A jangle of dated styles and fabrics and too much clutter

Before: A bedroom suffers from a jangle of dated styles and fabrics and too much clutter.

The problem: "Amy's room simply had too much information in it," says Suzanne Shaker, the stylist who helped O, The Oprah Magazine's editor in chief, Amy Gross, transform her bedroom into the sanctuary she craved. "Here is someone who is very much involved with current events and very well read and very interested in what's going on in the world, and her room was cluttered with books, magazines, a television and stereo, videos and CDs, clothes steamer, hair dryer and StairMaster."

Not to mention all the colors and patterns that were jammed in there as well, all clamoring for space and attention. "My headboard was this broken pediment thing from the eighties," says Amy. "And there had been a chintz period." Which meant the bed frame was covered in pink roses. The rug was dark blue. "I think Suzanne would have torn that rug up with her teeth if she had to," says Amy.
Updated with pale colors

After: Update with pale colors, and find a place for all that high-tech equipment. The StairMaster and clothes steamer are moved out. The bed, upholstered in wheat-colored silk, with pillows in watery iridescent tones, and a sea grass rug make the room an oasis of calm.

The solution: Out went the rug, and in its place is wheat green sea grass, an instant visual soother. The pediment is out, too, along with those blowsy roses. Stylist Suzanne Shaker upholstered the bed in wheat-colored Thai silk and added iridescent silk pillows in tones of green.

Amy had collected a small gallery's worth of "bad waterfall paintings" and other watery images. Suzanne snagged every one, massing most on a single wall of the bedroom. Angular blond cabinets were separated and set against different walls, the steamer and the StairMaster rolled into another room. There's a basket for that hair dryer now, and a neat stack of linen boxes, each with its own tiny drawer, holds the CD collection. The television and stereo were swept below the room's radar onto a new black steel table. What was once a jangle of wires and high-tech equipment now looks like a kind of altar.