Well, Stephanie Peters did when she invited Linda Marx, an independent-minded bargain-hunting maven, to have at it.
“I wanted the challenge to do it as inexpensively as I could,” said Marx, who loves nothing better than finding a cast-off sofa here or discarded end table there. “They’re little orphans. I like giving them a home.”
Peters, a Sunnyvale marketing consultant, wanted a home makeover that “shows my personality,” emphasizes comfort and reflects her penchant for all things Asian.
She lives in an Eichler, the 1950s-era, one-story homes with open floor plans, atriums and courtyards. Mid-century modern furnishings are experiencing a resurgence of popularity these days, but Marx was reluctant to shop in that direction: “I lived through that” era of design, Marx said, “and I didn’t particularly like it then.”
And with popularity often comes a big price tag, and that simply is not Marx’s style. Marx promised she could completely swap the decor of the living, dining and family rooms for a grand total of $4,000, which included everything from furniture delivery to moving lighting fixtures. (That would buy mid-century purists one Eames lounge chair and ottoman, thank you very much.)
The last time the house had a makeover was in the early 1990s, a few years after Peters bought it. As was the style at the time, she decorated with a palette of black, white and chrome, including white marble flooring in the living and dining rooms. But over the years, the space had grown tired and cold. And Peters had little time to pay attention to it. She made brief attempts at repainting the interior, but when her artwork came down, including her collection of Asian masks, she never put it back up. In her entry hall, all she had was a plant.
“All right, enough,” Peters told herself. “I entertain a lot. I’m sick and tired of people coming over and I’m embarrassed.”
She called Marx, who calls her fledgling redecorating business “Shoestring Design.” The women became friends through Marx’s son, who worked with Peters years ago. Peters had been to parties at Marx’s house and while there, couldn’t help but admire her home. She asked for help on hers.
“I said I wanted modern and Asian,” Peters said.
“I wanted the house to feel warm and nice,” Marx said.
“I wanted chrome bar stools,” Peters said.
“I didn’t bother with it,” Marx said.
“Never mind,” Peters conceded. “Do it.”
With that, Peters cleared out the entire living, dining and family rooms of furniture, handed Marx the key to the front door, and took off for three weeks.
“I had never done Asian before,” Marx confessed.
She began her thrift store circuit up and down the Peninsula, stopping in the Salvation Army on Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, where she found a dining room table and chairs for $149; to the Consignment Store in Westgate Mall in Saratoga, where she landed a living room sofa, and the Goodwill on Almaden Expressway in San Jose for the Asian bar for $89. She bought a bamboo wall hanging at Cost Plus World Market for $49, Asian coin wall hooks for $3 from Savers in Redwood City for the entryway, a coffee table from Not Too Shabby in San Jose for $49. A large Persian rug ($120) that covers the cold marble floor came from D.G.W. Auctioneers and Appraisers in Sunnyvale.
Marx mined Peters’ garage for lost treasures, pulling out her old trunk and a collection of masks. She hung Peters’ prints and some Chinese silk panels she had bought at auction and arranged everything just so. For finishing touches, she displayed martini glasses on the bar and filled a glass vase in the kitchen with fortune cookies.
Then she waited. “I was sweating bullets when she came home,” Marx said.
“I stood in awe in the entryway for 30 seconds,” Peters said. She barely recognized the place. “I walked back in three or four times. There was so much and it had changed so drastically.”
Peters loves her new decor and “everyone who comes to my house is flabbergasted. I’ve had wonderful feedback.”
Now on to the bedrooms! As soon as Peters leaves town, Marx will be ready.
If you like bargains and didn’t see the story Desiree and I wrote about the Asian fretwork chairs we bought for a bargain price at Not Too Shabby, read this:
Here’s the complete slideshow:
Lookiloos and Scene Magazine, produced by the San Jose Mercury News, teamed up to profile Ecofabulous founder Zem Joaquin. Here’s the story of Zem’s fascinating life written by Julia Prodis Sulek, and photos and slideshow of her own sexy, sustainable house by Desiree Northend:
So how did this commune kid become such a design diva?
Unlike some in the environmental movement who preach doom and gloom, he says, Joaquin takes a positive approach.
By Julia Prodis Sulek for Lookiloos and Scene Magazine, photos by Lookiloos photographer Desiree Northend
A winding driveway leads you past oak trees and a sunken Japanese tea garden to the grand estate atop a hill. A 17th-century wishing well and a stone gazebo adorn the front garden that overlooks the lights of the valley below.
“We wanted to open it up with more light,” Hillary said. And she wanted it to be more modern, “but consistent with the principles of the house.”
The couple love clean lines and neutral colors. In the kitchen, they installed white Caesarstone countertops with translucent, white glass subway tiles, then added red-topped stools for a splash of color. They opened their home to the Rockridge Kitchen Tour last fall.
Then she saw it, an eight foot angel with golden wings, a long white robe and bursts of cobalt blue. Translucent. Brilliant. Mesmerizing. Once the adornment for a San Francisco mortuary, it was now stored in a Richmond warehouse. Lisa quickly realized it was too big for the bathroom, and, quite frankly, almost too beautiful for it.
After 15 years of marriage, Craig has learned to trust the fantastical vision of his artist wife. As usual, however, the vision would come with a price. The new home for the angel would be the south-facing bay window in the great room — and that would not only mean a new design concept for the room, but a major re-engineering of the bay window to hold its weight.
But Lisa had originally designed the great room that opens to the kitchen to have a retro David Hicks style with a geometric circle motif. And that would no longer work with the leaded glass window. So she has ditched the idea of using Kraftmaid kitchen cabinets that had a circular overlay as well as the splashes of hot pink she was planning in the family room furnishings.
Without it, the track never really found a home in our house. That first Christmas, the engine that had been boxed up for 30 years was too worn out to pull cars behind it. The next two years, when the track was laid on the living-room floor, the kids kept tripping over it, knocking down the cars and disconnecting the track. In 2007, Chris placed a piece of plywood on top of the dining table on the screened porch. But it was chilly, few ventured outside to play with it and the track started to rust. Last year, it didn’t even make it out of the boxes.
“Hmm, an 8-foot-by-4-foot sheet of plywood in your living room,” mused my friend Carolyn. “Sounds like a dance floor.”
As we got ready for bed, though, Chris said one more thing: “I want the kids to have memories of this train.”
The home was built by the Gallagher family, who owned Gallagher Fruit Co. when the area was known as the “Valley of Heart’s Delight.” One of Carol’s favorite pieces is a tile serving tray she keeps in the kitchen that shows the Gallagher’s pear packing label with their company name on it — a gift from her daughter-in-law, Rita.
It has become a favorite game room for all three of their grandchildren and a place for Tom to read since retiring as vice president of Argo Systems.
Saltilo tile floors greeted her in the entryway with a sweeping staircase with curved wrought-iron railings. Two steps down took her to the grand formal living room with plenty of space for the baby grand piano and their whimsical orange and black “Halloween tree” that adorns the front window for the autumn Rose Garden Homes Tour in mid-October.
One of Mary’s favorite spots for a little solitude is the lovely balcony off the master bedroom where she often reads or enjoys a cup of coffee while overlooking the lush backyard and swimming pool.
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