ME Tarzan, you Jane.
That could be the scene played out in the bedroom of Ron and Joanne Colliou, thanks to designer Jennifer Sanginesi of The Decorating Challenge.
The Collious' new jungle-look bedroom.
A fan of theme rooms, Sanginesi dreamed up a safari room for the Colliou's mock bedroom at the recent Home Expressions show.
"I'm in awe," Joanne said as a curtain was pulled away to reveal their room at the Winnipeg Convention Centre.
In front of her was a three-sided room with walls painted to look like basket weaving, rattan mats and bamboo poles on the ceiling, three giraffe statues, Tiki-like wooden masks above the bed and candles wrapped with bamboo sticks.
"Ron, let's go home. It's wild," Joanne added, drawing chuckles from the audience gathered to watch the final unveiling.
The couple were winners of a Winnipeg Free Press makeover contest, along with Joanne's sister, Louise Potter and her husband, Don. The foursome won the opportunity to work for two days with the cast and crew of W Network's popular The Decorating Challenge show, painting and primping each other's mock rooms into styles they can transfer to their own St. Boniface and Lorette homes.
It was the first trip the Toronto-based TV show made to a home show outside of Ontario, and the first time contest winners participated at a home show.
The Potters worked on the Colliou's safari room, while the Collious helped designer Ellie Cholette create a pumpkin-coloured room with green and black accents for the Potters.
"I love it," Louise exclaimed as she saw the room Cholette described as a modern, contemporary style with touches of the 1920's and '30s.
The room featured orange walls broken up by stripes made from drywall tape painted with metallic colours, a Charlie Chaplin statue, a tall, vintage street lamppost with round lights, pictures of playing cards above the bed and funky candle holders made with cube rocks, shot glasses and copper piping.
The initial plan for the home show venture was to have the couples decorate replicas of each other's bedrooms, including some of their own furniture, but space limitations nixed the plan.
They did paint and paint and paint and make accessories for the small rooms, and the final decorated spaces -- which used borrowed furnishings from two local companies -- were still a surprise.
They're unsure if they'll transfer the looks to their own rooms, partly because Sanginesi came to their homes to give them design consultations and lots of other ideas to work with.
"We have all the colour charts for what we did and all the colour charts for what she suggested when she came to our room," Louise said. "We're still unsure, but we're doing something."
"If Louise helps, I'll recreate it (the safari room for us) because she learned the (paint) technique," Joanne said.
However, Ron piped up that he preferred the Potter's orange room.
No matter what the future holds for their boudoirs, they had loads of fun getting to know the TV show's cast and learning how to do some decorating techniques.
Their prize packages included the accessories they helped make, some stools and a blanket box made by carpenters Graeme Kelly and Paul Trebicock, paint, flooring and a $1,000 gift certificate each to spend in the MTS Yellow Pages.
"I had a great time. I'm already feeling the downer," said Joanne, adding she tried not to look at the audience too much so she wouldn't get nervous.
The Decorating Challenge host, Renee Montpellier, entertained the crowd that stopped to watch by taking questions, giving away prizes and having the designers demonstrate some of the work they were doing.
Of course, Montpellier couldn't help but mention the frigid weather, telling the crowd the story of how she had walked two blocks to a restaurant the night before and her nostrils stuck together.
She said she'd love to have the TV show come back to the city to do makeovers of real rooms, and urged Winnipeggers to e-mail W Network (www.wnetwork.com) and ask that the city be put in the show's travel schedule.
"It was a blast," Montpellier said of the visit. "Doing a live show is always so fulfilling because not only do you get to show people what they can do on a budget, but I get to meet the viewers.
"The hospitality here was amazing. We felt very welcome."
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People interested in being on a real episode of The Decorating Challenge can fill out an application on the show's Web site at www.decoratingchallenge.com. Video tape applications are also now being accepted.
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