Telephone:  734-451-1132   *   Email: longewayl@comcast.net

Room to Change, LLC  serves all of Detroit Metro, Ann Arbor, MI  and surrounding communities

Lori Longeway - Plymouth, Michigan 48170

Interior Arrangement

and Decorating

The Detroit News - Homestyle Section, July 15, 2006

Here's an idea:

Use Ikea furnishings to elegantly update

a spare room

By Marge Colborn

Detroit News Design Editor

I k e a

o  n  e  -  s  t  o  p

m a k e o v e r

Although Allen had decorated the guest bedroom in a shabby-chic, cottage fashion, the look no longer reflected her design taste. The second-floor room was also visible from the two-story family room, so it was imperative that its decor stand up to the rest of the stylish house.

"We decided on an earthy, stone-and-sand color scheme and a less-cluttered, more contemporary, elegant look," says Longeway. "The room was painted Sherwin-William's Nomadic Desert, but then Kim was out of the picture -- the completed room was going to be her surprise makeover."

Longeway shopped at Ikea several times to gather what she needed for the transformation. For starters, she purchased the basics: a Hopen platform bed in a brown finish, a pair of Hopen four-drawer dressers with tempered glass drawer fronts, a Tullsta upholstered white arm chair and a Heimdal steel-and-glass side table on casters. (Ikea gives Swedish names to all of its merchandise.)

It helps that Allen and Longeway are on the same wavelength decor-wise. They previously worked together on Allen's living room and dining room, and when Kim and Ed went away for a weekend, Longeway was given carte blanche to decorate their spacious master bath.

"I saw Lori's van in a Kohl's parking lot one day just as I was starting to lose my marbles over my dining room decor and took down her number," recalls Allen, who owns and runs a shop called Scrapbook Mania in Canton Township. "It was the start of a great working relationship."

"The pieces that set the room's tone were the burnt orange Inez area rug with the twig design and the toss pillows in orange, red and ivory," Longeway says. "My 'ah-ha' moment was when I found the billowy white window sheers with the coral motif."

The idea for natural elements in the room stemmed from the twig and coral motifs. Longeway filled a 28-inch-tall Parodi glass vase, for example, with pebbles and tall twigs.

The bedroom was too cute with its picket-fence headboard, and no longer reflected the homeowner's decor taste.

Another vase on a dresser is filled with bamboo stalks. A series of framed prints of flowers and landscapes reiterates the natural theme. You pop the prints into your choice of frames. Longeway angled the bed in a corner and placed a large mirror on the floor behind it. The mirror acts as an informal headboard and visually enlarges the space. Incidentally, the platform bed has a mattress but no box springs -- "It's the European way," explains Longeway.  Although Ikea displays the Hopen bed with matching nightstands, Longeway opted not to use them. Instead, she used a single Heimdal table for an edgier look. She accessorized the bed with a bunch of toss pillows in khaki and coral hues, a brown quilt and a fluffy, burnt-orange throw. ("Kim wanted a fluffy element in the room," Longeway says.) The two Hopen dressers were placed together. The area rug juts out from under the bed.  Accessories include a sage green ceramic bowl, ivory tumbler, leather-like boxes and a Famn table lamp. "While I was using all-Ikea merchandise, I didn't want the Allen's room to look like an Ikea showroom or a room pictured in their catalogue," Longeway says. "I wanted to do something the Ikea designers couldn't think of."

And she did. The result is a serene space that looks like a boutique hotel room in South Beach, Florida.

"I couldn't wait to see the new room," Allen says. "I love what Lori did. She took me to a different comfort level in terms of design. She gave me a fresh perspective, and I think she's a genius."

High praise comes from Kelsey Allen, too. Although she has a charming, girly bedroom of her own, she can't wait to try out the sleek new guest bedroom.

        hen Canton Township residents Ed and Kim Allen learned an Ikea store would be opening in their community last month, they were delighted.

     "We like Ikea merchandise -- all of the lighting in our house is from Ikea," says Kim Allen, 34. "But we had to drive twice a year to their Chicago-area store to buy it."

Although the couple and their children, Kelsey, 10, and Eddie, 8, didn't wait in line like so many would-be Ikea customers did to get inside the 311,000-square-foot store on its opening day, they did swing by in the evening because Ed had a taste for some of the retailer's famous Swedish meatballs.

But having the trendy, budget-friendly store so close by gave Allen and her decorator/friend Lori Longeway an idea: Could Longeway create a guest bedroom for the Allens using only Ikea merchandise? That means furniture, bedding, lighting, rug, window treatments, art and accessories. And could it be a sophisticated adult space, not a young-at-heart, dormitory-like room?

Interior redesigner Longeway, 35, whose Plymouth Township-based business is Room to Change was definitely up for the challenge.

"I shop at Art Van, Home Goods, Pier 1, TJMaxx and Kohl's, but I appreciate what Ikea has to offer, too," says Longeway, who's a member of IRIS (Interior Redesign Industry Specialists) and whose services include one-day room makeovers and real estate staging.

Before

After

The new hotel-chic guest bedroom boasts a clean, minimalist ambiance with a platform bed, large mirror and glass-front dressers.

Two Hopen dressers with tempered glass fronts were placed together for a streamlined look.  The wall prints were popped into frames.  Bamboo shoots provide the room's natural element