Doug and Sandra Mangel have lived in this 1911 Cape Cod-style home for more than 20 years. In an effort to better balance her tastes with his, Sandra, an interior designer, recently tweaked the home’s look, starting with the sitting area, opposite, where she replaced pastel floral chintz upholstery with a richer, more masculine print.

harmonyA Minneapolis designer refines her all-frills cottage style into a more tailored look that pleases both her and her husband.

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Written by beCky MollenkaMp Photographed by kIM CornelISon Produced by kIrSten HollISter

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To ease the feminine edge in the living room, Sandra deepened the walls from light pink to rich raspberry and carried the saturated tones onto the fabrics. Sage chenille covers the antique sofa, which Sandra has reupholstered three times.

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Such was the case for Sandra and Doug Mangel, whose

home has been pretty in pink and floral chintz for 20 years.

Last year, however, a desire for compromise struck Sandra,

so she redecorated to meet her husband in the middle.

“What I tried to do is mix the feminine with the

masculine,” Sandra says. “For example, pillows with a soft

pattern get paired with a more angular plaid and stripe.”

Starting from scratch wasn’t an option because Sandra

loved everything in her home. To add masculinity without

losing her personal style, she opted for small changes that

made a big impact. The walls in the living and dining rooms

deepened from pastel pink to rich raspberry.

Instead of buying new furniture, Sandra reupholstered

almost everything she owned. That floral chintz was replaced

with simple geometrics or solid colors with lots of texture.

“Instead of remodeling, I re-covered,” Sandra jokes. “I’m

still in love with the pieces I’ve had for 30 years. So rather

than buy something new, I just reupholster what I have.

Redoing an entire room is a major expense, but you can

tweak a chair for very little money.”

Although she saved most of her favorite furnishings,

Sandra did let go of accessories. After buying antiques for

more than 35 years, Sandra had amassed quite a collection

of odds and ends that covered most of the surfaces in her

home. To achieve a more tailored look, she decluttered and

created simplified vignettes.

Decorating can be a battle of the sexes and when she is the interior designer, he is likely to lose the war. A custom glass-top dining

table occupies little visual space in a narrow dining room, above. Sandra placed an antique armoire in an empty corner to add storage for stemware. A white-painted brick fireplace didn’t fit Sandra’s redesign, so she covered the brick with marble tiles and designed a hefty wood mantel, left. “It’s the first thing you see when you come in the house so it needed to make a statement and serve as a focal point,” she says.

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When Sandra fell in love with a sunroom she designed for a charity showcase house, she re-created the look in her own home. She left the original windows and textured plaster walls mostly bare to capitalize on their character.

$To save money, Sandra let the

existing Art Deco floor tiles guide the sunroom’s pink-and-green color scheme.

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“Years ago I’d fill a table with all kinds of collectibles, now

it’s a lamp and a personal photo,” Sandra says.

While most of the makeover was as simple as updating

paint or fabric, there was one big-ticket redo: The Mangels

treated themselves to a master bathroom by converting

their grown daughter’s bedroom. After adding plumbing,

Sandra decorated the new space with a simple vanity and

neutral tones to please him, a leopard-print chair for her.

The adjoining master bedroom is small, so Sandra made

the most of it by replacing fussy flowers and lace with a

monochromatic color palette largely devoid of pattern. She

also bought new furniture for the revamped room, choosing

a few large-scale pieces.

“Scale in a room is extremely important because that’s

what gives balance and harmony,” Sandra says.

Despite all the changes, one room was left untouched.

Sandra kept her sunroom as is—an over-the-top girly

getaway. The pastel-drenched space is a reminder that

compromise may be admirable, but sometimes it’s nice to

have a space of your own.

“My style has remained the same, but within that I can

make changes just as I do with my wardrobe,” Sandra says.

“But I still love pink because it just makes me happy.”

A three-tier shelf loaded with a collection of Japanware, left, adds a pop of bold color to the sunroom’s white walls. To make the custom hardware, Sandra painted wood knobs to match the shelves and then covered them in crafts glue and rolled them over glass beads. Below, Sandra relaxes with her grandsons (left to right) Benjamin, 5; Jacob, 7; and Jackson, 10.

