{Interiors} One FOF’s living room makeover on a $350 budget

FOF Lauri Ward built her business, Use What You Have Interiors, on the theory that anyone, on any budget, can have a beautiful home using the furnishings they already own. A few months ago we put her theory to the test!

The challenge: Help FOF Marcia Robinson by making over her entire living room in three hours… with a $350 budget. Did she do it?

“Tired and uninspiring,” is how FOF Marcia Robinson described her living room when she entered our room makeover contest in January. Marcia has lived in her one-bedroom, Manhattan apartment for 25-years. Ten years ago she attempted to furnish it in one-fell-swoop with pieces she loved. “Everything went wrong,” says Marcia. “The glass came cracked on the coffee table, the wall unit was too small. It was a big hassle.” Frustrated, Marcia took to decorating the apartment piecemeal over the years. However, her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, and a forced-retirement from her job at a management consulting firm, has put a hold on any recent updates to Marcia’s living room.

And as for the actual “living” that goes on in this room…there’s not much. “I spend most of my time in my bedroom where my computer is,” says Marcia. Lauri says the room’s “visual chaos,” is why Marcia might not find it relaxing. “When I look around, there’s no blank space to rest my eye,” says Lauri. “The good news,” she tells Marcia, “is that by correcting a few common design mistakes that most people make, you can update your living room without buying all new furniture. Your home should look as up-to-date as you do.”

Read on and discover the mistakes and quick fixes Lauri found for Marcia’s living room.

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“You can never have two many pairs,” says Lauri, who swapped Marcia’s mismatched lamps for a pair of lamps from IKEA ($69.99 each). She also added two IKEA throw pillows ($14.99 each) to the couch. “The more pairs you put in a room, the better it looks. You need the balance.”

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“The couches were set up in an L configuration with two chairs in the corner. This is probably the worst setup there is for comfortable conversation,” says Lauri. “Plus, the chairs were too far from the coffee table.”


“We took away one couch, and set up the furniture in a U-shape. Now, everyone can sit and face each other. You can put out hors d’oeurves on the coffee table and everyone can comfortably reach.”

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“You collect so much stuff over a lifetime,” says Lauri. “It’s nice to have all these things, but you need to edit what you own and accessorize effectively.”

“Reevaluate what you have,” says Lauri. “Keep the pieces you love. Donate everything else to charity and get a write off.”  She grouped similar accessories together to create collections and got rid of pieces that were misfits. Marcia’s plants are important to her, but the mismatched pots weren’t working. Lauri moved the plants into window boxes to conceal the pots and repositioned them under the coffee table creating an terrarium-like effect.

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“People think they should hang art at eye level,” says Lauri. “There’s no such thing as eye level since we are all different heights.”


“Follow the three inch rule,” says Lauri. “Hold art up where you think it should go, then lower it three inches.” By swapping the chaotic gallery wall for one striking picture, Lauri says the viewer’s eyes can focus.

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“Before, the rug was distracting and competing with the fabric on the sofa,” says Lauri. “This rug introduces a color that’s in the sofa’s fabric. When you have a patterned sofa you want to look for solids for everything else.”

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Mission accomplished! The result? A living room that Marcia can live in! “Now, you can sit in here and read,” says Lauri. “You’ll finally be comfortable.” What does Marcia think? “It’s quite a change!… I like it.”

IKEA shopping list: Two “Dagny” cushions ($14.99 each), Vejen rug ($89.99), Hosto flower box ($14.99), Felicia throw ($9.99), Vilshult picture ($59.99), Two Jonsbo Barby table lamps ($59.99 each)

Grand Total: $324.92

{Giveaway} “Reinvent Your Room” Makeover + $250 Ikea gift card

Whether you are starting a new business, sending your kids off to college or hosting an aging parent, there’s no better time than now to reinvent a room to suit your new FOF life. FOF Founder Geri Brin recently converted her bedroom into a walk-in closet/office. Now it’s your turn….

We’ve partnered with IKEA: The Life Improvement Store and Use What You Have Interiors® to bring you the ultimate FOF room-reinvention giveaway. FOF Lauri Ward, founder of “Use What You Have Interiors” or one of the members of her network of decorators (the Interior Redecorators Network®) will provide a room re-design consultation to the winner.

IKEA Design Spokesperson Janice Simonsen is giving a $250 gift certificate to IKEA to help you fill in any “holes,” further reinvent your space and better your FOF life.

To enter to win the Reinvent Your Room makeover with a Use What You Have® decorator plus a $250 gift card to IKEA: The Life Improvement Store, comment below and answer: What room would you reinvent and how would it improve your life?

(See all our past winners, here.)

Contest closes Thursday, January 27, 2011.

Thank you for entering. This contest is now closed.

[click here to find out more about Lauri Ward of Use What You Have Interiors® and Janice Simonsen of IKEA: The Life Improvement Store]

More about the designer:

In 1981, FOF Lauri Ward decided she wasn’t happy working in “conventional interior designer mode.”

“I didn’t feel comfortable telling my clients they had to buy expensive things to make their homes look beautiful,” says Lauri. She started her company, Use What You Have Interiors® and developed her own system of decorating, to help clients use what they already have in their home to create a fresher, updated and more elegant look for a starting flat fee of just $350 per room.

Over the past three decades, she’s trained hundreds of decorators and has formed a worldwide network called the Interior Redecorators Network®.

“Anybody should be able to have a beautiful home, not just wealthy people,” says Lauri.

The concept is simple but the instant gratification that a one-day room makeover delivers is what Lauri says has garnered major media attention (including Oprah, The Today Show, The New York Times and House Beautiful Magazine) and kept her company thriving for three decades.

“The comment we hear from everyone is ‘Gee, I never would have thought of that. I’ve tried this 10 different ways and none of it worked,” says Lauri. “We show them the 11th way.”

More about IKEA’s FOF design spokesperson, Janice Simonsen:

FOF Janice Simonsen, design spokesperson for IKEA “reinvented” herself many times throughout her career. She started out as a graphic designer, owned a successful interior design business and then transitioned into a position as design spokesperson for IKEA U.S. where she lends her interior design expertise to any topic ranging from small space living to designing a dream kitchen.

IKEA – The Life Improvement Store – understands your life at home and designs products to meet your needs, and make your life better. It’s important to have your home work for your lifestyle – and sometimes that calls for “reinvention” as we go through different stages our lives. Whether you are transforming a bedroom into an office, or making room for a new addition at home, IKEA offers well-designed products that suit every style (and budget!) to help you improve your space, and your everyday life at home.