Firehouse Gets A New Home Theater With Help From New Chicago-Area Home Furnishings Store

St. Louis, Mo. – After a $10,000 renovation sponsored by HGTV and Maxwell House, the firefighters in the Maywood neighborhood of Chicago no longer call their station’s basement recreation room “The Dungeon.” It’s now a spectacular home theater, complete with reclining leather chairs, long curtains framing a wall-mounted flat-screen television and a lowboy entertainment center (http://www.homedecorators.com/Furniture/Cabinets/Lowboys/). Sarah Van Assche Interiors was responsible for the transformation along with the help of Home Decorators Collection®, a home décor retailer that celebrates the grand opening of its Chicago-area store Wednesday, October 25 through Wednesday, November 1, 2006.

Designer Sarah Van Assche placed Home Decorators Collection’s Tribeca Lowboy (http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Wide_Tribeca_Glass-Door_Lowboy/) below the television to house the cable receiver, DVR and DVD player. The features of this contemporary sideboard (http://www.homedecorators.com/Furniture/Cabinets/Lowboys/) enhance the modern décor of the firefighter’s lounge. Sleek and sturdy, it’s handcrafted of durable wood composite, clear glass panels on the doors and chrome-plated hardware and legs. Adjustable shelves accommodate remote controls, videos, reading material and more. While Home Decorators Collection carries the cabinet in several retro colors, Van Assche chose the black finish for this project.

"We have relied on Home Decorators Collection for years as an excellent resource for qualitative, well designed furnishings that are very reasonably priced,” Van Assche said. “The fact that most items are in stock and readily available is a real plus, particularly when deadlines for completing a project are tight."

Van Assche also chose five leather recliners for the firehouse overhaul, similar to home theater chairs (http://www.homedecorators.com/Furniture/Cabinets/Lowboys/) in its Leather Club Chair Collection (http://www.homedecorators.com/Seating/Lounge_Chairs/Lounge_Chairs/) and Soho Collection (http://www.homedecorators.com/S/Soho/). These chairs are specially designed for comfort while viewing a movie at home. Each is carefully handcrafted and features sturdy, solid wood frames and foam padding for comfort and support. These reclining chairs also include convenient cup holders. The two-arm model can be used alone or combined with one-arm theater chairs to simulate actual cinema seating.

The Maywood Fire Department won the makeover by entering the “Spruce Up Your Firehouse with Maxwell House” contest. Fire stations from ten U.S. cities submitted photographs and essays illustrating their remodeling needs. After Home and Garden Television (HGTV) helped narrow down the entries to the two most deserving in each region, the communities voted online to choose the winners. In addition to the $10,000 prize, the Maywood Firehouse also received a professional consultation with Kristan Cunningham, designer and host of the HGTV show “Design on a Dime.” Before and after photos of the project and the winning essay can be found at MaxwellHouse.com.

The Chicago-area Home Decorators Collection store is located in Deerpath Commons, at 955 S. Rand Rd. Lake Zurich, IL 60047. With over 70,000 items for sale, Home Decorators Collection is one of the nation’s largest direct sellers of merchandise for the home. In addition to its catalog, website and Chicago store, it has retail locations in St. Louis, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. For further information, visit www.HomeDecorators.com or call 1-800-245-2217 for a free catalog.