e d i t o r c o n t r i b u t i n g
divine design
From granny suite to cool-kid lounge Nick is about as close as it gets to being the perfect teenager. The 13-year-old is a great student, a baby sitter and role model for his twin 8-year-old brothers — and quite the entrepreneur. His parents, Guy and Natalie, told Nick that if he wanted something, he should “work for it.” So he took the message to heart and has become the go-to guy in his neighborhood for all kinds of odd jobs, including shoveling snow, raking leaves and Candice Olson cutting grass. Because his parents are so proud of Nick, they agreed to give him a grown-up bedroom that will provide some independence — and a little bit of distance from his younger brothers. His grandmother’s old room in the basement was the perfect space for Nick, but the room’s antiques and dusty-rose decor did not say “teenage boy.” So Guy and Natalie called me in and charged me with the task of turning their frilly old basement into a cool-teen lounge. Nick loves gadgets, so I decided to make his space a fun and funky gadget room, full of electronics and music. But first, I needed to get rid of the granny style and get the masculine vibe going. So I emptied the room, insulated the walls for heat and sound, painted the walls a cool blue and then laid down planks of recycled black-leather flooring. I wanted to make the basement into three spaces that all flowed together — a place for lounging, a nook for sleeping and a station for schoolwork. In the lounge, the first area you see when you walk in the room, I created a feature wall of cold, rolled-steel, handmade wallpaper. The colors of the paper — aluminum, gold, silver and charcoal — give the wall a distressed-metal look. This wall became the jumping-off point for other colors and textures in the room, from the bedding to the paint to the furniture. Against this feature wall, I put in a sleeper sofa in a masculine blue, two funky white-leather-and-chrome chairs and a wood-andchrome coffee table. Adjacent to the lounge, I put in a workstation that features a curved, mottled-gray quartz desk. I then flanked the desk with warm wooden cabinetry and added hip, leather-wrapped hardware. On the other side of the 74
Urban Home Charlotte MAR/APR 2011
room, I set up Nick’s bedroom. I painted his old headboard a steely gray-blue, brought in a new duvet with pale blue, tan and brown, and added a heap of throw pillows in metallic colors. I then flanked either side of the bed with cabinetry that has open, mirror-backed shelving above and closed storage below. For a personalized touch, I added customized artwork to the bedroom — photos of grass, snow and leaves — to remind Nick of his entrepreneurial endeavors. Lastly, I focused on the fun stuff — gadgets for Nick. I put in a new computer and mixing station in the work area, a wall-mounted flatscreen television in the lounge and a cool light fixture in the bedroom. The fixture is comprised of 16 light bulbs on long wires that hang from a box above his bed. After some final accents and accessories — an area rug, books, a bubblegum machine and a few other widgets and thingamabobs — Nick’s space was complete. By using accents, funky furnishings and a handful of customized gadgets, I turned a granny space into a basement retreat that is as unique as the teen who’s moving in. Now that’s divine! v Interior decorator Candice Olson is host of HGTV’s “Divine Design.” For more ideas, information and show times, visit www.HGTV.com or www.divinedesign.tv.