‘Challenge’ met by local designer

Indulata Prasad

The “Designers’ Challenge” for Leslie Barish was to transform a room

and office space into a hotel suite -- replete with the Tuscany sort

of feel -- comforting, inviting and elegant. The catch for the

interior designer was that all this had to be achieved within the

$25,000 budget.

Barish, owner of Design Consultants in Costa Mesa, not only won

the challenge but was also successful in creating the “Tuscany

Suite,” which Kirk and Susan Kennedy of Huntington Beach, until

recently, only dreamt of. The tape showcasing the entire project will

be aired on HGTV Home & Garden Television at 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 11.

The show, “Designers’ Challenge,” is a weekly half-hour series that

chronicles a homeowner’s pick among three room renovation plans

designed for that homeowner.

The Kennedys added on an additional bedroom and office space

upstairs four years ago. They painted the whole room white and moved

the old furniture upstairs. The couple wanted to accomplish the

Tuscany look -- known for its rustic, warm and inviting feel -- for

the additional bedroom and office space upstairs in the similar

manner that they had created the look downstairs. However, the

project seemed more daunting in reality than it really was.

“We decided on the theme we wanted, but we did not how to do it so

we needed someone to help us,” Kirk Kennedy said. “It was so white in

there. When I walked into the room, I had to put on sunglasses.”

It was in June last year that the Kennedys e-mailed HGTV and

applied for help in the home makeover. They got a response

immediately, and after couple of interviews by the producers of the

show were selected for the makeover project.

The program had a set format of three designers making a

presentation on how they intend to go about the makeover project. The

homeowners then select one out of the three. The designers had to

adhere to a project budget of $25,000 and designers had to adhere to

that budget.

The producers of the show consulted the International Interior

Designers’ Assn. Ifor recommendations. They then contacted Barish,

who accepted the challenge.

Barish competed against designers from San Francisco and Chicago.

Each had to present a concept design to the client. The designers

could have as many discussions as they wanted to get a feel of what

the clients wanted.

Kirk and Susan Kennedy had a week to decide which design appealed

to them. It took them a little more than an hour to zero down on

Barish’s design.

“I think it was something that appealed to our taste and we felt

we could live with it for quite long time,” Susan Kennedy said.

The presentation gave the Kennedys an exact idea of how she was

going to bring about the makeover.

“Visually, we could see what she was creating,” Kirk Kennedy said.

One designer in particular did not have a clue what the Kennedys

were looking for. The other design was very trendy, but the Kennedys

were not sure if they would want that look after three to five years.

Once Barish’s design was selected, they took a brief hiatus from

work and returned in January to work on the makeover.

Almost all the furniture in the room was custom-made to make way

for the necessary space and to provide height.

Once the ideal bed was found -- which was black -- the rest of the

things to do fell in place. Barish decided to drape the room in

green, a color that the Kennedys loved.

Once the silk green tapestry was found, Barish went for four

different shades of green to paint the wall to match it with the

shade of the fabric. Four different brushes were used all at the same

time -- one leading to the other and finally ending up in striations,

Barish said.

“The tapestry for the pillows was the muse for the room,

everything came after that,” said Barish.

The space crunch that the Kennedys faced was also taken care of.

“I drew the design, scaled them out, we gave the furniture maker

working drawings with new width, height, the depth, the size of the

drawers, the type of hardware etc. etc.,” Barish said.

The actual challenge was the adjoining 8-foot-by-9-foot office

space, which was small for two people. She did not want everything to

match and seem contrived, so she let the wooden table speak for

itself in the office space. Barish created over-door treatments so

that it appeared as if one is leaving one area and entering the

other.

“I literally know where everything is ... I have my phone, my

computer, today I was on a conference all and I literally felt

everything was organized,” a visibly happy Susan Kennedy said.