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This makeover started the way so many real-life projects do: with a move, a little uncertainty, and that familiar feeling of something isn’t quite right.
Downsizing but upgrading
My good friend Gail reached out to tell me about her friend Liz and her husband Ian, who had recently downsized from a house into an apartment. They’d bought a new sofa and immediately started second-guessing themselves. Was it too big? Would it overwhelm the space? Had they made a mistake?
Elizabeth (my sister) Gail, Maria, Liz & Ian
Gail did what good friends do. She helped Liz let go of some furniture that simply wasn’t going to work in a smaller footprint, and more importantly, she reminded her of something people often forget during downsizing: you don’t stop deserving a beautiful home just because you’re living in less square footage.
There was one big sticking point: the fireplace. Liz wasn’t in love with it—it felt dated. But replacing it would have meant a minimum $12,000 just to move it to the correct location and install the right style, and that wasn’t happening.
Which is exactly where decorating steps in.
Instead of tearing anything out, we focused on scale, layout, and styling—pulling the room together in a way that made the fireplace fade into the background. And once the space was finished, something interesting happened: no one cared about the fireplace anymore. In fact, you barely notice it at all.
This is the magic of knowing when to decorate instead of renovate. When a room is styled properly, dated elements lose their power. Your eye has somewhere better to land. And suddenly, what once felt like a “problem” just… isn’t.
This living room makeover is a perfect example of how transformation doesn’t always require demolition—just creativity, confidence, and the right decisions in the right order.
Watch the full makeover below.
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You’re Overthinking your Living Room: 5 One-Day Makeovers
Greatly improved!! I’d chalk paint the cabinet to blend better. The orange wood doesn’t fit, for me.
Love what you’ve done! Question: what was it about the side tables and ottoman that changed the scale? Their roundness? How does their size scale, because they are large or what? What is it about the way they relate to other pieces in the room? Thank you for being wonderfully open about your amazing way with rooms!
Great question. The sofa was visually heavier than the other pieces in the room, so the key was scale and balance. The end tables are larger in size, which helps the sofa feel more proportionate, but because they’re round and visually airy, they don’t add bulk. That combination softens the overall look and makes the seating arrangement feel intentional.
The ottoman also made a difference because its size and colour helped anchor the seating area and visually connect to the corner cabinet, which made that part of the room feel settled rather than awkward.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful question.
Maria
Brilliant! Another precious gem, thank you!
Maria, thank you SO MUCH for gifting my friend your incredible design talent! You not only created a beautiful space – you created a cozy, bright, cheerful ‘home’. Liz couldn’t be more thrilled, (and as her friend of 40 years this makes me very happy) and Ian (who is usually ok with whatever the status quo is) – was wowed! I’ll never forget his pleased expression.
If you live in the Fraser Valley, and are considering having Maria do a makeover for your home, I cannot recommend her enough! I’ve been fortunate to be with Maria on a number of design makeovers – not only are they transformative for the homeowner – they are super fun for everyone! She takes away the stress and creates a space that’ll make you smile every-single-time you walk into your room.
I love the transformation!
Definitely decorated and some cash for other things. Great video!
Love the make over for the apartment. You really are good at your profession!
Thanks Suzanne! xoxo
This is fabulous! Turned out to be so cozy and beautiful. I didn’t even notice the fireplace a the end until you pointed it out! Love it.
What a huge save on the fireplace mistake!!!! Decorate for the WIN!!!🩷🩷🩷
You really crushed it this time. Rounding out the scale, with bigger pieces that are round, softened the look.
As you said, large lamps look more expensive and they balance the large sofa. Hiding the fireplace with the tall linear lamp and shade was brilliant as was the plant at its base. The art placement looks great and the corner cabinet color works with the ottoman. Fantastic!
Thanks Elizabeth! I was lucky to find that tall, linear lamp there that day, they aren’t always there 🙂 xo Maria
Amazing work and talent❣️
Brilliant solution Maria! The room looks beautiful and you really blended that fireplace in the room. It really looked awkward before.
You nailed it.
Thanks Valerie! xoxo
I like the do over very much except for the curio cabinet in the corner and the new blue chair. Those two items keep it from looking right to me. The cabinet is too tall and so is the blue chair. I realize the owner wanted to keep t hem but to me they hurt the room. Could they not go someplace else? I love the sofa, the coffee table, the lamps, end tables and art! The idea to have the one lamp hide the fireplace was genius.
Decorating is personal, and in this case the assignment wasn’t to start over or edit out everything that felt challenging. Liz had just downsized, and those pieces mattered to her—along with the chair and ottoman she had just purchased.
My job as a decorator isn’t to make every room look like a showroom or a “clean slate.” It’s to make a real room work with real furniture and real constraints. And that’s exactly the skill set of a strong decorator—bringing balance, scale, and harmony to what’s already there, not simply removing anything that’s tricky.
Could the room have been easier without them? Sure. But easy isn’t the point. Making it all work together is. And honestly—perfect is boring. The goal of this show is creating spaces that feel lived-in, personal, and right for the people who live there.
I’m so glad you loved the sofa, lamps, art, and that sneaky fireplace moment—that layering is where the magic happens. Thanks for your comment! Maria
And that’s why we love you! Generously teaching us how to decorate practically and personally with compassion, heart and a sense of humor!
Years ago, one of your clients wanted to keep an oriental rug that was part of her family heirlooms. You felt it needed to go. I wrote to you and we argued about it. I’m so glad to see that you and styles have changed to value personal items In a room. Now it is considered a sense of history and is respected as it should be. I love the show series where you do a lot with wall art. I am an artist and I would find my house naked without wall art.
Maria❤️
What a fabulous answer ! It’s not a show room and you aren’t doing clean slates. The things that mattered to her are still a part of her “ home”, not a magazine page.
Lovely decorate!!!!!!
A curios question … would moving tne tv off the fireplace and mounting on the wall have worked in any way. I feel the fireplace would look better without the tv on it?
The TV magically got hidden by the lampshade so moving the black TV to the middle of the wall would be a hard no for me. Great question, Maria
I agree with Cate the corner cabinet would be better painted as your eye is still drawn to it but over all the room looks great!
I understand that perspective, but painting the cabinet wasn’t the assignment. The homeowners like it and wanted to keep it. The job of a decorator isn’t to erase people’s belongings to make a room look like a magazine spread from 2026, it’s to take what they have and make it work beautifully. That’s exactly what this makeover was about. Maria
Lovely changes Maria and it really brought the room into balance. I love how the orange tones of the wood cabinets are picked up in the frames, artwork, ottoman. A question: About how many hours did it take to plan this, shop, and install? And how big a crew did you need? It looked like maybe the homeowners helped? Thank you so much for your generous gift of this blog! A fan for many years, Jessica.
This makeover happened in 4 hours from start to finish and it was just the 4 of us. Thanks so much, Maria
Another great decorating episode, Maria! This really should be a TV show on HGTV! It is such a great concept and so down to earth. Great work!
This WAS exactly the type of show that was on HGTV when the network first started wayback in 1994. So many great “true” decorating shows with low budgets and no demo.