Familyroom Consultation

I recently had the pleasure of working with Mary Lou of Marmielu's Nest, one of my readers and a fellow blogger, on her family room. She was so sweet when she sent me an email asking for my help, along with pics of her family room. I was so excited to work with her and come up with a plan to lighten up her room on a budget.

Mary Lou was looking to lighten up her family room, as well as declutter it to make it feel more cozy and inviting. I gave her a very detailed note advising her of several things to do in here, so she will probably take her time and get going on it a little at a time. The wall color is a pretty gold, so for now that will stay. She really wanted to lighten up her sofa and chairs and wanted to do white duck slipcovers on the 2 burgandy chairs, but realized that with pets in the house, that would not be practical for her at this time. I mentioned blue denim for the sofa and I think she will do that for a slipcover.

Her hubby really likes blue, so we are going to go for more of a blue look in here with lighter accents. And we have to work around her hubby’s likes and tastes too, so had to keep that in mind.

Love her creamy white armoire, so that is definitely staying. I advised her to do some simple and inexpensive panels on either side of these windows above to soften the windows and give them a more up to date look, so the valances will go. For now, she will keep the shades that are up there, but for future might think about bamboo blinds eventually, which I advised and love.

I gave her some suggestions on breaking up the lamps and adding 1 or 2 different ones in here, since they all look alike. I don’t really like matchy-matchy lamps all the time and prefer to have different, yet coordinating lamps in a room. The only place I have matching lamps is in our master bedroom on the nightstands and do like that look.

We’re going to lighten up the rug and go for something a little more casual. I suggested a striped jute which would look great in here.

A big brick fireplace is always something to decorate around and I suggested she paint this out the same as her trim or the wall color, but since her hubby is totally against painting brick (most of them are!), this will have to stay too.

Mary Lou has some really nice pieces to work with. I suggested she lower the old sign (love it!) and take away the mirror that’s on the chest and make that a focal point with a lamp too.

These vertical blinds will have to stay too, but additional panels could be added to the sides to soften it up a bit also. Both of the reddish chairs will eventually be slipcovered with something lighter, but probably not the white cotton duck that she had originally thought about using. Even in decorating, we have to think about what is practical to live with everyday too, in spite of the pets that share our homes.

So, after a few suggestions, I think that Mary Lou will be able to get a lighter and brighter room once she makes some changes. You can see from the board that I am using the colors of creamy whites, blues, a touch of yellow with a punch of red in here to bring some warmth and life to the room. It’s going to look great! Mary Lou recently sent me an update and she has decided to slipcover the sofa and chairs in denim and will start working on that this summer.

Thanks Mary Lou, for letting me work on your room. Mary Lou wrote me back with this after I sent her the Inspiration Board and detailed notes:

Thanks so much for all you've given me. I have really enjoyed reading your notes and looking at the inspiration board, and there are some great ideas for updating my room. I think it gives me some practical steps to take going forward to change the room to something I can enjoy more. I think this is a terrific service you are offering. I have appreciated being able to get another perspective on my room. When you live with something, it can become difficult to really see the possibilities.

If you'd like to get a Decorating Consultation of your own, click here for details!

And click the board for all the info on each item and where it came from:

Mary Lou by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com

A Familyroom Consultation

One of my readers, Margaret, asked me to help her with her family room, so she sent me lots of pics to look at and peruse.

She’s got lots of neutrals in this space and I love the wall color, beams and light color of the fireplace already, so she really has some great bones to work with in this room. The wall color will remain the current creamy white, but I added some blue and orangey-red to the inspiration board to show the accessory colors that will be dominant in here.

She asked for ideas on how to make it look better and more cozy and to get the built-ins looking better instead of too cluttered.

The painting is staying so that determined a lot of the direction we went for bringing in accessories for the room.

And I love the dark chocolate brown leather sofa and chairs that are already here.

She has a lot of great things, but the room needs to be brought more up to date with some fresh things added. The oak armoire will be moved out of the room as well as some dated accessories, like the ships wheel clock.

So, I came up with this Inspiration board with lots of things to add to the room that will cozy it up and bring it more up to date with some interesting lamps, rug and just rearranging some of her current accessories. She has a nice blue and white collection which needs to be highlighted in the built-in bookcases. And the artwork needs to be lowered and some of the smaller accessories removed for larger pieces. With some changes, this room will be a standout. I also sent her 4 pages of suggestions and ideas for how the room can be changed to add the inspiration pieces found on the board. Her room has great bones, it just needs some tweaking to bring it up to date with a much more cozy feel.

