The "doctor" is in! After spending the day at a Manhattan Home Depot helping customers with their questions, Oprah's favorite design expert Nate Berkus takes a few questions from Rachael's audience:
"Can you paint over wallpaper?"
"Nope!" Nate says. "You can paint over wallpaper, but what will happen is that it will look great for about 16 hours, and then the first time the weather changes -- it either gets hot or cold -- it will start to curl up at the seams and at the corners. So all the time you spent and the money that you spent will be completely in vain because it will look terrible. Instead of the ugly wallpaper, you'll see ugly lines throughout the room." Nate suggests taking the time and renting a steamer to remove the wallpaper -- and maybe get a few bottles of wine to entice your friends to help!
"I have no furniture in my new apartment -- what should be the focal point if I'm starting with nothing?"
"The best place to start is to buy your sofa," Nate says. "But I'm going to tell you something that a lot of people have disagreed with over the years -- I think you should buy the best sofa that you can afford. Make sure you buy something that's of really good quality. I've had my sofa in my apartment in Chicago for twenty years; I just recover it, I still like the shape. Buy a classic simple sofa of decent quality, and buy it in a solid fabric and in a neutral color so you don't get tired of it."
Check out Nate's new line of decor at the Home Shopping Network.
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