of each piece, and a grommet is placed on the bottom point. A flexible rod is inserted into the pocket. The sails are mounted to the wall using simple T brackets, and each tip is secured at the grommet. To give the sails dimension, the brackets are bent outward to create an arch in the sails when mounted.

Charles adds new lighting to the room with vertically-mounted fluorescent light fixtures. For a moody, underground glow, he wraps the bulbs in orange acetate (available at most art supply stores), attaching it with household transparent tape. Because the bulbs do not generate much heat, the acetate and tape will stay put. Using a flexible rod, Charles then mounts a fabric panel in front of each fixture to mimic the arch of the fabric sails. The result is a soft glow for the space.

Summer creates modular club seating by upholstering outdoor patio furniture. The benches fit together to create a circle but also allow Jennifur endless opportunities to create individual seating areas around the room. To create a perfect fit, Summer lays the benches upside-down on the foam to cut out her pieces. The bench seats and legs are covered in batting, enclosing the entire leg area. This creates a soft surface to slide the slipcovers onto. The slipcovers are made with a green faux-suede fabric and will slide over the foam and batting-covered benches to hide the seat and legs.

Lastly, the team adds a storage unit to hold Jennifur's record collection. The piece has a series of cube spaces that will be easily accessible when she is spinning tunes and offers her a way to organize her collection.

The Cost

Sails and hardware - $175

Modular seating - $510

Record storage - $104

• Expedit, 40031603--Ikea

Ambient lighting - $130

• Elect shoplite, 208484--Lowe's

• Acetate--Michaels

Ceiling fan globes--$14

Total - $998

Resources
paint
Mark's Paint Store
Website: www.markspaint.com
Also in this Episode

Design on a Dime : Episode DOD-1201
•	Party Room