Last week I had the opportunity to decorate a family room for an old high school friend of mine.

Not that we are old, we have just been friends a very long time! She still lives in Medicine Hat and sent me pictures of her room telling me what she wanted me to do so I went to a local flooring store that has a store in the Hat and chose carpet, paint and blinds for her.

Virtual decorating has never been so easy and I was able to send her pictures back of the products and colours I had chosen. She went in and has everything on order and her house is being painted right away!

Her family room was a wonderfully large room with a big fireplace, it was apparent that her and her family spend a lot of time in that space and judging by the colour scheme and the floral valences it had been well loved for several years. Pink/mauve carpet and pink walls are always a dead giveaway from 20 something years ago.

I chose a neutral grey palette with a flecked carpet which had dark brown, grey and caramel coloured flecks in it which would incorporate her furniture and the natural oak which was in the room.

I then encouraged her to paint some fun stripes on a wall (Benjamin Moore Jackson Tan) to bring more of the oak colour into the scheme – she is still working up the courage to paint stripes.

Although the natural oak is a little dated it was very present in the room with base trim, window trim, railings and a large fireplace surround all finished in this colour – she wasn’t prepared to re-finish or paint the trim as she just wanted a quicker room refresh.

We decided to replace her metal Venetian blinds with a 2” faux wood in the same colour as her trim to help the windows look larger.

With the white blinds in the room previously the oak stood out like a narrow outline around each window and the new blinds will blend in and smooth out those frames against the grey walls.

In case you are curious we chose another Benjamin Moore colour called ‘Evening Gown’ for the walls.

It was fun to reconnect with her and to help her with her project and I am excited to see the final photos once the room is done!

She has been wanting to update this room for many years but has just felt stuck in the starting gate. Once she was given a palette and some product ideas it took her no time to race off and purchase the new items.

It always makes me so happy to help someone get to a new interior and often it just needs a small idea or item to kick off the creative race.

Even far away it is possible to send pictures or put them on my Ask a Designer/Ask a Realtor page if you have questions about a current or pending design project. I am always happy to answer questions and to help you jump start your creativity. Big or small, it can be an enormous thrill to make over a single room or your entire home and I will happily work with you to achieve your design dreams.

Kim Wyse is a local freelance designer. Find her on facebook at ‘Ask a Designer/Ask a Realtor’.