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Show CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S THE SAME ROOM? (IT IS.) Old and new blended in crisp, clean cream and white. Room divider separates living liv-ing and dining areas. Primitive style accessories ac-cessories add conversational interest. Building block approach. These modular units can be arranged and re-arranged to suit your mood. The room combines stark contrasts of black, red and white. Traditional look spells comfort com-fort and charm in this third version of "the basic bas-ic room." Flowers and greenery add soft touches. The simple, basic rooms that today's families have to work with in new homes can be made exciting and dramatic even on a budget. Three top interior designers design-ers recently demonstrated for a national magazine how very different the decorating decorat-ing approach can be for the same room and just how wide your decorating options op-tions are. They used a living-dining living-dining room in separate project homes of the same design. The three designers-Richard designers-Richard Neas and Bebe Winkler of New York and Joan Blutter of Chicago-chose Chicago-chose eclectic, contemporary contempo-rary and traditional approaches ap-proaches respectively. A coordinator of the project, Susan Ames, the Bell System Home Consultant Consult-ant says, "What these three very talented people have done is very useful and exciting ex-citing for the average homeowner home-owner or apartment-dweller. It shows that by using different tools wallpapers and floor coverings, colors and neutrals, lighting, accents ac-cents and accessories, and even the angle of furniture you can completely transform trans-form a basic room economically economi-cally and with style." To give his design a traditional tradi-tional look, Richard Neas papered the walls in an old-fashioned old-fashioned stripe. Even the ceiling is papered with a small calico pattern. He chose a mix of woods for the furniture, patterned fabrics fab-rics and floor coverings and lots of living plants to give the room a human feeling. In the dining area, a mix of woods adds interest to the room. Four different wood finishes are used, with hand-stencilling on the chairs. That adds another dimension too. All the accessories and art work are indicative of times gone by. For instance, engravings on the walls are scenes of 18th century London Lon-don and in the foyer is a Country Junction telephone. Bebe Winkler took the project's identical space and transformed it into a very contemporary area by dramatically dra-matically angling a bright red modular conversational grouping in front of the fireplace. fire-place. The group includes a sofa, four seating pieces and an ottoman. To heighten the room's "night-time" character, she covered the walls with a slightly textured black matte finish vinyl. Oatmeal colored carpeting further', sets off the contrast offered by the walls. She chose large scale, dramatic accessories to compliment com-pliment the room's well-planned, well-planned, clean spaces. Steel, brass and glass tables, black and red glass table accents, and an ivory Trimline phone help add further excitement to the room. One of the advantages to the modular f""iture designer de-signer Winkler has chosen for the space is that they can be used together or separately sep-arately to make all sorts of interesting conversation groups and for a change-of-pace. It all depends on where you put the sofa. You just build around it. It's like building blocks. And you can even use an ottoman to give a chaise lounge effect to one of the seating pieces. Joan Blutter planned a space with the fireplace as the focal point of the room and furnishings and accents representing many styles. A sofa grouping, built-in unit and room divider separate sepa-rate the living and dining room areas. Room-divider plant stands near the front door create a foyer effect. Accessories include china, glassware, interesting sculpture, sculp-ture, brass and silver pieces, a Celebrity telephone, traditional tra-ditional collectibles, and framed modern art. All are set off with the backdrop of cream-colored vinyl walls and a white ceramic tiled floor. Tables and different woods help blend the varying vary-ing styles and elements of the room. Queen Anne dining room furniture in cherry and selected veneers is in counterpoint to the livingroom's mirror-topped Formica table. Mirrors above the fireplace and above the Queen Anne sideboard in the dining room open up the space and provide interesting inter-esting and new architectural angles. |