Steve and Cindi Sullivan say they love the changes that Sherry Oexman, owner of Sherry O Interiors, created. This was how part of the Sullivan's family living room appeared before the makover effort. Before the makeover, the Sullivan's fireplace donned two tall glass vases with magnolia leaves and gold sprayed twigs. The updated look includes three clear vases of varying sizes and shapes, holding fresh gladiolus and red Alstroemeria. Photos by Durell Hall Jr.

Cindi and Steve Sullivan called on Sherry Oexman, owner of Sherry O Interiors, to do just that.

Her answer: Move around some furniture and accessories, bring in pieces from other rooms, move pieces out, and add plants, flowers and candles. Now the room, which stretches from the front of the house to the back, has three distinct seating areas and much more impact.

Cindi Sullivan, garden expert for WAVE-TV and family and garden director for WHAS-Radio, and Steve Sullivan, chief financial officer of Corradino, an engineering, planning and environmental company, bought a former Bellarmine's Women's Council Show House in the Highlands four years ago.

They said they thought it would be fun to have a redo by Oexman, who has done two makeover segments for the HGTV show "Decorating Cents."

Oexman usually asks the owners if they want to use specific items or not. Cindi Sullivan told her she could bring furniture in from any other room and she could never have too many books.

The Sullivans left while Oexman, assisted by Kristi Miedema, who has the design firm Visual Impact in Cincinnati, began working at 9 a.m. The Sullivans were told to return at 3 p.m. for the unveiling.

Harry Savells and Don Oexman, Sherry's husband, were there for the heavy work of moving the furniture. Only a sideboard and mirror, a baby grand piano and two paintings remained in the room. The beige walls, green marbleized ceiling and parquet floor were left too.

Working in favor of the room were the eclectic furnishings and the interesting accessories. Most of the items had been picked out by Cindi Sullivan and her mother, Joy Long of Lexington, or her husband and mother — many at auctions, which Cindi Sullivan loves.

Oexman began by turning the piano in a back corner so its keyboard was close to the wall instead of away. She said she did this so the player's back would no longer be to the room. A metal candlestick with a gold-leaf finish was moved from the entry hall to sit atop the piano. A family photograph and spheres made of seeds were moved there from the sideboard.

A landscape oil painting on the wall behind the piano bench and a floor lamp in the nearby corner stayed put.

Then Oexman angled the traditional floral sofa (blue, green, gold and cream on a coral background), the European-looking coffee table with an iron base and glass top and a multicolored area rug with a crest and botanical print.

"The sofa seating addresses the fireplace, piano and outdoor area that are the three focal points," Oexman said. Previously, they had faced the fireplace head on.

The landscape oil painting was left on the wall above the fireplace. Heads and busts of people are sculpted into the large, ornate stone mantel. Two tall glass vases with magnolia leaves and gold-sprayed twigs were replaced with three clear vases of varying sizes and shapes, holding fresh gladiolus and red Alstroemeria — two on one side and one on the other.

Two French bergére chairs with gold fabric, formerly in a front corner, now sit on the other side of the coffee table. A traditional wood table moved with them. Red apples in a brass compote with a fish moved from the sideboard to the wood table.

Five tall silver candlesticks and books were put back, and a pottery bowl with a leaf design in two shades of green came from the sunroom to accent the coffee table.

Oexman swapped burgundy candles for blue ones.

Behind the sofa, two small French bombé chests from the master bedroom were tried but didn't work. Instead a Victorian table with a marble top from the back hallway was chosen.

Two glass candlesticks from the traditional chest and a green and gold lamp and a family photo, both from the sideboard, are displayed on the table.

The Spanish-style entertainment center that had stood between a pair of French doors in front of the room were moved to where the bergére chairs had been. A floor lamp from the game room was placed beside it.

The entertainment cabinet's space was filled with a traditional chest that Steve Sullivan bought, which had been in the entry hall, and two green tone-on-tone striped wing chairs, taken from each side of the fireplace.

On the chest rest books from the coffee table and sideboard, an old Bible from a Colonial chest, two small flower pictures from the sideboard and a lamp with an Oriental design in green and red from the master bedroom.

A picture of irises on the wall behind the chest was found in the master bedroom.

The chairs flank a round table with rope legs and a metal top with an Oriental design. Books top the table. Before, the table had been placed by a gold wing chair and the chest.

The marble pedestal that had been by the bergére chairs was switched to the wall where the chest had been.

The sculpture of a flapper dancer on top of the pedestal had been in a bedroom.

A watercolor of the Sullivan house that had hung on the back wall before now hangs on the wall behind the pedestal.

The sideboard with ball-and-claw feet was moved to one side a little so a mirror with an ornately carved gold frame would be centered on the wall above it.

Several family photographs taken away from its top were returned. Added were books from the family room; two red, gold, black and green lamps from the foyer; and two black faux marble vases and a black urn, both from Cindi Sullivan's garden work room. A cigar box was put back on the sideboard.

On the back wall, a walnut Colonial chest was pulled in front of a pair of French doors, and the floral wing chair with green and gold on a red background and the ottoman next to it stayed.

A coral chair and ottoman with an irregularly shaped diamond pattern, formerly by the sofa, was moved to the left side of the Colonial chest.

Now on the chest are a lamp from the bergére chairs' table, a fossil from the coffee table, a candlestick like the one on the piano, books from the entry hall and three spheres from the sideboard — one made of seeds, another of beans and the third of crushed bark.

A multicolored area rug with a crest and botanical pattern on a cream background was laid back down in this back seating area, as was another area rug with a Moroccan look in reds and blues that had been in the front of the room, now near the green wing chairs.

Three of four oil paintings formerly on the wall by where the bergére chairs had been found a new home on the back wall with the Colonial chest seating area.

Two are landscapes, and one is a British oil of fairies. The fourth painting, a man in a library, was placed under the landscape painting by the piano.

When Oexman consulted with Cindi Sullivan, she suggested buying three silk plants. Cindi Sullivan didn't object "because it's too dark to grow real trees in the room. Also, "they have real tree trunks, and the silk looks so real."

She already had the pots for them. The one in the blue pot went in the corner by the piano, and the two in the yellow pots were placed by the sideboard and the entertainment cabinet.

A gold wing chair that had been by the chest went to a back hallway, and a table in the center of the hallway found a new spot by the chair.

When Cindi Sullivan returned home, among her comments were: "Oh, my gosh! That (the sofa table) looks so pretty there. &elipse; It's perfect. I love the way she broke it up into sitting areas. It's such a big room."

"It's like a weaving pattern," with the seating areas, Steve Sullivan said. "It looks great."

"I love my stacks of books too," Cindi Sullivan said.

"Home Style" is published each Saturday. Call Yvonne Eaton at (502) 582-4632. Fax her at (502) 582-4665. Or write to her at The Courier-Journal, 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, Ky. 40201-7431.