Dining-Room Redo

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Celeste Alexander is fed up with the clutter-filled mess that has become her dining room. An opera coach living with her family of four in a beautiful historic brownstone, she and her family have been using this large room as a catchall instead of a family gathering place.

Alexander has long had plans to get it in order--they bought the house 30 years ago--but her busy family life has kept her from doing so. She decides to enlist the help of professional organizer Kathy Krickett Irizarry to get this room in working order once and for all. She's certainly going to have her hands full. Take a look:

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There's barely any room to walk around in this room, let alone gather together the family for some quality time.
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The china cabinet seems to be the only item in order in the dining room, but what about the table next to it?
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Most often used as a desk and catchall area, the dining-room table is home to various arts-and-crafts supplies, prescriptions and mail.
A look around the room reveals clutter in every possible nook and cranny. There's years and years worth of clutter here!

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The TV area is too small to really be enjoyed by the Alexander family.
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The computer center is stuffed next to the china cabinet.
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And how about this corner? Furniture is crammed next to one another and under-utilized.
Irizarry is all set to turn this place around. She's got a lot of space to work with--the room is 22 feet long and 16 feet wide including the window seat, and has 11-foot ceilings. The first order of business is to establish the function the new room will have. Alexander says she wants it to be used as a family gathering/dining area and has a room cleared out upstairs that she suggests using for a new home office. It's a good start, so the pair goes gets to work sorting through all the junk that has taken over the room--it's quite a tall order.

Several days later, the room has been cleared, furniture rearranged and/or moved out of the room into the new office area upstairs and everything has been sorted into like piles and boxes. Now it's time to paint. Alexander chose a color called Wintermint to lighten the room up a bit and painted the white column caps with a homemade tea-stained concoction. Here are the results of the makeover:


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There is now a light airy space in the dining room. The smooth, cool tone with dramatic oak accents is warm and welcoming rather than cold and chaotic.
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The dining table is free of clutter and covered with a warm-toned tablecloth to match the rest of the room, and there's even additional seating along the wall.
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Warm accents and accessories add to the theme and allow some exquisite furniture pieces to be showcased.
Other major changes in the room include opening up and repurposing the window-seat area, creating more storage space and making the fireplace functional again.
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The fireplace that was formerly hidden by clutter is now cleared off and the beautiful oak mantel is visible.
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Check out the fabulous green tiles on the fireplace that were hidden underneath all that mess.
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This new tri-fold screen conceals the air-conditioning vent that used to stick out like a sore thumb. It also balances the room while bringing in punches of color.
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Alexander wanted a lot of light and little bit of privacy in this room, so she applied transparent window film to the large windows in the newly functional window-seat area.
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In addition to the soft diffused lighting and functional seating area, there is ample storage space beneath each of the seats.
Remember that empty room upstairs? Have a look at how it has been transformed from a cold dreary space into an attractive, fully functional home office.
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Here it is before ...
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... and after
Here's a closer look:

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Amazing what paint, decorations and some organizing can do for a room!
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Alexander created filing systems for both work and home.
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She also established a place for mail and stationery.
Mission complete! Celeste Alexander has gained two functional rooms by leaving the home office out of the dining room, and she couldn't be more pleased. "To finally be organized is a very freeing thing," she said. "Just start somewhere, make whatever can happen happen, and the rest will fall into place."
Benjamin Moore paint colors used:

alkyd primer
polyurethane floor varnish, satin finish
Green Tint, eggshell (2139-60)
Silken Pine, eggshell (2144-50)
Gray Cashmere, eggshell (2138-60)
Horizon Gray, eggshell (2141-50)
Horizon Gray, semigloss (2141-50)
Timothy Straw, semigloss (2149-40)
Timid White, eggshell (2148-60)
Timid White, semigloss (2148-60)
Roxbury Caramel, eggshell (HC-42)
Roxbury Caramel, semigloss (HC-42)

Products from Lillian Vernon:

wooden shelf with rack and drawers
wicker CD chest
rattan step basket
gift-wrap bag holder
ribbon and tape caddy
natural mail and key rack
handwoven fern trunks
maize storage trunks
willow baskets
wide jute bin
dish protectors

Products from The Clean Team:

Sh-Mop
cleaning starter kit
apron tools
red and blue juice

Products from Ultimate Office:

Stationmate with pocket files
Porta file
Porta file tote
Frost binder sampler set
Magnafiles with silver hang file rack
Tier drop 12 flat grey
pocket arm organizer
quick-change picture frame

Products from Outwater Plastics Industries, Inc.:

Illusions Glass film overlay
hard rubber squeegee
soft rubber squeegee
triple-edge guide
razor blade scraper
hardwood molding
Lincursta borders

Guests
Kathy Krickett Irizarry
Professional Organizer, Organized for Action
We apologize no further information is available.

Resources
housewares, organizing supplies — Lillian Vernon

paints--Benjamin Moore

cleaning supplies--The Clean Team

organizing supplies--Ultimate Office

household supplies, fixtures

decorative paintings--Mark Gruber Gallery

design services--Mexx

Also in this Episode

Comparison Shop for Home Decor and Garden Tools at Shopzilla and BizRate.

UpMyStreet and uSwitch.com provide UK comparison services.