I did have the good fortune to see Emily Henderson, the recent winner of HGTV's Design Star, at the taping of the Nate Berkus show. I LOVED what she did for a military couple who were constantly moving, but were never paring down. Unfortunately, that season is over so I'll have to check out some online episodes. But in not watching the whole season, I will miss the drama, the angst, the backstabbing and the thrill of victory....yeah, whatever! From what little I saw, I was impressed with her ability and I do want to see more! (But I could do without the drama, etc!) You can follow this link to view the episode and see the before and afters.
http://www.thenateshow.com/episodes/detail/decor-in-a-day/
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| Emily Henderson - Photo taken from HGTV website |
Design On A Dime - the premise sounded interesting - the designers have a $1000 budget to fix up a room in a home. The episode I watched featured a young married couple with a new condo. Their basement bedroom was a yellow box with small windows, low ceilings and no detailing whatsoever. Their furniture was seriously lacking - dining type chairs were substituting as end tables. Designer Frank Fontana to the rescue! (Wasn't he a character on Murphy Brown??)
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| Frank Fontana - Photo taken from HGTV website |
With this whopping $1000 budget, they went to work. An old armoir top with dental moulding found in an alley (how convenient!) was transformed into a neo-classical headboard. They made columns for two corners of the room from plywood and footing tubes - some faux finishing and voila!..they looked like plaster columns!
Fontana and his crew found some cheap nightstands, nailed some moulding to the sides for a picture frame effect and faux painted them to give them a wood grain. They reused old closet doors to create a built in bench, added wainscoting to the walls, painted the walls a bland almond color (to match the bland almond colored rug), added moulding to the windows, new bedspead.....yadda yadda yadda.
In the REAL WORLD, unless you are a total DIYer, the room painting alone would have eaten up that $1000 budget. The faux painting? Unless you have some artristic talent, its best left to the professionals (again, forget the budget!) And if you are a DIYer, you have to have the tools to perform all these miracles! I don't know about you, but my workroom can't handle 8 ft footing tubes with ease! And my saw?...let's just say they took it away from me a long time ago!
The finished effect was nice - a little bland - but the ideas for reusing and repurposing were very good.
So not really impressed with this episode. I think they would have benefited more from a cool color on the walls and some nicely framed artwork, task lighting and a patterned area rug. More bang for the buck. Unfortunately, I could not get any pictures of the episode. Before and afters would have been very helpful. Design is so visual, so you will have to use your own imagination this time! The link below has some good, low cost ideas for sprucing up a bedroom for under $200.
http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/budget-friendly-bedroom-updates-from-expert-designers/index.html
Next up....Color Splash Miami! The name alone is intriguing!
"The objective in times of economic restraint should be to seek excellence, not opulence." David Craib
I loved the architectural elements. The columns were so time consuming, however. Money and time for the columns should have gone to wall art and colorful pillows. The brick molding made a great place to hold framed photos. The bench could have used a colorful cushion. The swing arm lamps were a wonderful space saving touch.
ReplyDeleteOverall, it was a very elegant room. It only needed some colorful accessories.