DEL.ICIO.USATLANTA HOMES: AN INSIDE LOOK
Designers transform apartments on $10,000 budget
Westchester at Peachtree Valley units decorated to the nines
For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
What would you do with $10,000, four weeks and a clean canvas? That was the test facing three interior designers this summer.
Selected from a pool of 15 entrants, each had to fully furnish a one-bedroom apartment, supplying everything from the bath towels to the patio furniture.
Alison Church / Special
Designer Corinne Matthews chose a glass dining table that doesn’t overwhelm the small room.
Alison Church / Special
Matthews made the color scheme green to bring the outdoors in.
Alison Church / Special
Designer Linda Balocco purchased a sleek sofa for the living room that’s also a sleeper.
Alison Church / Special
The custom made wall unit in the bedroom was designed by Balocco.
Alison Church / Special
Designer Robert Grayson played off the stainless steel accents in the architecture of the building in his design.
Alison Church / Special
Grayson chose a gray-blue sectional for the living room to maximize seating options.
The money and the apartments were provided by Westchester at Peachtree Valley, a new apartment community just south of Buckhead managed by Archstone. The designers are all members of the Georgia chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.
They began their work by envisioning the person who would live in the apartment, and then creating a world for that person to live in.
Grown-up and sophisticated
Designer: Robert Grayson, 48, of Robert Grayson Interiors
The client: “She’s a career-minded young woman on the go, and this is her sanctuary. She wants a comfortable space, very soothing and very adult.”
Color: “One of the design stipulations was that we could only paint one wall in each room. I went with a deep chocolate color for the window treatments and then had paint mixed to match. One wall is wrapped in the curtain fabric and then the return wall is the same chocolate color. The sofa is a gray-blue
microsuede and I added white shelving and white lamps to pop against the chocolate.”
Accent pieces: “There are strong stainless steel accents in the architecture of the building so I echo that with pieces like a wire lounge chair that serves as a focal piece. It’s almost a piece of sculpture, but it’s very comfortable. Stainless can feel cold, but the chocolate warms it up.”
The artwork: Grayson’s background in graphic design really comes into play here. “I saved a lot of money by doing the art myself. The piece over the bed is a 3-by-5 rectangle of cement board painted with a silhouette in matte and glossy paint. It costs $24 plus the paint, and it’s something anybody could do,” says Grayson. He painted on a canvas drop cloth for the large piece in the dining room, bent concrete reinforcing wire to create a sculptural wall hanging to place over the TV and found a weathered wooden shipping pallet and created a piece for the kitchen.
Good ideas: “You can get a lot of good ideas from HGTV. Just don’t be fooled by their price tags. They’re telling you what the materials cost, but not including the price of the labor. Reinvent things you find. I bought a photo mural at IKEA and split it into three panels, which makes it look totally different.”
Big splurge: The bed linens. “I got great linens from Restoration Hardware. You spend way too much time in bed to have cheap sheets. The queen-size bed with its upholstered linen headboard and footboard was $400 from IKEA, an amazing price, so I could splurge on the linens.”
Favorite stores for the look: IKEA, West Elm, Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel for furnishings; Scott Antique Market, flea markets and antique stores for accessories.
Three tips:
1. Don’t be afraid of using really dark colors in a small space because they actually make the space feel bigger. When I first went into the empty apartment, it seemed so small, and now it feels really spacious to me.
2. Mix and match. People go to a furniture place and buy everything that matches — the sofa matches the lounge chair, the end tables match the coffee table. Mix it up. Mix square with round, shiny with matte – it creates a lot more interest. It looks like you accumulated these things rather than went out and bought everything at once.
3. Art can define a space. Large pieces in a small space make the space look bigger. People can be intimidated by art and tend to go small and under scale. Bigger is better. The big canvas I did really anchors the room and makes a huge statement. You get a lot of bang for the buck that way.
Fresh green for a tranquil feeling
Designer: Corinne Matthews, 35, of Dream Room Designs
The client: “A professional who has busy, bustling days and wants to come home to a place that is tranquil and relaxing. I chose green as my color focus because it helps to bring the outdoors in.”
The feeling: “Apartments can be very sterile feeling, sort of thrown- together and temporary. I wanted to create the feeling of a high-end condo, a place that felt like a real home. I chose a range of greens to reflect what’s going on in nature, including the views in the apartment, and incorporated a lot of wooden pieces with great graining and textures.”
Furniture: “I chose a sectional sofa, which gives lots of seating but allows for good circulation and room to entertain. The dining table is glass so it doesn’t feel heavy; great for smaller spaces. A plush green area rug helps define the living and dining spaces, and a wooden étagère in the dining area provides both storage and display space.”
The soft furnishings: Matthews is a talented seamstress and her custom touches are everywhere. She found a striped fabric she loved, then combined it with coordinating solids to create the curtains, pillows, bed coverings and shower curtain. She admits that kind of custom work can be pricey, “But if you’re handy with a sewing machine, or know someone who is, it’s the perfect way to customize your home.”
Big splurge: The accessories. “I spent about 12 percent of my budget on accessories. I found great things on sale and reworked them. Custom framing elevates the artwork and makes it uniquely yours.”
Favorite stores for the look: “T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls are great sources for inexpensive accessories.”
Three tips:
1. Think about the overall picture before you buy anything. You want to continue your theme from room to room, not have an assortment of things that look disconnected.
2. There are simple things you can do to make your home feel custom. Recovering your dining room chairs is easy to do — making pillows that match your window treatments — these are things tailored to your living space.
3. If you don’t have a lot of money, paint and window treatments will give you the greatest impact. You can work with a little bit of a fabulous fabric and then fill in with a solid that is less expensive. You get a rich, expensive look on a much lower budget.
A modern European sensibility
Designer: Linda Balocco, 50
The client: “They could be young or they could be old, but they want to be in a place where they can walk to the museums and shops. I imagined someone who would want a comfortable, easy-to-clean space that lives larger than its 750 square feet.”
Keeping it light: “In a small space like this, you have to keep it simple. You want the natural light to bounce off the walls. I was happy with the apartment’s creamy white walls and glossy white crown moldings. I hung simple white transparent linen drapes to allow the natural light to come through.”
Furniture: “Although the apartment is small, I wanted to provide space to host one or two friends for the weekend, so I put in a beautiful sleeping sofa. Then there are two creamy white leather armchairs and a cocktail cart to hold a plasma TV. In the corner I created a dining space with a round glass table with a Venetian chandelier. There are four simple chairs and no barstools because I hate them. They’re never very steady and not really comfortable. I prefer a table where you can sit and have dinner.”
Big splurge: The bedroom wall unit. “I really needed to maximize the space here, so I designed and found a cabinetmaker to build a beautiful wooden wall unit that includes a desk, bookcase and two night stands. The reddish birch color contrasts with the walls and goes beautifully with the fabrics on the bed and the wall hanging.”
Favorite stores for the look: “It’s easy to find things that are beautiful and real expensive; the trick is to find just what you want and inexpensively. Design Within Reach, which has a shop on Peachtree Street, and By Design on Cheshire Bridge are great sources for furniture. I like YLighting online for beautiful modern lamps including the fiber-optic floor lamp I put into this living room.”
Three tips:
1. In little tiny spaces, you have to be really careful not to fill up with many things because that doesn’t give comfort. Use big functional pieces.
2. Leave everything white, or whatever, but never, never color only one wall in a small space.
3. Use pieces with simple, linear lines, not complicated. Like in life, simple things are better.