On Course

The back of the house opens out onto the fairway, but the living room wasn't nearly as picturesque.

By Christy Marshall

Photography by Anne Matheis

The problem: A front room that didn't jibe with the rest of the home.

The goal: To transform the space from sleek and cool to warm and welcoming.

The designers: Cindy Lee and Joe Vodicka of Niche (owned by The Lawrence Group)

Matt Pruett's dream house? An atrium ranch set on a golf course. One day after playing 18 holes at WingHaven, he came home and told his girlfriend, Beth Carter, that he had found it. As she tells it, he didn't really care what it looked like inside.

They went to see it and liked it, but she had reservations. She wanted a ring on her finger before she added a house key to her key ring. However, she went along, thinking that maybe the engagement would come in a matter of months, after the deck was built but before the patio. Wrong.

On the day before they moved in—and in the midst of the final walk-through—Matt sat her down and told her he had written something for her. "It was scary," she recalls. "He's not a writer."

He carefully read each word and ended with the question: Will you marry me?

"He'd been playing with me so long on that stuff that I didn't know he meant it until he pulled out the ring," Carter, now Pruett, says. "I was shocked. I said yes—and then I had to go back to work."

Since moving in three-and-a-half years ago, the couple has:

• gotten married
• changed the entry from the garage (which required taking down one wall, adding another)
• added a deck and a patio
• redone the flooring
• painted every wall
• gutted the master bath
• finished 1,700 square feet in the basement
• had a baby girl named Brayden

The Pruetts' taste is contemporary. Clean and serene. But they weren't happy with their front room. As Beth, the former art director for At Home, explains in her missive to Done in a Day: "Our great room is the first thing you see when you walk in our front door, and right now, it's not a very warm and welcoming space. We have a cluttered entertainment center that sits on a wall with an off-center, very traditional fireplace, which makes the space seem awkward.

"We also only have a couch in this big room, so seating is limited, and we'd like to improve on that, as well as add some shelving of some kind to display family photos and books," Beth continues. "We've redone a lot of rooms in our house on our own, but this one leaves us stumped on how to make it work. We'd really like this room to become a beautiful living room that immediately feels cozy when you walk in. We're contemporary design lovers and would love to see this space match our style better. Can you help?"

We could. We did. We called up Cindy Lee and Joe Vodicka of Niche (owned by The Lawrence Group), and they headed out to WingHaven to lend their expertise. The Pruetts gave them a budget of $3,000 and a couple of specific requests: get rid of their existing entertainment center and replace it with something better; add another chair; update the traditional, off-center fireplace; add a piece that could store vases and platters. The couple loved the color combination of blue and brown.

The Lawrence Group dynamic duo instructed the Pruetts to get one wall spray-painted a metallic blue—or, to be exact, Benjamin Moore's Jade Pearl. They also suggested the fireplace mantel be covered in black paint.

After taking a long hard look at the house, Lee and Vodicka "pointed out that everything in our house was sleek and new and they wanted to add some texture," Beth says.

"We wanted to warm it up," Lee explains, "and make it more cozy."

They reconfigured the furniture, moving the couch from in front of the fireplace to face the front door. They added a second chair, from Baker Odds and Ends, designed by Barbara Barry. "The Baker chair is a good investment piece," Lee says. "They will have it forever."

And once the room was complete, the Pruetts' reaction? Thrilled would be an understatement. "I can't believe how welcoming it is," Beth says. As for understanding both their taste and what they wanted, Matt assures the designers, "You nailed it. It looks awesome."

5 tips from Joe Vodicka and Cindy Lee

1. Color determines the mood of your room—whether it’s a creamy white or deep jewel tone—so use the spectrum of color to make an emotional impact.

2. See your room as a collage of elements that are important to you. Be thoughtful and piece it together layer by layer.

3. Edit out pieces that you do not either LOVE or find useful. Clutter is increasingly distracting in our fast-paced lives.

4. Modernize an outdated or ordinary architectural feature by coating it in a dramatic shade of black.

5. Good design is meant to draw people in. A little imperfection, like an off-center fireplace, is far more real and inviting than a snapshot-perfect house.

Bottom Line: What would it cost?

Sideboard, Good Works: $610

Lamp with silver green shade, Niche: $220

Art above sideboard, Crate & Barrel: $150

Wood platter, Z Gallerie: $10

Olive pillow, Z Gallerie: $20

Bookshelves, CB2: $568

Rug, CB2: $248

Vintage glass vases for mantel, TFA: $128

Mirror over mantel, Pier 1: $120

Barbara Barry chair, Baker Odds & Ends: $749

X-form leather iron stool, Archetypes: $142

Tripod lamp with white cotton shade, Intaglia: $128

Ceramic stools/coffee tables, Niche: $260

Circle pillows, Niche: $180

Fern pillow, Niche: $231

White small vase, Niche: $37

Green pinnacle column vase, Niche: $60

Purple bottle flask, Niche: $35

Alora diffuser sticks in Bimbi scent, Niche: $40

Grand Total: $3,936