At Home: Karen E Laine’s Living Room

Mother-daughter duo Karen E Laine (formerly Jensen) and Mina Starsiak set out to revitalize Fountain Square when they started home-rehab biz Two Chicks and a Hammer in 2008. That plan recently got expedited when HGTV asked the pair to revamp 10 area homes in six months for their very own show, debuting early next year. Karen, the mom behind the operation, kicks back at this earthy-urban pad between takes.

(Hover over image to bring up details.)

Table
A handmade piece crafted from salvaged barn wood.

Art
Karen photographed an English castle and turned the image into a charcoal print.

Flooring
Though Two Chicks and a Hammer puts hardwood in most of its projects, Karen prefers this “indestructible” laminate knockoff from Lumber Liquidators.

Taxidermy
“The deer head looked too creepy when it was real, so I covered it with plaster and painted it,” Karen says. “Now it seems more like art.”

Tip Jar
HGTV propped the house featured in the pilot episode, which aired in May. Karen got to keep this  ceramic vessel and now uses it as a money jar for friends who insist on paying for the free  yoga classes she hosts in her upstairs studio.

Cabinet
Karen scored the wooden piece for only $200 from the Greenwood location of furniture store At Home.

Antique
She topped this vintage tool chest with glass to use it as a coffee table.

Sofa
From Restoration Hardware. “I could’ve bought a car for what I paid for that couch,” Karen says.

Chairs
“I thought I was going to sit down, and they weren’t going to be comfortable at all,” she says of these pricey Crate & Barrel seats. “Then I realized, shoot, these are comfortable. I’ve loved them ever since.”

This article appeared in the August 2015 issue.