Q. you’ve been an interior designer for more than 30 years. What changes have you seen?A. Years ago the woman made all the design decisions in the house, but now couples are working together. It’s more challenging because no two people have the same ideas and I have to find the middle road.Q. How does your style differ from your clients’?A. Generally my clients want simplified looks. My personal style is more collected. I use more color, more print, and I love to mix styles. Q. What’s the most important decorating advice you can share?A. If you’re just starting out, work with a designer. It really doesn’t cost

any more to work with a designer and you’ll learn so much. Also, always pick things that you love!Q. What are your secrets for collecting?A. If you don’t have any antiques stores near you, head to your computer—eBay, Craig’s List, and First Dibs are wonderful online resources. Trust yourself and don’t overanalyze things. If you like it, get it. That’s why I’ve kept my pieces for so long—they were all from the heart.Q. What’s your next project?A. I’m adding a tiny chandelier to the sunroom. It’s a black bamboo iron chandelier in the shape of a lantern and I’ve strung different colors of glass beads on it.

the sandra file

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“Scale in a room is extremely important

because that’s what gives balance and harmony.”

–Interior designer Sandra Mangel

fyiFor a flawless

finish on furniture, use oil-base paint.

It adheres and wears better than

latex but takes longer to dry.

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Lighting is a critical element of Sandra’s designs. She prefers several low-light fixtures rather than a few bright ones (she never uses brighter than a 60-watt bulb). In the kitchen she painted a wood sconce, left, to match the room’s color scheme and added a toile-covered shade and several crystals. She also remade an iron chandelier, right, found at an antiques shop, with paint and prisms. “I like lighting at a lot of different levels,” Sandra says. “It creates different moods in the room.”

small space, big styleGood design comes in all shapes and sizes. Interior designer Sandra Mangel knows how to live large in a small house—her Cape Cod-style home is just 1,200 square feet. Here are her tips for maximizing every square inch in a small room.

W Flooding a room with light will make it feel larger. In many of Sandra’s smallest rooms, the windows are unfettered to allow in natural light, which bounces off white walls. Rooms without lots of windows are loaded with artificial light.

W White walls aren’t the only way to expand space. Soft, subdued color schemes, like in Sandra’s green-and-white kitchen, evoke a spacious feeling.

W Older homes often have small, awkward spaces that require deft furniture placement. The sunroom in Sandra’s 1911 home is long and narrow. To make the most of it, she divided the room into two smaller areas, with a dining space at one end and a sitting area at the other.

W Crowding many little things into a small room will only make it feel smaller. Instead, Sandra always chooses just a few large-scale pieces of furniture for her small rooms.

To visually expand her kitchen’s cramped quarters, Mangel chose a simple palette of green and white, inspired by the toile used on the chairs and valance. Replacing a wall with antique railings, opposite, helped open the kitchen and, coupled with the original maple floors, retain its century-old charm.

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Bold patterns, cozy textures, and simplified displays replace floral-and-lace draperies, a paisley button-tufted slipper chair, and piles of antique tchotchkes in the master bedroom, formerly the most feminine room in the Mangels’ house.

UScale is one of the most important

elements of design. A dresser and chair make this small corner

live large.{

take it home GET INSPIRED BY WHAT YOU LOVE.As an interior designer with access to unlimited textiles, Sandra Mangel let favorite fabrics guide most of her color choices. For others, she suggests using a blouse or scarf to start the design process.

MAkE A MISMATcHED STATEMENT. The surest route to a cookie-cutter look is buying matching furniture and fabrics. Instead, personalize your space by mixing styles, periods, and patterns. “If you see something you love, buy it,” Sandra says. “You’ll fit it in somewhere.”

ADD TOUcHABLE TExTURE. Layers of texture make a room cozy. To soften the hard edges of her master bath, Sandra added a flowy window treatment, a leopard-print chair, and fresh flowers.

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While most of Sandra’s furnishings are vintage pieces from flea markets, she did outfit the master bedroom with a few new items, including a custom-made dresser, above. An old étagère, right, is the only remaining element from the master bedroom’s previous design. Its blue paint determined the wall color, but Sandra updated the look by introducing raspberry accents in the bedding. converting an unused third bedroom into a master bathroom, above right, was the only big-ticket part of the home’s remake. Sandra kept the original hardwood floor, which her contractor had to remove and then replace after plumbing was added.