ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR THINKING BIG IN SMALL SPACES CAN RESULT IN WINNING DESIGNS.

Byline: Jennifer Errico Staff Writer

Just because the Pasadena Showcase House of Design is large - 12,000 square feet of space - doesn't mean that every room is enormous. In fact, several rooms within this house are petite, challenging designers to make the most of their small spaces - and give us cool ideas for our own homes.

This year, the Showcase House of Design is a 60-year-old three-level Italianate-style mansion in the San Rafael Hills of Pasadena. Tours of the house and gardens begin on Sunday.

Carolyn Oliver-Broder of Oliver's Interior Design in Pasadena and Jean Horn of Jean Horn Interior Design in Altadena each tackled one of four small rooms in the upstairs Pembury suite with style and pizazz.

``No matter what room you are decorating, it has to have some whimsy,'' said Oliver-Broder. ``You have to feel like someone lives there - and have fun.''

The Pembury rooms are the old servants' quarters. They've been renovated over the years, so the designers who worked in these rooms were asked to make the area into a guest suite, or, as Oliver-Broder said, ``a guest house inside the house.''

Oliver-Broder designed the Pembury entrance and dining area. (She also designed a guest bathroom in another part of the house.) She said one of the most important things to remember when decorating a small space is to make colors light and monochromatic.

``Don't shy away from color. Just use it to make a splash here and there,'' she said.

When Oliver-Broder began, she had what was little more than a hallway at the top of a flight of stairs. An interesting 1970s addition of a large closet filled the room. Of course, the first task for the designer was to get rid of the closet.

``I almost never recommend getting rid of a closet,'' she said. ``But you have to look at a room and decide what is important for that room.''

Removing the closet in this case created a 10-by-11-foot space at the top of the stairs that Oliver-Broder turned into a small dining area with a mix of new construction, color and special touches.

First, because the house is Italian in style, Oliver-Broder wanted to bring the outside in, a very popular aspect of villa design. But how to do it in such a small room with no windows? Oliver-Broder cut windowlike arches through the interior walls to give it an open feeling. She also cut new arched faux windows in the stairwell. A hand-painted mural on the staircase wall and large live palms completed the outdoor dining illusion.

Oliver-Broder painted the room a pale yellow color, adding a pattern and glaze that produced a distressed look.

``When you have a small room, don't overdo it,'' Oliver-Broder advises. ``You will have fewer decisions to make about what goes in the room, but they'd better be good ones.''

Horn tackled the Pembury bedroom. It, too, had a closet that had to be removed, which left the bedroom a small 11 by 16 feet.

The most distinctive thing about this room is that it contains two large pieces of furniture.

``Everything in this room had to be carefully thought out and measured,'' said Horn.

The first step for Horn, then, was to do a furniture design chart on paper, working around the door and two windows of the room. She sketched a queen-size bed and armoire, so that guests would be comfortable and have a place to store clothing. She selected heavy carved furnishings in dark wood.

``The room didn't have a lot of architectural interest, except for crown molding, so I wanted the pieces to be strong in detail,'' Horn said.

She carefully measured everything, and if something was too large, she cut it down. A table at one end of the room was made extra shallow, only 14 inches deep. It has only two legs and is hooked to the wall so that it looks like a table cut in half. The idea, Horn said, was to make certain the table would not interfere with the bed.

The room is monochromatic, wonderfully painted and furnished in pale golds, suggesting a warm tub of butter. Accessories are done in matte finishes, to keep the room cozy and comfortable.

One of Horn's tricks to make the room look larger was to use vertical shapes as accents. The first is a rectangular rug that echoes the shape of the room; the second is a hand-painted ceiling.

``When you look at a room, you have to decide what the concept or look is and find pieces to support the look,'' Horn said. ``Before you start shopping, know what you want and what size it needs to be.''

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Small Spaces in a Big House

Pasadena showcase home offers cool ideas for cozy nooks and sprawling expanses

(2 -- color) Indoor windows offer an outdoor feeling in the guest dining room, above, of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, top left. This year's house is a 60-year-old Italiante-style mansion tucked in the San Rafael Hills.

(3 -- 4 -- color) At right, a closer look at the Pembury guest bedroom (above and on the cover) reveals a half table hooked to the wall, creating needed space among the large furniture pieces.

(5 -- color) Front of Pasadena Showcase House of Design

Walt Mancini/Staff Photographer