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From bland to grand
By JUDY STARK
Patricia Conklin of St. Petersburg didn't care what others said. "I got disgusted. I knew I had to do some things in this house," a worn 1950s ranch in the city's Lakewood neighborhood. When she saw a short item in the St. Petersburg Times a few months ago about a home makeover contest sponsored by GE Lighting, "It was a sign from God," says Conklin, 41. On the evening of Sept. 14, the postmark deadline for entries, she mailed in her 200-word essay and a couple of Polaroids. GE Lighting was running the contest to do a "drab-to-fab makeover" to promote a new line of light bulbs that bathe a room in crisp white light.
"I felt really bad," Conklin recalled. "It seemed so frivolous with what's going on in the world" just three days after the terrorist attacks. But, she said, "My house was a dump. I admit it."
GE Lighting hired Gloria N. Ellinwood, a St. Petersburg interior designer, to do the makeover. The ground rules: The money was to be used for lighting (using GE's new Reveal bulbs wherever possible) and for painting and accessorizing in an area no larger than 1,500 square feet. It could not be used to buy furniture or appliances or for construction. Ellinwood had her work cut out for her. Conklin's big complaint in her essay was that her house was "overwhelmingly beige," and she was right about that. The 1,250-square-foot house was bland and blah, dark and dim, no color, no focal points, nothing to lift the eye or the spirit. The tiny living room was crowded with two big recliners, an oversize sofa and love seat and some occasional tables. "You're stuck in 1955" in this house, Conklin told Ellinwood on Nov. 14, the day the designer came to present her suggestions for the house. "You're stuck in a time warp." Among the challenges: 8-foot ceilings; a dated white brick wall in the living room, where there was no overhead lighting; the dim dining area with one wall of dark paneling, set off by a waist-height room divider-china cabinet and a wrought-iron railing; and the original kitchen appliances, including a cooktop with controls set into the front apron, right where children could reach them and turn on the burners. "If they would just come in and paint one wall I'd be so grateful," Conklin said. "I haven't entertained anybody except my closest family in more than a year because I hate the way my house looks." The floor was a priority: Conklin had pulled up the 1950s brown shag carpet earlier to reveal a vintage terrazzo floor in beige -- which she hates. The terrazzo is an unforgiving surface when children take a tumble. Conklin has been a foster parent to more than a dozen youngsters in the last two years, for periods ranging from a few days to more than a year. Currently she is caring for two 4-year-olds, a boy and a girl. Ellinwood had another challenge: GE wanted the work completed in time for photography and videotaping Nov. 29. That meant lining up crews -- electricians, plasterers, painters, cleaners -- and persuading them to do the job immediately, factoring in the Thanksgiving holiday, "and on a bare-bones budget," she said. It meant hitting the stores quickly to buy the accessories she needed and scavenging in Conklin's home and garage to see what treasures might be overlooked. Two weeks later, Conklin looked around her newly made-over home. "It's beyond my imagination," she said, clearly delighted. Gone: the dreary plain-vanilla walls. Gone: the dark paneling in the dining area. Gone: the too-big, tattered recliners and the cramped room arrangement. Gone: the broken beige vertical blinds hanging at the picture window in the living room. Now, the living room glows with several shades of soft green on the walls. Wood blinds hang at the picture window, softened by a pleated valance in a floral of cream, rose, taupe and green that Conklin selected. ("If I had to pick something, that's it: my favorite, favorite thing. I just love that fabric," she said.) The too-big dark-red sofa and love seat are brought down to size by a collection of colorful pillows, a soft rose-and-green throw and a big silk plant illuminated by an uplight. Ellinwood used the same greens in the dining area above and below a new chair rail. On the floor is an area rug in rose, taupe and dark green. Conklin had admired the rug a while back at JC Penney. Ellinwood, unaware that it had caught Conklin's eye, picked it out independently. She also hung Norman Rockwell prints on the wall, not knowing that he is Conklin's favorite artist.
"Gloria did use a lot of stuff we had," Conklin said. She found the coffee table, unused, in the garage, replaced its thin glass top with tempered glass for child safety, and accessorized it with candles and a Thomas Kinkade Bible. A red curio cabinet that once hung in the living room was spray-painted soft green and now hangs in the hall. Ellinwood didn't know that the two paintings she chose from Conklin's collection to hang in the dining area were of special significance to Conklin, who bought one at an art show and treasured the other because it was done by a friend back when she and Conklin were teenagers. Ellinwood bought soft green-and-white flowered slipcovers for the white fabric dining chairs. Fulfilling the requirement to use GE's Reveal lighting wherever possible, Ellinwood had recessed can lights installed in the ceiling of the living room and dining room. The new bulbs are coated with Neodymium, which GE says filters out the yellows in the color spectrum to produce a pure white light. GE Lighting took still photography and videos of the project and will use them in its public-relations campaign to promote the bulbs. "The lighting was a huge improvement," Conklin said. "It really is letting me see my life through a whole new light. I can see now how dark the house was. This is like sunlight. It's a more natural light." There wasn't enough money for Ellinwood to install a hardwood floor over the terrazzo in the living room, as she first hoped. ("That would have taken half the budget," she said.) Instead she used an area rug in dark green, taupe and red that left the terrazzo uncovered in traffic areas. She made sure traffic paths were wide enough to accommodate the wheelchair used by the little boy for whom Conklin is currently caring. The space-gulping recliners were sent to the Salvation Army. There was money in the budget for soft pink paint for the bedroom that Erica shares with Conklin's other current foster child, a little girl. Cream, rose and green flowered spreads cover their twin beds and the walls, and dressers are accessorized with hangings, pictures and other items.
Beyond the prize budget, GE gave Conklin new appliances from its Profile line: a refrigerator with ice and water through the door, a microwave and a new cooktop with controls safely out of the reach of children's hands. "I could kiss that refrigerator!" Conklin said gratefully. "And it's heaven to me to have a new cooktop. To be safe is the No. 1 thing." Ellinwood said she wished she'd had more time and more money, yet the two-week makeover demonstrates that these projects can be done quickly and on a limited budget. Among the costs: rewiring and installing the recessed lighting, $1,500; cleaning and repair, $902; painting, $2,030; the window treatment, $1,080. Nearly half the budget went for accessories: rugs, floor pillows, slipcovers, lamps, plants, art. "It was a fun project. It was a challenge," she said. She praised Conklin for "the enthusiasm she showed over each little thing I brought in." The project "shows how big a role color and light play in good design." Conklin joked that she was going to section off the living room with velvet ropes, like those at a museum. "I am so very happy, happy, happy, happy, happy," she said, looking around. "I was so unhappy with the way my house looked," she said. "I feel as if there is a piece of my soul, a piece of me, that got put back by having this done."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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