“We’ve lived in this house for 19 years, and I’ve never been able to figure this space out,” Oemcke says. “It’s almost a great room, but because of the step down it’s two rooms.” Litchfield says that’s where redesigners can help. “Redesign specialists realize that people spend years accumulating possessions, and that many of these possessions have great emotional value.” But it can be tough to redecorate with such familiar objects. ”Often people end up putting the same objects in the same room every time they ‘redecorate’.” Redesigners bring a fresh perspective with an eye toward balance, harmony and color. Then end result still says “you”- but it’s done in a polished, pulled- together way.

Litchfield noticed two major themes in the rooms: family, as evidenced by numerous family portraits, and the Orient, as seen in vacation mementos. These items- many of them stunning, like a cobalt blue sake set and a collection of fine porcelain- had been stuck in a curio cabinet or simply stashed away. Litchfield got to work, emptying the rooms. That way she could study the space without distractions. She had carte blanche and decided that part of the space should be  a more formal living room. That would be where Oemcke entertained, in a house full of men enjoy feminine touches. So in went the Queen Anne styled upholstered white love seats, that had originally been separated in the adjoining rooms and a delicate dark-wood antique table with sides that fold out.

The family room, in turn, would stay more casual, with its functional home office and entertainment tower. Enter the pastel-patterned, contemporary love seat and reclining chairs in rust and navy.  Litchfield moved the TV tower away from the far corner, where guests saw it when entering through the front door. “That’s not something you want people to see first,” she explained. With the help of Oemcke’s husband, Ken- home on lunch break- Litchfield moved it to the other side of the fireplace. In its place went an antique library table, a perfect showplace for staggered family photos. “I was going to give that away,” muses Oemcke.  “I’d kept it in the kitchen. There just wasn’t any place for it.”

Litchfield surveyed the rooms to find areas that draw the eye: In the living room, she used a painted Asian screen; in the family room, she focused on the fireplace. She then doled out the furniture into places where it’s most appropriate, creating a conversation area in the living room and arranging the recliners and sofa in the family room to face the fireplace and TV tower. She used accessories to tie together the art, style and colors of the rooms.

With, Oemcke’s permission, Litchfield had already “shopped the home” for pieces that might fit better into the colors, style and theme of these rooms. She brought out the red-orange geisha figurine for the living room and rescued some embroidered cloth from envelopes. The cloth found a new home beneath the coffee table’s plate glass top. At 25 years old, this glass-brass-and-caning table wasn’t a magazine-grade piece; it just needed Litchfield to leave its disco days.

Litchfield quickly picked up on a recurrent theme- family- and preserved its presence. Ironwood sculptures, part of the family’s collection from trips to see relatives in Arizona, remained on the ledge over the family room’s sliding glass door. But Litchfield used some of them- a momma and baby turtle and a cactus, for instance- for end table accents or bookshelf decorations.

At about 4 p.m., Oemcke sees the final cut.  "This... is it,” she marvels, almost squealing with delight.  And now? “I don’t know how to explain it” she beams. “In a house with three guys, my husband and the dog, I have a space that says ‘this is me.’ I guess in a way, Linda kind of found me.”