Margaret really loved my ideas and sent me this note:

“What we both really liked is how you had a color vision for us as to how to bring the large painting into the decor. Instead of having the painting be the only splash of color, you gave us great ideas on how to make these colors come alive in other areas of this room. Your advice was worth it's weight in gold!

I also wish you would mention the importance of the inspiration board in addition to the written evaluation of a client’s room. In my opinion, they go hand in hand and make things so clear. I also think it's important for a trained eye to list several things that jump out to them about a room. I can't tell you enough about how so many of us get to the point of "not being able to see" our rooms anymore. We know we need help, but we don't really know what's wrong or what isn't working.”

Margaret's Family Room by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com

(Click pic to open for all details on each item)

If you'd like my help with a room, click here for more info! This is so much fun for me to reach out and help others who are stuck with a decorating dilemma.

A Kitchen Inspiration Board

One of my readers, Lisa, emailed me recently to ask for help with her kitchen, so I got busy and came up with an Inspiration board to give her some ideas to use in her space.

She loves the green Bordallo dishes, as well as black and white dishes, so I used those on the board too. And she’s planning to paint her kitchen with a pretty olive green, Olive 3 from Laura Ashley, which is one shade lighter than my kitchen. She also thought about adding a small piece of furniture next to her kitchen table. The border on the cabinets will be going too. Here’s what I came up with for Lisa’s kitchen, click on the board to open it up and you can see all the information for each item:

Lisa by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com

Lisa is ordering the Austrian valances from Country Curtains in the black and white check to add to her windows (which is just like the small pillow fabric you see) and taking them up higher on the windows this time. She has white cabinets and will be making some small changes to the room that hopefully will add a lot of punch. The addition of some hanging plates, a new wall color and newly updated valances will really make this room come alive. She was looking for a new fixture too, so I think this style would look great in Lisa's kitchen.

Since her rooms all flow together, she was looking for some rug ideas for her living room too, so the rugs on here are for that space. She ended up ordering one of them. I also gave her a few tips on her other rooms in this area.

Hope you enjoyed this little update for one of my readers! If you'd like to get some decorating help, click here for more info.

Don't miss out on the fantastic giveaway that's going on for the next week at my Review Blog, thanks to BlogHer and HP. It's a good one and one of you will be very happy with the prize!

Inspiration Board: Contemporary Family Room

I just finished up another inspiration board for Linda in Florida, who sent me an email saying, HELP! I need your help with our familyroom! The room has great potential and she has some nice pieces of furniture, but it just needed some rearranging and some additional art and accessories. She gave me ideas on colors that she and her hubby enjoy and they really like earthtones of chocolate brown, gold, green, and orangey red. She sent me pics of her space from all angles and I got busy with some planning.

I suggested that she get a larger lamp for her foyer table and move the smaller accessories out, as well as lower the mirror that‘s hanging over it.

And since her TV is sitting straight ahead coming in the frontdoor, I suggested she completely flip the sofa around to opposite to where it is now and the TV/entertainment center would go on the left wall. She wanted a piece of furniture to house the TV, so I found something that would mix well with her on the contemporary side furniture.

I suggested that she move the large glass front cabinet to the wall (in first pic) where the console table is currently. That way, it would be the first thing that people see when they walk in the door. A great focal piece.

So, with some rearranging of furniture, a new rug, art, and accessories, this room will really come alive. They are keeping the current wall color. She’s got a large coffee table under the pass-through window (which is going to be uncovered) which should be utilized in front of the sofa and I gave her an option of another chair and ottoman.

Once the sofa is flipped, I suggested she put the large console table where the TV is currently and add a large piece of artwork over it. Another nice focal point for guests coming in the door.

And here’s the inspiration board I came up with for her to look at. She was very pleased with my suggestions for furniture rearranging, as well as items to put in her updated room. I gave her several rug suggestions and she really liked the beige floral rug the best. With the addition of some of these colorful pillows, the new rug, and artwork, I can’t wait to see this room when Linda is finished with it.

Linda Living Room - by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com




Linda Living Room Rugs - by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com






If anyone would like an Inspiration board, please click here for details. I'd love to help you.

Also, my blog makeover will be happening on Friday night if all goes well, so if things look strange around here, that is why. The new look is going to be SO nice, so stay tuned for a better look around here and an easier to navigate blog.

