Decorating Sense

My favorite show on HGTV is Decorating Cents. I love the way they redesign a room for only $500, but even more than that I love the "no-cost redesign" part of the show, where a designer comes in and basically just rearranges the furniture. Then they go around the house pilfering accessories and small pieces from other rooms to finish it off. The rooms always look so much better afterward, it's really just amazing.

Inspired by my heroes from HGTV, I recently embarked on a no-cost redesign project of my own on the first floor of our house.

The great room is really a poorly-converted garage. At some point we are going to do a major project in this room, but for now, I'm making the best of a bad situation. Before my redesign I hated the look of this room so much that I didn't take a picture of it. Here's what it looks like now:

The front room of the house is a sunken conversation pit with a kiva-style fireplace. The wood beams (non-structural) are called latillas. I still need to get some proper seating in this room, but it's looking pretty good. Here's a view with the dining room in the foreground.

And a close-up of the fireplace:

The kitchen is a lovely southwestern style; I haven't made many changes.

The first-floor half-bath shows off it's Santa Fe style.

And just because it was a beautiful sunny day, I took this picture from the margarita deck: