When this historic mansion in Leesburg, Virginia, served as a Designers’ Showhouse for the Loudoun Arts Council, designer Paula Grace was commissioned to return the library to its former grandeur. She was inspired to create an elegant, French-inspired room, as you can see by her drawing. But when she first walked into the library, it looked like this:

Kind of blah. Paula transformed the fireplace with a Louis XV hand-carved mantel, dramatic drapes, and two crescent-shaped sofas. Here’s how the room looked after she worked her design magic on it:

Paula painted the inside of the bookcases a muted gold, which really makes them stand out more than they did when they were totally white, doesn’t it? (Love those bookshelves!)

You can see the rest of the photos and get more information about the room’s makeover (and see other amazing before and afters) at Paula Grace Designs.

P.S. If you haven’t entered my $50 Sticviews Giveaway yet, you still have time!

See this fireplace wall decked out for fall? Four kinds of Sticviews were used to create a look that can easily be changed again for Christmas: 1) the leaves on the overmantel, 2) the patterns on the tile, 3) the message across the mantel, and even 4) the black and white family photo.

The stics are like magic when it comes to creating a personalized look for a room. And when you’re ready for something else, just peel them off and presto, change-o! They’re easy to hang and easy to remove (no residue gets left behind). They’re reusable, too.

One lucky reader is going to get a $50 gift certificate toward anything they want on the Sticviews website.

What would you do with $50? You could put Santa in your window. Or order some unique Christmas gifts, like a laptop or iPod skin created from a favorite photo (starting at only $10).

You can also print custom labels, get a car stic with your business logo on it, or make your windows look like stained glass. The possibilities are endless. Browse the Gallery of Ideas and I’ll bet you’ll find yourself saying, “I never would’ve thought to do that!”

How can you get that $50 gift certificate in your hot little hands?

1. Visit the Sticviews website and then leave a comment here, telling us what kind of stics you’d create.
2. For extra entries, you can sign up for their e-mail newsletter (you’ll get 25% off your next order if you do!), and become a fan on Facebook.

Easy, right? If you’re going for extra entries, be sure to leave a second or third comment here telling me what you did to earn them. The giveaway ends next Friday, when I’ll be announcing the winner. Good luck!

I just discovered the Color Personality Profile Quiz over at the Pratt & Lambert Paints website (via How About Orange) and thought it was fun. It asks you a few unexpected questions like, “What personality trait would you most like your children to have?” and “Which of the following activities would you enjoy most?”

This is the Personal Color Profile it came up with for me (above). I’m “Shades of Pale.” I have been toying with the idea of painting my bedroom a pale blue like my office. According to this, looks like it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go with that.

Take the short quiz and then come back to let me know what your color personality is!

Monday I showed you the ivy-covered cottage from the classic Merchant-Ivory film Howards End. Today we’re taking a look at another property from the movie: 6 Wickham Place. This is where the Schlegel sisters, played by Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham-Carter, lived.

According to the London House Hound, who writes the real-estate blog BrickWork, Wickham Place–which is actually 6 Victoria Square, just north of Victoria Station–is on the market for £3,250,000. Here’s how the house looked in the film:

In the movie, the Schlegel sisters were born and raised here. Sadly, they lose the house because they can no longer afford the lease. Wickham Place is slated to come down and make room for newer, more modern flats.

A photo of the house today from the real estate listing:

How the room appeared in the movie:

It looks like the dining room (shown in the real estate listing) was walled off to enlarge another room on the other side of it:

The dining room in the film is larger and appears to have been filmed in a different part of the house (or on a set):

The bedroom and bath shown in the listing are updated and modern:

The front room off the entry (in the film):

Staircase:

Upstairs landing:

Thanks to London House Hound for letting me know about this listing.

Did you miss the ivy-covered cottage from Howards End? Click here to see it. I’m adding this to Melissa’s Beautiful Life party–head over there to see what everyone else thinks is beautiful!

Check out my TV/Movie Houses page for links to the rest that I’ve featured, from Chocolat to Jane Eyre.

Have you seen the monogrammed pillows at My Sparrow? Burlap and monograms are both so popular right now–I think I need one with a lowercase “j” on it! I’m proud to have My Sparrow as one of my sponsors–it’s an eco-friendly online boutique that believes in “Stylish Responsibility.”

It’s the first Tuesday in November, which is Election Day in the U.S. Did you vote yet? A year ago I asked you to vote for your favorite kitchen on Election Day. This year I thought it would be fun to vote for your favorite house style.

The Plan Collection, one of my sponsors, offers luxury house plans online. I chose a few of them from various styles to show you, and then we’ll take a vote to see which one is most popular.

Bungalow:

You can see interior photos (love the entry!) and floor plans for the Kempas model here.

Coastal Style:

This house sits on the water and has a spot for your boat. Aerial photos and more here.

Historic:

This house may be even more grand than the White House that it resembles. You can see more photos and get the house plans of this model, called the Sussex, here.

Contemporary:

Interior photos and more views of this contemporary house in the mountains here.

European Style:

You can see more photos of this house, including views of the kitchen, here.

Tudor:

You can see the floor plans for the Hartsell house here. Or visit The Plan Collection to look at all of the other home styles they have to offer.

Ruth’s last wish when she dies is scribbled on a piece of scrap paper on her death bed: Howards End should go to her new friend, Miss Margaret Schlegel. Her husband Henry and children are understandably baffled by this request, and a little angry. Why would she leave the house to someone outside the family? Her daughter Evie rips the paper up and tosses it into the fire.

