Design Star play along...

Since I'm totally obsessed with Design Star, I decided it would be fun to play along. [In case you're wondering, it was really fun and you should play along too. :)] Anyways, the rules for the first challenge were:

• Shop at Pearl River for one hour with a budget of $500
• Decorate white room as inspired by one of the designers in the competition

On the real show, they didn't get to pick their partner, but hey, this is my blog and I do what I want, so I picked Tom. I thought it would be fun to see if I could come up with something that might not have been eliminated. 

Here's my plan...

And here are the details...

The bed area:

1) The back wall of the room would get a striped paint treatment in a gray-blue, deep navy and white - similar to all the fancy clothes Tom wears while he designs. The other walls would be the same gray-blue. I'm not really sure what the rules on the paint were, but I'm going to say I can have enough paint to also have a light brown paint for the floor.

2) The bedding was the tricky part, because the actual beddings sold at Pearl River (online at least) were all very silky. And I know from the judges' critiques that would not go over well for Tom. So, I picked this blue fabric and would make bedding out of it. Practical for the show's time constraints? Maybe not, but again, I make the rules in this version of the show. :) [4 yards = $38.00]

3) These coordinating fabrics would be used to make pillow shams and some other details...more to come on that soon. [2 yards total = $19.00]

4) One of these lanterns would hang on each side of the bed. [2 lanterns = $39.00]

5) I would put these beach mats together towards the end of the bed to serve as a rug. [4 mats = $22.00]

6) Alright, now is when you have to start getting creative to follow my thinking, because this is when my construction helper would come in very handy. Basically, I would deconstruct most of the furniture in the room to switch it up. One of these baskets would go on each side of the bed topped with a white square from the existing furniture to make bedside tables. [2 baskets = $39.20]

7) I'd add these decorative pillows to the bed. [2 pillows = $15.00]

8) One of the bedside tables would get this alarm clock. [$9.50]

9) I would get extra pillows for the bed. I also would make two square benches from the existing furniture and "upholster" them in the coordinating fabrics from above and use some extra pillows as the stuffing. The two benches would go at the foot of the bed. [4 pillows = $42.00]

10) I would paint the bed frame dark brown and replace the headboard with one made out of these brown bamboo placemats. [12 placemats = $27.00]

The desk area:

11) The last piece of furniture I would make would be a desk that would be three squares of the bookshelf on the legs of the original side table. A square basket would go in two of the squares of the desk and under both of the benches by the bed. [4 baskets = $62.40]

12) This stool would be used as the chair for the desk. I would also buy two of the smaller stools to use the wood to make frames.  The frames would go along with Tom's picture for a gallery wall on the opposite wall of the room. I would frame simple handmade paper. [3 stools = $59.50; Paper = $9.00]

13) The wooden abacus is a little random, but the room needed something interesting.  A group of three would be used as art above the desk. [$19.50 total]

14) This bamboo candle would accessorize the room. [2 candles = $13.00]

15) This wine bottle holder would be used as a magazine and newspaper rack. [$10.00]

16) I would get three of these bowls (two striped and one checker) to hold office supplies at the desk. [3 bowls = $17.85]

17) And finally, various journals would be on/in the desk. [4 journals = $56.00]

All total, my room would total $497.95. :)