Northwest Design Center gives Sternerson family new look

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, December 20, 2006

SUQUAMISH — After years of doing the best she could with garage sales, antique stores and discount furniture, Jill Stenerson now has a chance to relax on a brand new sofa. Or the brand new chair that accompanied the sofa into her living room.

Stenerson won Northwest Design Center’s Living Room Make-Over contest in September, and is now decking her new living room with tinsel, Christmas carols and presents. The Spanish paintings and Mexican souvenirs on the walls only serve to brighten the room more.

“I like to paint,” she said, pointing to a mural on her wall with two dancers and vivid colors. “I also like to dink around with house stuff. I furnished my living room before entirely from garage sales. The furniture was just junk, the couch was broken down. We had a sheet over it because it was so ugly.”

A friend nominated Stenerson for the contest, and in September she was notified that she won. As a graduate student working towards her master’s in psychology, she said she rarely had the money to spend, outfitting her living room one item at a time. Getting the entire package all at once was almost beyond belief.

“I saw the flier for it, but I never thought to do it,” Stenerson said. “I thought it would be incredible if this happened to me. It took a couple of weeks before I realized that my friend had nominated me. I could hardly believe it.”

She met with designers twice before they took over her living room, asking if she had anything in specific in mind.

“I basically just said I was cool with anything they did,” Stenerson said. “There was so much I wanted them to do, I just couldn’t decided what to tell them. I did ask that they don’t paint over my paintings. Other than that, I didn’t really care what they did.”

Design Center crews took over her living room for three days in October to make it over, meanwhile Stenerson and her 10-year-old daughter, Dalis, were given a room at the Poulsbo Inn, while they waited for the project to be completed.

Nine different businesses contributed to the project, including paint, furniture, photo frames, curtains and labor to complete the new living room. Stenerson said she can’t believe how the new living room meshes with the rest of her house, which has the Spanish theme of bright colors and open spaces. When she and her daughter saw the redecorated room for the first time, Stenerson said she couldn’t believe how amazing the new room was.

“I was blown away by the result,” she said. “It was completely redone, but it still felt so much like me. It was incredible, because we only met twice, yet they got my taste exactly right. They reframed all my photos and used a lot of my things to redecorate the living room. I was thrilled, because I was just happy knowing I would have a new couch.”