Emma Thompson plays Margaret Schlegel, who befriended Ruth Wilcox in her final days. She doesn’t know that the house was supposed to be hers, but she falls in love with it anyway–and with the widowed Henry (Anthony Hopkins).

Peppard Cottage in Oxfordshire (England) became Howards End for the film.

Howards End is based on the classic novel by E.M. Forster, who also wrote another favorite of mine, A Room with a View.

The story explores the relationships among three families who belong to distinctly different social classes in the early 1900s. The Wilcoxes are wealthy Victorian capitalists; the Schlegel sisters are forward-thinking philanthropists who talk about issues like suffrage and helping the poor; and the Basts are the poor, working-class couple that the Schlegels try (unsuccessfully) to save.

Leonard Bast, who is unemployed and desperate, comes to Howards End in search of younger sister Helen Schlegel (Helena Bonham-Carter). Bast was played by Samuel West, who you may recognize from movies like Persuasion (as the wily Mr. Elliot who is not as charming as he seems!) and Jane Eyre (as St. John in the 1996 version). Here he is, walking through the front door of the cottage:

When Helen sees him, she is shocked. So is he. He didn’t know she was pregnant:

In this scene in the dining room, the Wilcox family discusses their mother’s death-bed request and argues about how to handle it.

The upstairs landing:

In one scene, Emma Thompson mistakingly refers to Helen as “Helena,” which is the actress’s real name. Here’s Helen in the front parlor:

This was Merchant Ivory Productions’ third gorgeous adaptation of a Forster novel (following A Room with a View and Maurice). It was filmed in 1992.

Derek of Derek M Design sent me this aerial photo of the house (via Google Earth). As he says, from this overview you can see that the house is much larger in real life than it appears in the film:

Come back to Wednesday to see the London home that the Schlegel sisters lived in at 6 Wickham Place. It’s now on the market, so we can compare how it looked in the movie in 1992 to how it looks today after an extensive renovation.

UPDATE: You can take a tour of the London townhouse here.

Check out my TV/Movie Houses page for links to the rest that I’ve featured, from Brideshead Revisited to Father of the Bride.

Kellie Cashon, the talented designer behind Cashon & Co. Interiors, has given her home on the Gulf Coast a makeover from head to toe. I was so wowed by her work that I wanted to show you a few of her before and after photos and thought it would be perfect for two blog parties happening today: Sarah’s Before & After Party at Thrifty Decor Chick and Susan’s Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.

Take this family room off the kitchen, for starters. That’s how it looked before (above). And after Kellie worked her magic on it:

Before (looking from the family room into the kitchen):

After (what a big difference the hardwood floors make!):

A closer look at the kitchen:

She took this corner of the family room, which wasn’t doing a whole lot:

And turned it into this lovely little nook:

You can see the rest of this Gulf House makeover and many more examples of her work on her website. Big thanks to Kellie for letting me share this with you. And don’t forget to check out the other makeovers showcased at Thrifty Decor Chick and Between Naps on the Porch!

If you love a good before and after as much as I do, then click here to see more of my favorites, like a Beach Cottage Dining Room Makeover.

P.S. If you love looking at house plans as much as I do, then check out The Plan Collection. Their website is so much fun, you can easily lose an hour or two there. I know I have! I’m excited to have  them as my newest sponsor.

Julia of Lookiloos says, “Inside, the wooden floors were sloping, the wallpaper peeling. When the last member of the family that had owned the house for more than a century passed away, it was as though the house died, too.”

An artist lives here, and she knew just how to breathe new life into the old house. She added lots of fresh, bright color, while preserving its original vintage appeal.

Now an independent movie is being filmed at the farmhouse. Read all about it and take the full tour of the house at Lookiloos!

Charlie Sheen and his wife Brooke Mueller have put their Mediterranean-style home on the market for $3.7 million in the Los Feliz neighborhood of L.A. It’s a beautiful home. Here are some photos from the listing (Sotheby’s International Realty):

You can see the rest of the photos (there are tons of them!) and get more information about the house on the listing’s website.

Brooke Mueller and Charlie Sheen have been married for about a year and have twin baby boys named Bob and Max. They have additional properties, and I don’t believe this is where they live full time.

One of Sheen’s first roles was a small one in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” He looked so young! (To see my post about the “Ferris Bueller” houses, click here.)

Visit my Celebrity Homes page for others I’ve featured, like Christie Brinkley’s Hamptons Home and Diane Keaton’s Spanish Colonial.

Calling all digital photographers! Have you been ColorInc’s website? You can order everything from custom-created greeting cards to gallery-wrapped canvas. Check out their blog to see their gorgeous photo picks of the day. It’s a great resource to have!

Did you watch “Flipping Out” this season?

Tuesday night was the cast reunion episode on Bravo TV. Jeff Lewis and Ryan Brown were at odds through most of the season of the hit reality show. Check out this clip of it to get an idea of how things went when they confronted each other about Jeff’s accusations that Ryan has been stealing business from him (hint: not well).

If you watch the show, then you know how sad it is that these former business partners and best friends are now at odds.

I’m inclined to believe that a lot of the problems stem from misunderstandings, and that Ryan didn’t intentionally do anything to hurt Jeff or his design business. Based on some comments I’ve seen around the blogosphere, however, I may be in the minority!

What’s your take on the situation?

(You can see photos of Ryan’s home–which comes with the $11,000 a month mortgage payment that Jeff refers to, here, and his website for Brown Design here. Bid on the painting of Jeff Lewis that hangs behind his desk at Jeff Lewis Design.)