BEFORE & AFTER: Oahu, Hawaii condo with a view.

These are the before and after shots of my friend Mark's condo on the island of Oahu. It's really one part staging (using what he had, including a cool Danish-modern teak dining table) and one part interior design. It's what's often called "re-design"... using elements you already have mixed with new items. (And yes, we replaced the ugly fan and cheap pendant light!) Like many people, Mark likes a mixture of modern and traditional.


BEFORE: Living Room #1. Inexpensive and over-used "college-age" furniture is too big for this compact condo. None of the woods in the room coordinate, neither does the rug.


AFTER: Living Room #1. New colors, new furniture and a fresh perspective. Exciting pops of blue contrast well with the neutrals. The wood "coffee table" in the previous photo was painted espresso and re-purposed as the corner table. Instead of a side chair, the espresso colored ottoman keeps the view open when the drapes are pulled.



BEFORE: Living Room #2. Clutter everywhere. No place to store DVD's, books, etc. And that halogen floor lamp? Ugh.



AFTER: Living Room, #2. It's important to remember that Staging and interior design really are different. In this case, Mark really needed storage and a workstation. Normally, I would not fill up a space like this, but we got the storage and work area Mark needed while keeping it stream-lined. The modern milk-glass front armoire hides his computer, and the buffet with the milk-glass top makes a great entertainment console.



BEFORE: Dining Room. A great Danish modern table but the space has nothing else going for it.



AFTER: Dining Room. More pops of blue in the new end chairs and the art, plus a soft green on the accent wall, really dress up the space. An alabaster pendant light completes the scene.

ARTWORK: Mark loves modern, abstract art. For the main wall we found some exciting, mid-range priced originals (above photo). The opposite wall reflects Mark's love of nature with photos of his native New Hampshire ordered off the internet (below).

By the way, here's Mark's view. Not bad, huh? Can you see the plane in the upper-left corner?