In Amsterdam, it’s basically one big citywide flea market. Going into your house is like going into a high-end garage sale, and you’ve got collections galore: lamps, movie posters, pottery, old radios, and silver spoons. When you walk into a thrift store, you get an adrenaline rush (and just a little high from sniffing the mothballs). You probably like to stay home and nest with all your finds, but you’re also a pretty fun and enthusiastic person to be around. And if it sounds like I know you all too well, it’s because I do: I, too, collect vintage wares. I’ve got a lot of stuff … but I also try hard to rein it in so that my house doesn’t feel like it’s bursting at the seams.
After all, sometimes “collector” is just a polite term for “pack rat.” So try to open up your home and give yourself more space. Pick the best of your old radios and arts and craft pottery; leave some empty wall space between retro posters. From experience, I can tell you that you’ll feel so much better about your place if you can actually see what you have. Concentrate your design efforts on creating rooms that are airy and well edited when it comes to showing off your finds. If you answered mostly c, your style is traditionalist. They just don’t make things like they used to-that thought probably pops into your mind pretty often.
For that reason, you tend to keep things the same. I’m willing to bet that you’ve got lots of family heir- looms in your home and those pieces that haven’t been handed down look like they could have been. You’re probably most comfortable with elements of style that are nice but not showy. Elements like a sofa covered in a subtle paisley fabric, a quality Oriental rug, or maybe a maple four-poster bed with a white chenille spread. There’s nothing wrong with being a traditionalist, and I’m with you on the fact that sometimes there’s nothing better than a classic. We should hang on to some things that have been around forever (like letter writing-I bet you still send letters through the mail).
That said, does it have to be steak and potatoes every night? If you keep your home too traditional, you risk it feeling boring and stale after a while. So consider spicing it up a bit. Maybe paint one wall in your house an offbeat tangerine and trade in your Oriental for a chunky sisal rug. Perhaps you could replace your chenille bedspread with an Indian print or some modern color-blocked bedding. Obviously, you’ll need to use a careful eye to blend the tradition- al with splashes of nontraditional, but that’s the only way to make your home seem like yours-not your parents’ or your grandparents’. Loosen up a little and look beyond the familiar to find a style that’s truly your own. If you answered mostly d, your style is ethnologist. Although this sound like you administer anesthesia, what it means is that you’re into different cultures: Technology is the comparison of cultures (so glad I have a dictionary on my computer). In other words, you like things kind of worldly. You probably rove to travel (or at least take armchair journeys through the Travel Channel) to out-of-the-way places where life is extremely different from your own. And your clothing probably reflects it.

You’re undoubtedly up on the latest in art, music, and design. You’re hip, you’re mod, and you know what’s going on. I’m an admirer of modern minimalism (not to mention the latest hip things). Keep in mind, though, that your home is more than a showcase for what’s new and cutting-edge; it’s also a place where you and your family and friends should be able to feel comfortable and relaxed. If everything is flawless, you may be miserable. I respect the fact that you always have a coaster handy for the person who wants to put a drink down on your one-of-a-kind industrial coffee table, but don’t be afraid to let your guard down a little. You need at least a few pieces of furniture that aren’t works of art but places to curl up or put your feet on after a long day. You want to live in a home not a museum.
Sit on your couch and wrap yourself up in that lumpy blanket your mother crocheted, maybe even put on the ugly plaid pajamas that Uncle Jerry bought you, and survey the landscape. Think about how you can make your home both a temple of minimalism and an inviting, restful place. You might try mixing in a few organic elements like plants or natural wood pieces, as well as a little color. Think about furnishing your home not only with what’s hot, but also with what gives you a warm feeling.
Make it personal and you’re on your way to creating a home that, while still chic, is a place where people want to hang out. If you answered mostly b, your style is maximalist. Okay, it’s not really a word- I made it up-but I think it describes perfectly the kind of person who just can’t get enough of, well, stuff. Your idea of heaven is probably Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, a day when everyone breaks out all their old things and sells them in the street.

You never know what ideas someone else is going to bring to the table. So I urge you to get help on your makeover, but in order to do that you’ve got to make people want to come over, and that’s where a makeover party comes in. The promise of music, food, drink, and a good time makes people forget that you’d also like them to do a little heavy lifting, hammering, and painting. To me, food and drink is important, but music is the key thing. Make sure you have a CD player or some other kind of sound system to keep everyone’s energy up. You can even create a makeover- inspired CD for the occasion, though if your friends are very literal (and unless you’re going for the Goth look) avoid adding songs like “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones.
And, hey, if you have a megaphone, absolutely pull it out! I can say from experience that making as much noise as possible gets people fired up to do a job well. If you don’t want to gather a whole group of friends, call on one or two and swap something for their help. Cook them a great meal, let them use your boat or car; help them make over their own homes the following weekend. Just repay them in some way so that you can really put them to work and not feel guilty about it. There’s also no reason you can’t take a page from Extreme interior Makeover: Home Edition’s book and get a group together to work on a project for someone who you know is in need of help. Maybe you have a sick friend or relative, or you know someone who has just gone through a crisis like divorce or the death of a family member. Create a surprise for that person by making over one or more of her rooms with or without her knowing; the pleasure she (or he) takes in the result will be one of the most fantastic rewards you’ve ever received.
And if you do it right, the project can be a blast. A few years ago I designed a mural for a bedroom belonging to a family in Colorado that had adopted several troubled foster kids destined for juvenile hall or prison. The mural was a very detailed rendering of a bandana-type pat- tern, in keeping with the fact that the house was on a ranch and the parents were horse whisperers. I had to project the pattern on the wall, pencil it in, then go back and paint each individual shape, some of which were only one to two inches long. Fortunately, a family of five that had been helping out with the whole makeover project as well as my friend Nancy, a muralist, ended up pitching in.
It took us nine hours, but it was such a good time. We listened to music and chowed down on pizza while watching this beautiful pattern take shape throughout the night. It was great fun and well worth the effort. Here’s another makeover party idea for you. If you’re low on funds for your makeover project but rich in stuff that you’d like to get rid of, have a Raffle for Renovation party. Invite a lot of people, offer music and drink, and sell tickets for a couple of bucks. Before my TV days, I threw one of these parties and unloaded a ton of things that had been piling up in my garage.
I threw in some bikes and an old car that didn’t run anymore. You can even throw in things that have no value like a bucket of bricks, just for the fun of it. By the end of the night you get rid of all that stuff you’d been collecting for years, and you also made a pretty good chunk of change that you can put toward your makeover project.

