It's Monday morning at 11:45 - Toronto time - and I'm in the sky somewhere over the Prairies on a flight headed to Vancouver. I've just helped one of the flight attendants redesign her kitchen. (She's taking care of me, so I'm giving out in-flight consultations at 35,000 feet.)
Unlike most of the other travellers on this flight, I'm not headed to an office. When I land I'm jumping into a minivan and heading to South Surrey for my version of The Amazing Race, designer style. It's our fourth annual lottery home overhaul for the Vancouver General Hospital and University of British Columbia Hospital Foundation Millionaire Lottery. Every year I renovate and decorate a home from top to bottom (and someone wins it). This year there's a new challenge - I have about 72 hours to do a house I've not yet set foot in.
I've gutted and redesigned the master bath and decorated the entire home with the help of my team, but I've only experienced it from digital photos.
With windows on three sides, the living room has a great view of the ocean. It's an open-plan home with a contemporary feel, so I've coined a new term to describe my style approach for this home: "coastal contemporary."
What does this mean, you ask?
I find most Westerners prefer a more casual approach and can live without the fussy formal airs of a traditional living room. They want something that feels a bit more dressy than the family room, but still are seeking a laid-back approach to design. Without ever standing in the space, I decided the living room needed to feel rich, "luxe" and sleek all at the same time.
It's fall, it rains a lot in British Columbia, and cooler weather means cozying up indoors with a hearty red wine and a roaring fire, so naturally I'm doing deep, grapey tones of purple. (I realize my logic isn't incredibly strong but I was just feeling aubergine!)
I selected the fabrics on the dock at my mother-in-law's cottage during my summer holiday, conferred with my design team about the best layout of furniture based on their experience of the room during whirlwind site visits. (Picture me with photo in hand, pointing to a window and asking, "What do you see out this window? and seeking guidance for how the room should unfold.)
While the custom pieces were being built, I dashed around town picking out some bits and pieces to round out the room.
So far I've got:
Artwork. Two canvasses with a contemporary vibe and one that features a fig, but it turns out that Kate (one of my designers on the project) likes neither purple nor figs, so if this ship sinks and the room is a flop, I'm on my own.
A coffee table. Bought this from a picture in a catalogue at a store, but have no idea what it's going to look like in the flesh, so to speak. It's glass and chrome and features oversized wheels on the corners. (It has a sort of penny farthing bicycle reference to me, but Kate thinks it looks like a wheelchair.)
It's now 12:30 and as I look around the cabin everyone else seems to be dozing off or looking at the clouds. My colleagues Kate and Tommy are resting up for the marathon adventure that lies ahead and I'm stuck wondering what it's looking like with no access to communication. Half of my team is already on site. The truck arrived yesterday with the upholstered furnishings, rug, art, side tables and lamps. The walls are painted and I think the drapes are hung.
At 12:53 my laptop battery dies. I tell myself it's a sign to stop worrying and save my energy for the day ahead. No time for jet lag upon arrival. I get a three-hour bonus due to time change and will need to have the strength to keep going until the stores close or my design team packs (whichever comes first).
At 11:18 a.m., Vancouver time, I'm in the van on my way to the house. I've just been told that the living room furniture layout isn't working and "there's still lots to do." This is not a great start. The bicycle table was deemed too small and relegated to the basement, while the one designated for the family room was moved to the living room. (We've started stealing from Peter to pay Paul, it seems.)
At 1:08 p.m. I get my first viewing of the living room. The sofa is looking a bit small for the scale of the room. My team pushed for a four-seater version - should I have listened? The mirrored side tables we bought are too high and are dwarfing the sofa. The colour seems lacklustre so we need to bring in an accent wall. I'm thinking it's time to really embrace smoky lavender tones. It seems very "builders beige" and I want drama! Time to rearrange the furniture and see if I can make it come together.
At 1:35 p.m. I make a desperate plea to the painters and they are en route back to the house to paint the chimney and the wall behind the sofa in a deep plum tone.
Fifteen minutes later, and it's not looking good. I started rearranging and now it looks like a furniture showroom. Sometimes rooms get worse before they get better.
Instead of wasting any more time moving pieces from A to B and back to A, I head to the stores. Somehow, the room just gobbled up furniture, so I now need a long low credenza, tall round side table, some lighting and all the decorative "bing-bongs" and accents to make it look like home. In less than 65 hours a TV crew is showing up to shoot it all, so we have our work cut out for us!
At 9:20 on Tuesday morning, I'm standing outside waiting for stores to open like I'm taking part in a door crasher special. Sears is the first to open so I decide I might as well check it out. Tommy and I tear through the furniture department - we are the only ones in the entire store and we've got the whole floor staff working to help us find a table. A round mahogany two-tiered option with bronze accents catches my eye amidst a sea of reclining furniture - bingo! It looks perfect and it's priced at a friendly $299. Pack it up and I'll take it with me.
An hour later and we're still hunting for bargains, scanning the shelves in Winners for sparkly accents. A platinum-rimmed pitcher, faceted crystal bowl, and great coffee table books will help make it feel like home (but we still need a credenza to put them on). I ignore the fact that they have Diane Von Furstenberg dresses on sale and stay focused.
Just after 1 p.m., having struck out in a couple of stores we give Urban Barn a try. It's often a place to find simple, chunky, solid wood pieces, and today is no exception. Whoopee! There's a nice low TV cabinet with two small storage drawers and a large open shelf. We can make this work. There's no stock left in the warehouse so Tommy and I convince them that we need to have this one - now! While we're at it, we might as well take one of the great floor mirrors to fill some wall space and add a bit of sparkle.
At 2:30, a quick stop at a pretty little boutique called Stella Bleu turns up some fabulous pillows. (We don't need more pillows - we already have an overabundance of pillows - but I want these pillows!) One is mocha brown Mongolian lamb, and the other is a floral silk embroidered breakfast pillow from Designers Guild with hot pink and magenta hits - yummy! There's also a shiny candlestick lamp for the credenza. (Tommy says "no," but I ignore him and add it to the pile.)
An hour later, and it occurs to me that when the sun goes down we are going to need some lights. As if it is a sign from above, we drive past Restoration Hardware and see that they have a lighting sale on - hit the brakes! A polished nickel cantilevered floor lamp has a slightly industrial look and will keep the room from feeling too prissy. Good thing we found a few bargains earlier as this little gem is more than $500 (but worth it).
At 5:24 p.m. we're back to the house to see how all of the day's finds fit in. The purple walls are dramatic, dynamite and wow! Everything finally falls into place and the room is looking just as I had envisioned - it's luxurious, elegant and welcoming all at the same time. Now that this room is done we can tackle all the other rooms in the house.
Sarah Richardson is host and co-producer of Design Inc. on HGTV and principal of Sarah Richardson Design ( www.sarahrichardsondesign.com ).