Online Inspiration Boards

I recently finished up an Inspiration board for an online client in Tennessee. She sent me pics of her familyroom and asked me to come up with a plan for the room, using some of what she already has and adding some freshness to the room. The plans are to remove the paneling and add drywall to this room. The trimwork will remain stained. She wanted a warm and cozy, but colorful feel to the room. And she sent me this link to a space on Rate My Space as her inspiration. After looking at those pics, I knew the direction I'd go with color and that I would modify her plan with a little more casual feel for her room. She gave me ideas on colors and what she likes as far as artwork, including barn stars and bird pictures.

Her sofa will stay, as will the coffee table and end tables, but when I completed the Inspiration board, I added in elements including furniture, lamps, accessories, artwork, and rugs that I thought would work in the space. My Inspiration board was done in Polyvore, which has been fun to play around with. You can save all the items that are found online to a file and then build a board with them. Then I was able to send her the boards and she could see exactly where each item came from.
She's got great hardwoods in here so a nice large area rug will really pull the room together.

And with a large brick wall to work around too, we'll keep that in mind when choosing paint colors. So, with all that in mind, I came up with 2 Inspiration boards for her to look at and get some ideas on which way to take this room. I sent her a detailed document of room arrangement ideas, as well as which items to concentrate on getting first. Her budget is limited at the moment, but hopefully she can bring in a few things at a time and get this room going in the direction she and her family will love and enjoy. After I sent her the Inspiration boards and the detailed comments, she sent me back a note saying:

I love, love, love the suggestions you made!

That said it all for me. To get your own personalized Inspiration Board, click here for options. Click on the Inspiration boards below to open them up for all the details on where each item came from. I used a look-alike sofa picture to mimic her existing sofa for the boards. And since she is going to keep her coffee table and end tables, I suggested that she stain them darker.


Rustic Familyroom - by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com

Rustic Familyroom #2 - by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com

Online Consultations

(Photo from Rowe furniture, online - This is my familyroom sofa)

After receiving a few inquiries about doing some online decorating consultations, I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a plan for that, so here it is for those who of you who might be interested. There are a lot of online resources out there these days for decorating/design help, so if you like my style and how I do things, I hope you’ll perhaps consider hiring me to help you with getting your home just the way you’ve envisioned it. I’m very good at visualizing what a space can look like and that’s how I come up with ideas in my own home. I’m planning to get up to speed on working with virtual photo boards very soon. But, for starters I’m really good at brainstorming after looking at pics and getting some ideas of what your style, wants, and needs might be. So, here’s the breakdown:

Plan #1 - $50

You send me an email with pictures, showing the layout of your room from all angles, dimensions of the room, and anything else you might want to tell me about the room and your style. Let me know what you want to accomplish, or if you’re totally stuck, I will give you a direction to move into after we have some conversations back and forth about your room. This would be general decorating advice, like paint colors, ideas on room arrangement, adding accessories and some general ideas on how to improve the room either using what you already have or some suggestions of things to purchase.

Click here to get started:

Plan #2 - $100

This would be an entire room consultation, from top to bottom. Again I would need pics from all angles, dimensions, and anything else you might want to tell me about the room and your style. Are you starting over with the room, or just need ideas to take it to the next level? Sometimes a fresh eye is all that is needed to look at pics and begin to figure out what is missing or perhaps what is there that should come out of the room. This would cover paint colors, furniture placement, fabrics, window treatment ideas, and accessorizing. This would cover ongoing emails or even talking on the phone to discuss ideas and plans for your room, what sort of budget you have to buy new pieces, etc. In this plan, I would also shop online for some ideas on furniture pieces, rugs, lamps, etc. as needed and present them all to you.

Click here to get started:

Plan #2 will offer a virtual collage of ideas for your room from online merchants, such as the one below:

To see other consultations I've completed with Inspiration Boards, see these links:

Familyroom Consultation
Kitchen Consultation
Contemporary Family Room
Traditional Family Room
Country Family Room

Payment can be made via Paypal or money order, whichever you prefer. Thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog and if I can assist any of you with your decorating needs, I would love that! You’ve all been so supportive of me and my business this past year and I’m excited to take it online. You have my assurance that I will consider your space to the best of my ability, to give your room a makeover and to do it on a budget.

I have answered many of your quick questions via email (regarding a project I’ve done that you want clarification on or just a ‘what do you think about this idea’, and will continue to do that with no charge on things that can be answered in a fast and easy manner!

For those of you who may be new to my blog, I have a business website, The Restyled Room, with all of the information on my decorating business here in Birmingham, including a portfolio of pictures of some of my projects. You can also click the picture to go directly to my website:

Thank you all again for your support and I look forward to working with you.