[photos and videos from my makeover on Nate]

i hope you guys enjoyed the my latest makeover segment on the nate show. the above picture is  the sneak peek i gave here.

nate's team was gracious enough to upload some photos for us so i will go through each of them and hopefully answer a few questions.

i cant remember the cost of the rug, but i do know it came from belgium. mrs. laura was really excited about this rug and so was i. the nice little surprise was that its value is upwards of $2,000 to $10,000.

just a pre-note, i love how the mirror reflects the artwork. imagine the light hitting that shimmery yarn at night.

the chrome side table was in fact brass. altho i like brass i wanted to introduce new tips for the viewers. so i used oven cleaner to strip the brass to get the chrome effect. i blogged about this technique many months ago here. if you read the post it will link to a very good tutorial. 

i have been known to turn thrifted shirts into pocket squares and have even seen brownbelle turn shirts into bowties. so turning a dress into a pillow was one of the next best things. older prom dresses are great for pillows because they have a lot of yardage. today's prom dresses have as much yardage as a postage stamp.

let's talk about the art. this art installation works because its rather massive...touchable eve. here is a free design tip. when looking for art go big...bigger. i have seen so many great rooms with tiny weeny pieces of art. when in doubt...go BIG or go home. 

i walked into nate's studio during the field taping to run a few ideas by the art department, with chris. we were brainstorming what to do with such a large canvas. as we were chatting, there was a picture propped against the wall that i saw out the corner of my eye. i looked at it and it immediately made me think of string art when i was a child. 

we finally figured out my childhood love was called a 3D spirograph. the interweb is full of string art and spirographs. so i created a pinterest board that is full of string art and a few tutorials. some are a challenge to recreate and others are pretty easy.  

when i am creating spaces for Nate Berkus, i dont shop a retail store. in other words, i must make do with what ever is in the thrift store when i arrive. which is great because it pushes my creativity and it shows you that you can in fact create an amazing room from a well-stocked thrift store.

the console table was a dining table. i used circular saw to slice it down the middle. here is the video that includes the process. not hard at all. but you may need a little help.

as i was completing the design, i realized i didnt pick up a coffee table and my budget was tapped out. so again, i got creative. i simply used scrap pieces from the table deconstruction and made a coffee table. if you have power tools of your own you can come up with quite a few designs for your very own coffee table. 

if you missed the show, i have uploaded all of the videos from my segment in the video vault.

all photos aside from the first one and videos are courtesy of thenateshow.com