Sarah 101 - Episode Guide

This born entertainer’s kitchen is ready for the hook. Sarah and Tommy pull it back to the basics: assessing needs before demolition and creating a flexible and workable layout that caters to the bottom line. A fresh new colour palette, lighting and tons of storage help place this kitchen centre-stage in the client’s culinary repertoire.

Designing a young boy’s bedroom to evolve with his change on a dime taste. Sarah and Tommy add in practical, timeless solutions that will grow with the room’s occupant. They devise a privacy solution for a wall of windows and carve storage everywhere they can. Accessories and accents are where they spend last, knowing that these items are most likely to change on a whim.

A first time homeowner’s maturing taste pushes the finishes and furniture in her tiny condo well past their due date. Sarah and Tommy find furnishings that reflect the client’s new attitude and that can eventually move with her into a larger home.  In the meantime they inject a ton of style and flexibility into this tiny kitchen, living and dining space.

A recently acquired country home came with a nightmare 80‘s kitchen.  Sarah and Tommy have limited dollars to transform this large space into a kitchen and casual dining space that is bright, fresh and modern yet maintains its country ambiance. It’s a lesson in spend-save as they devise solutions that are cheery and practical, while keeping a keen eye on the bottom line.

This mid-century home looks more like a contents sale than the slick, functional abode it could be. Sarah and Tommy make this adjoining living and dining room flow seamlessly into one another using paint, furniture and flooring solutions, and by tweaking the layout to capture the bucolic view. The end goal – a modern home that works for today’s living yet doesn’t look like a mid-century theme park.

A lesson in optimizing a small, awkward space to serve multiple needs. Sarah and Tommy carve a den and home office using every inch of a forgotten room. They showcase the character features of the space with paint and wallpaper placement and carve ship-like storage from an unused closet. Almost every piece of furniture must also do double duty in making this den a relaxing place to get work done!

After five years of renovating by themselves this couple lost steam right outside their master bedroom door. Sarah and Tommy devise a calm, serene scheme that plays into the homeowners’ desire to relax and enjoy their achievement. They shoehorn in badly needed clothes storage and layout solutions that maximize this pint-sized master. That is, once they clear out the tools and discarded reno supplies!

This dining room is an unappetizing feast of bad colour, dated features and weird layout. Sarah and Tommy jumpstart the stuffy space with fresh, bright twists totally in tune with this young family’s outlook. Period features go bold and modern. Vintage furniture transforms into a riotous medley of punchy, practical colour and fabrics. It’s new, it’s cool and true to a young, hip family’s dining needs!

Though a rental this young bachelor wants a place that speaks to his hip downtown style. Sarah and Tommy take on the industrial loft, bringing to it a cool, loungey vibe to entertain friends in casual style. The trick is how to spend your money in a bare bones rental in ways that create atmosphere yet focus on finding pieces you love and can take to your next place.

This kitchen begs for reinvention! Sarah and Tommy squeeze industrial grade gear into this space while helping it blend with the home’s overall traditional style.  They also address weird placement of windows, doors and services, plus lighting in the new task mastering space The end result is a kitchen that is professional grade, yet welcoming for occasions large and small.

Just when the bathroom was next on this couple’s reno hit list, they discovered they were pregnant. Sarah and Tommy re-purpose a storage room into a nursery, using a unique tribal theme reflected in colour, fabrics and furnishings. They also squeeze every inch of space from this teeny room in making it a draw to the baby and parents who’ll be spending a lot of time there.

This basement laundry space is typical to many homes, hidden in a damp, dark basement corner. Sarah freshens and makes this task much more attractive by creating new storage, hanging and folding space, and by reviving an old favorite, the fold out ironing board.  The mood is further lifted with bright color, artwork and other personal touches that make this into a chore with so much more!

Sarah and Tommy bring style and sense to a tight, illogical kitchen and equally small adjoining living area. Flooring, paint and other finishes unite the two spaces. A customized out of the box kitchen plays on Sarah’s green and white colour scheme. It is carried into the living area with smart, dual-purpose solutions for modern living. Sarah’s “wall clock” is an easy, high impact DIY to round out the episode. 

Brightening a dark, narrow living/dining room to bring its family back. As a crumbled ceiling and worn floors are replaced Sarah spots a new attitude in punchy floral fabric that ends up on vintage side chairs.  Painted side tables flank the room’s statement, a pink sofa. A daybed separates living from dining and shoehorns even more seating in for both. A painted wood table, comfortable new chairs, storage and a feature wall in vintage dinnerware tie directly to the upbeat design scheme.  

This basement has become a dumping ground of subterranean splendor. Sarah and Tommy start by delineating and organizing spaces to meet the daily functional demands of the family. It becomes an exercise of where to spend and save and how to make the most of the lack of height. In the end they find a way to put everything in its place and have this sophisticated basement look more like it belongs above ground then below!

This family kitchen has great bones but needs a facelift. Sarah trades the dated yellow and brown palette for fresh robin’s egg blue and off white. Hand-built cupboards are sprayed as the island is reconfigured. New flooring and lighting nod to the retro style of the house yet modernize the space for today’s needs. Sarah gives you the how and why of trade-offs in updating one of the most important and costly to renovate rooms in a typical home!

The lesson: transitioning an 80’s master bathroom into a child-free respite by not moving an inch of plumbing. Sarah shoehorns major style and comfort into this space, replacing a built in jetted tub with a sculptural one, replacing vanity and sink plus all finishes and accessories. The eclectic mix of splurge and save appointments results in a master bath worthy of its name yet neutral enough to be ageless!

Practical, stylish choices turn ostensibly a kids’ playpen into a living room for all. Sarah spices up the color, she and Tommy tie furnishings to the room scale and revise the layout to serve the needs of adults and toddlers. The jumping off point is bright yellow and grey floral fabric, with other new fabrics used for impact and practicality. Sarah devises a tiny dining room that seats six and creates light-box artwork. This combined living/dining space serves every family need with style!

Two rooms for three little girls become fun, personality-packed retreats. Tea towels capture Sarah and Tommy’s eye, leading us to greens and blues in one room, where Sarah’s platform bed solution banishes bunk beds forever. Meanwhile the nursery pops in cheery reds and corals. Everything sits on new, low gas carpeting in a neutral stripe that ties into flooring in the rest of the home. Both rooms receive a ton of storage and ideas for accessories and the girly fun stuff! 

Adding warmth and comfort to a large bedroom in an industrial-type space Sarah and Tommy soften with furnishings, a splurge Oriental rug and high-style low-cost drapery for expansive windows. Unique dragon fabric sparks the eclectic scheme, artfully mixed with plaids and pseudo ethnic patterns. Keepsake artwork adds soul, and helps to convey masculine and feminine appeal.

Creating a welcoming nursery that will grow with your child. Sarah’s inspiration springs from blue paisley wallpaper she and Tommy install on the ceiling. Fabric and furniture take deep, rich blues until complementary orange spices up the mix. Sarah’s flash card art idea creates original pieces for mere pennies. Contrary to its elegant undertones the nursery is a warm and happy place for now and the future.