Donna Decorates Dallas: Budget Based Family Room Makeover

Jeana and Bryan Deleon are really tired of their family room. It's dated, with 1980's style ash wood paneling on all the walls. The room also has an all-brick fireplace and a living area dominated by a puffy leather sectional sofa that is large, but which significantly limits the number of people who can comfortably occupy the space. The room's color palette is monochromatic brown due to the paneling, the leather and the brick. Jeana would like to effect a total transformation, and Bryan would like this as well, while keeping costs down as much as possible.Donna creates a completely new look by painting the paneling a modest cream color, which, because it matches the carpet, opens up the room and gives it a much more modern and sophisticated feel. She replaces the dated leather sectional sofa with a stylish and colorful new scallop-backed sectional that her upholsterer Arturo creates by stripping down and restructuring an existing sofa and love seat that occupied another room. On the fireplace, Donna installs an ornate new surround made of decorative cast stone with a black fossil stone top. Donna also paints the brick in the over mantel black, a bold move that gave Jeana and Bryan some concern when she first presented the idea to them, but which they love when they see the result. Another client, Ron, has a condo that he feels lacks unity of design and that also needs a personal touch. The existing furniture is mismatched and uncomfortable, with no unifying theme, and the overall effect is rather bland. The dining table and chairs are cold and stark, there's no lighting, and the metal chairs give the dining area somewhat of an industrial feel. To personalize the space, Donna and Ashley create a display of Ron's family photographs and postcards from his hometown by framing the items and mounting them on hinged panels that they've covered in an attractive burlap fabric. In the dining area, Donna replaces the metal chairs with comfortable and plush fabric chairs, and places a matching banquette on one side of the dining table. She paints the adjoining wall a striking, yet warm, array of metallic bronze hues, and illuminates the area with a sophisticated and unique light fixture featuring large glass spheres suspended from stainless steel cables.