Redesign to the Rescue
For the befuddled, Bona Fide help is waiting to redo
Tewksbury Advocate
by Bethan L. Jones
Thursday, November 11, 2004

For those of you who look at your home in despair, who find watching the Home and Garden Television - HGTV - channel intimidating, and are more familiar with Disney's Chip 'n Dale than furniture icon Chippendale, Nancy Gouveia-Fentross is the lady you need to call.

Owner of Bona Fide Designs in Tewksbury, her business is making your home everything you think it isn't. Specializing in room redesign, a popular concept which involves taking and transforming items and furniture already in the house, rearranging them, adding a new lamp and throw pillow, and making the room look completely different.

"Not everybody wants to get rid of everything," said Gouveia-Fentross, comparing her technique to the traditional "everything must go" philosophy that accompanies interior design. "It's just not in the budget."

Robyn McDougall recently moved to a new house on Mt. Joy, a home significantly larger than her old house near the Heath Brook Elementary School. After moving in, it become clear to Robyn and her husband Joe their furniture just did not seem to fit as well as it had across town. On the verge of going out and buying an entire new suite for their family room, Robyn called Gouveia-Fentress, her former cleaning lady turned interior decorator, and asked her to come over and give her some advice.

"I don't have an eye for decorating," said McDougall, who said Gouveia-Fentross would make subtle changes in her home when she would come to clean. "She's so perfect at this."

After a consultation, Gouveia-Fentross remade the McDougall family area, getting rid of an ill-fitting and ill-matched sofa, brining in the chairs which matched the remaining sofa, moving the coffee table and orienting the room toward the fireplace and vintage iron stove. She also hung some of the many family pictures which cluttered the entertainment unit, added some throw pillows and greenery, and changed the curtain hardware to be more in Robyn and Joe's taste.

"I was thrilled to death," said Robyn. "That room, it was so inexpensive."

Even Joe McDougall was surprised by the dramatic change in the family room and told Robyn Gouveia-Fentross should be let loose on the rest of the house.

"So many people have nice things but don't know how to put it together," said Robyn.

In the next phase of the McDougall home redecorating, Robyn is having the house's formal living room remade, a room the family does not use on a regular basis.

"It's not conversational," said Gouveia-Fentross, pointing out the sofa pushed against the wall, far away from the two arm chairs across the room. "The room is just here...nobody uses it."

With the goal of "warming it up," Gouveia-Fentross has gotten warm garnet curtains, a Thomasville dresser at an antique store (a steal at $65), some lamps and chair covers, two chenille throws, a rug from another room, and some candle sticks. She said it usually takes between three and five hours to redesign a room as she goes in knowing where she wants to move furniture.

During the process, Robyn McDougall makes phone calls for her job as a Pampered Chef host, every so often peeking in to see the developments, adding her daughter Kelly, 11, a HGTV devotee, is dying to see the new space.

As with her family room, the four and half hours were well worth the wait.

"It looks so good," said Robyn.

Gone were the expanses of white wall framed with white venetian blinds. The garnet curtains create an accent and pull out the warm colors in the sofa, which was now pulled into the room, opposite the two armchairs. Where the sofa once stood is now the home of the McDougall's new dresser, polished with new hardware, which was two stylish lamps from Wal-Mart and a runner. The rug from the foyer now sits between the seating in front of the fireplace. God brocade chair covers from TJ Maxx have transformed two of the straight backed dining chairs which now accent each side of the new dresser. Deep red and green throw pillows make the room feel more comfortable than formal, a feeling which is enhanced by some chunky candle sticks from Pier One.

"I love it." said Kelly McDougall, who has come home from school to the new room.

Joe McDougall is also amazed with the transformation, and said the family now spends time in the room.

After a day of moving furniture and hanging curtains, Gouveia-Fentross looks a little tired, but also happy the family loves their new living room. Before the redesign, she and Robyn McDougall spent time together, just as she does nor all her clients, discussing what Robyn and Joe wanted from the room.

"Before it was a beautiful room...just not finished," said Robyn, adding she and Joe wanted it to look like home without spending a lot of money, which is exactly what Gouveia-Fentross did for them once again.

"People need this kind of thing, they just don't know it exists," said Robyn McDougall.

Gouveia-Fentross' room redesigns start at $250. She is also available for a wide range interior decoration including custom draperies and bedding.For more information, call Bona Fide Designs at (978)640-6277.