Modern Style for Classic Living Room Ideas 2011 from HGTV Design Star 3

In Design Star 3, for their second challenge, the eight remaining designers tackled four identical living rooms in a historic Nashville mansion. With 26 hours and a $5,000 budget, they had to make their space stand out.

By limiting the color palette to grays, blacks and whites with a powerful hint of red, Matt and Michael demonstrate that making fewer and bigger statements is a smart way to dramatically transform a space in a limited amount of time.


The white mantel creates a severe contrast to the black walls, making the beautiful, pre-existing architectural details of the room very prominent.

There is nothing horribly wrong with this room, but then again, there is also nothing wonderfully right. Trish and D. Paul tame the bright paint that dominated their room before and streamline the overdone drapery, but fail to make a new statement to illustrate why they should be in this competition. Bland and expected furnishings paired with a bland and expected rug create a bland and expected room that you would see in any hotel lobby.

An unexpected color pairing with the traditional furniture chosen or mixing in less traditional furniture with this classic paint color would have given the room much-needed visual interest.


By minimizing contrast, between their wall and trim paint colors and keeping their furnishings light and airy, Mikey V. and Stephanie put a modern spin on a very staid and classic space.

Instead of building on their great start by selecting a few purposeful accessories, Mikey V. and Stephanie infuse a world of mismatched, small-scale accessories that litter the visual landscape and detract from the great bone structure of their room. Keeping the wood bench unadorned with pillows, removing the gaggle of accessories surrounding the fireplace and replacing the over-grown plant with something of equal scale but more manicured would have finished this room perfectly and given their fresh and airy transformation an idyllic ending. Sometimes it is just as important to know when to stop as it is to know how to begin.

Tracee and Jennifer attempt to include a variety of furnishings in their space, but come up short because they can not find a way to pull all of the elements together with a central color, fabric, wood tone or idea.

The incredibly tall and dramatic ceilings in the space are diminished because Tracee and Jennifer fail to hang drapery all the way to the ceiling line, leaving them short and stumpy in appearance by hanging them only at window height. Rooms of this magnitude and proportion can be difficult to work with, as this team illustrates.