Don’t risks letting any of the good ideas running through your head get lost in the water? And make sure you can read your own handwriting. Hieroglyphics are even more confusing. 6 How to Plan for a Makeover

1. Snap a Photo Take a “before” picture of the room. You’ll want to remember it the way it was because it’s going to be oh so much better! Okay, now you only have eleven more steps to go.
2. Assess what you Like and What You Don’t Like Make two lists: one for what you like about the room and one for what you don’t like. This is just to get a general sense of what needs to change.

 
The furniture?
The wall colors?
The window treatments?
The floor?
Now is the time to consider whether you can live with the shag carpeting left behind by the former owner or if it’s time to put in hardwood floors and a few throw rugs. Walk around the room and look at its construction. Are there any awkward spaces? Does the room have symmetry or are the windows and doors out of balance? Before you can decide on the specific changes you want to make, get a read on the big picture. What are the purpose of each room, and what about that room is and isn’t working now? 3. Save Four Things choose four things that you want to keep when you make over the room. There are probably a few items that still appeal to you or that you feel you just can’t let go of. It might be a piece of furniture, a work of art, a rug, a lamp.
If you’ve got to be crazy, go ahead and pick six. But here’s the thing. Sometimes people have a tough time getting rid of stuff that they’ve had forever. But if it doesn’t have sentimental value and it wasn’t handed down by a grandparent or an uncle Can this chair be saved? A little reupholstering should do the trick.
One of my first major design-and-build projects was a three-story tree house (with a sundeck) that I created in my backyard when I was eleven years old. To get other kids in the neighborhood to work on it with me- kids whose dads had better tools than mine -I took a page from Tom Sawyer and bartered, trading comic books for their help. I remember the bond I felt with those kids while we built that tree house together, and it’s the same feeling I get today working with not only the EMHE team, but also the hundreds of local contractors and volunteers that help us do our job. I like to have as much fun as possible when I’m working, and I’ve found that bringing in a How to Plan for a room Makeover crowd to help makes a project livelier and even gets you better results.

You’ll love a room, even something as utilitarian as an office, so much more if you put your heart and soul into it. Start with a Style Folder I’m always working. Even when I’m not involved in a specific project, I’m keeping an eye out for things I like: layouts from home decor magazines, pages from art and design books, fabric swatches, samples of colors and textures I dig, photographs of clothes with patterns that look great, brochures from hotels, snapshots of rooms, signs, art, restaurants, gardens, lobbies. I save anything that I think is awesome- looking and that might serve as design inspiration at some point. (I also collect airsickness bags from planes, but that’s another story.)
When it comes to redoing a room, there’s one word I can’t reiterate enough: research, research, research. Just to stay organized, I file everything in a “style folder.” You don’t have to create a style folder with one particular project in mind-simply collect things you admire with the hope that they’ll one day be useful. If you just toss in everything that catches your eye, you’ll probably see a certain look start to emerge. You might not have been aware that you were drawn to certain colors, patterns, or types of furniture.
How to Plan for an interior Makeover Magazines are a great place to start. If you have your own subscription, you can just rip out the pages and file them away without having to save stacks and stacks of issues. Also look at as many home design books as possible. When the costs get prohibitive, see what your library has on hand (and if its selection is small, see if they can borrow from other branch. When you’re saving things, though, don’t think only about pictures; think about texture, too. Start touching things. Feel the difference between linen and Egyptian cotton, burlap and velour, and whenever you can toss samples of textures you like into your style folder, do so. (It would ‘probably be bad form to shear off a piece of the bedspread in your cousin’s guest room, so just write down the fabric type and what you liked about it then tuck that note into your folder.)
There are a lot of ways to make a style folder. You can dump everything into an accordion folder. I like to take photos of everything from fabrics to magazine spreads with my digital camera and upload them onto my computer. (You can also scan things directly into your computer and skip the photographing part.) This lets me organize everything into files on my desktop, print out whatever I want, and take it with me when I need to. Just remember to back up your hard drive. That’s a lesson I don’t want to learn again. Fixing them is hard and it will drive you crazy. Good times! The Twelve Steps Making over Interior a room can be a messy job and I’m not just talking about the paint, dust, stray bolts and nails, and all that other stuff that gets all over the floor.
I mean that there’s a mess of things you have to think about and a mess of ideas you have to juggle. It’s easy to forget things or make mistakes. Sometimes mistakes are no big deal, and in fact, you can even end up going in a different and better direction because of a mistake. But more often mistakes are costly or, at the very least, frustrating, so try to avoid them from the start. Because of the intense nature of EMHE, and, let’s be honest, the intense nature of me, I probably seem like I’m all over the place on TV.  I’m actually a pretty methodical guy and this is one place-the planning stage-where being methodical definitely pays off. That’s what these twelve steps are for. Think of them as your guide to getting organized (and preventing future screw-ups). And here’s a tip: Write down everything.