Well, OK, not quite Hollywood, but I recently worked on a design project that’s going to be on the W Network in February.
My friend, artist Jill Alexander, and her husband Jeff are building their dream home on the Ottawa River west of the city. Unfortunately, they’ve been having trouble selling their house in Ottawa, so work on their dream home in the country had to stop.
So Jill & Jeff did what anyone in their position would do – they applied to be on All For Nothing?, a new show on the W Network that’s shot right here in Ottawa. And they were picked to be on the show!
The premise: Two sets of home owners go head-to-head in a competition to update their houses by spending as little money as possible in order to win a commission-free listing with real estate agent and AFN co-host, Paul Rushforth. The other co-host, Ottawa interior designer Penny Southam, comes up with a design plan for each set of homeowners. They both pop in at various times during the makeover to give suggestions, advice, and maybe rile up the homeowners a bit!
Basement rendering by Penny Southam
It’s up to the homeowners to make Penny’s designs reality in just two weeks by doing every DIY project they can, and bartering, bargaining, and begging people to donate their time, services, and products for free. The less money the homeowners spend, the better their chances of winning, because the total amount they spend is deducted from the total value increase of their house. The team with the highest value increase wins.
When Jill asked me if I would be willing to help, I of course said YES! I also loaned her mirrors, lamps, accessories, and furniture. I didn’t have a chance to get to their house till the second week of the makeover. I wish I’d brought my camera with me the first day I showed up – the house was literally turned upside down. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much grunt work – painting furniture, recovering a chair (with Maureen at Modecor Muses), tiling the kitchen backsplash… and my little pet project, fixing up the address plaque :-) There were lots of people working and lots of stuff going on, plus the camera crew was there on Monday which made for a very packed house! Friday was staging day, which was long but a lot of fun. And the big reveal of Jill & Jeff’s house was on Saturday.
As I mentioned, Jill is an artist and has a huge inventory of paintings. Paul & Penny encouraged her to hang her artwork throughout the house, creating a sort of gallery look. I really enjoyed helping to choose which paintings to use and where to hang them. As I looked around at all the paintings, I thought wow, poor sucker who gets stuck with the job of hanging all these paintings. Well, that poor sucker ended up being me! Not sure how I landed the job, but my picture hanging techniques have improved about 1000% after hanging over 22 paintings in a few hours! A special than you to Jill’s niece Brooke for being my assistant :-)
OK, tour time! We’ll start in the front entry – sorry, I don’t have any before pics of this space. But not too much changed – just the paint colour, and we added the mirror and the blue painting (the first of many!)
The main floor foyer… (sorry, again no before picture). I swear, the painting on the right was straight when I hung it! The hardwood floor & stairs were refinished and came out great…
The kitchen was packed full of stuff four days before the reveal because all the furniture on the main floor was moved into it for the hardwood refinishing. I don’t have a picture of the mayhem, but here’s a before picture of the kitchen…
And after – cabinet doors were replaced and cabinets painted, new backsplash (I roped hubby helping with the tiling), countertop, sink, and faucet installed.
My handiwork on this section of backsplash :-)
I thought the pear painting would be perfect in the kitchen…
The powder room is just off the kitchen. Before:
After – vanity doors replaced and vanity painted, new backsplash and countertop installed, art hung. Jill’s artist friend Fortunee Shugar painted the mirror frame.
The dining room before:
After – we moved the two shelf units from the living room into the dining room and accessorized them with various pieces we found in the kitchen and some artwork. The two painting on the DR wall are by Fortunee. I can’t tell you how relieved I was that I managed to hang them level!
The living room was my biggest job. The furniture layout that Penny came up with just wasn’t working for me. One red sofa was in front of the window, and the other was on the wall opposite from the fireplace, forming a sort of L. But that sofa stuck out into the entryway into the room, and it was so far from the fireplace. Plus there was no real conversation area. So I suggested to Fortunee that we move the second sofa to face the sofa in front of the window. We both liked that layout better, but it got mixed reviews. When the camera crew showed up, one of the guys on the crew said “Oh, you changed Penny’s design.” Yep! Was that a bad thing?! Then he said he would use two chairs and a table instead of the second sofa. So I zipped home, grabbed the two arm chairs out of our family room and the accent table in my office, and brought them to Jill’s house. And that change made all the difference – everybody loved the new layout!
Before (this is pre-Penny, not Penny’s layout):
And after – check out the great fireplace transformation. The furniture is rearranged and in some cases replaced, accessorizing, artwork, corner shelves removed.
And a couple of more recent photos with some new pieces that Jill got for Christmas (the second red leather sofa has been moved back into the room to where Penny had originally wanted it):
By the time I got down to the basement, it was close to midnight and my mojo was seriously running out! Sorry, no before picture here, but it was a typical dark basement. The carpeting was removed, hardwood flooring & baseboards installed, the existing sofas slipcovered, and artwork hung.
And finally, the master bathroom. I didn’t do anything in this room, but it was amusing listening to Jill’s sons painting it on Friday night :-) Jeff had to do some touch-ups after they were done! This room probably underwent the biggest transformation. Check out the original yellow sinks & tub!
After – the sinks were replaced with white sinks and the tub was painted by a professional. New tiles installed in the shower and on the backsplash, new countertop, vanity doors replaced and vanity painted, roman blinds hung (all blinds made by Ana Gomez), and the master bathroom is looking way less yellow!
So who won? Well, you’ll have to watch All For Nothing? on Thursday, February 17th at 9:00PM to find out! In the mean time, if you happen to be looking for a house in Ottawa to move into, Jill’s house is back on the market and ready for the big sale. If you’re interested, you can reach her by e-mail or phone (contact info on her web site). And you can check out the listing here.
Working on Jill’s house was a great experience, and I’m thrilled that I was able to contribute my decorating skills to the big makeover. I think this is a good example of how you can make significant improvements to your home without spending a lot of money by using what you already have. And recruiting people who have the skills you need to help you out for free!
And now that I have a taste for Hollywood, there’s no stopping me – JAX is going Hollywood again soon!
Stay tuned to hear all about a big decorating project for a great cause… and best of all, I get to work with six amazing ladies who just happen to be my friends and some of the most talented decorators in Ottawa! YAY TBBs!
I’m linking up to Susan’s weekly blog party, Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Be sure to pop by and check out more of this week’s decorating transformations.
