Design inspiration: Award-winning solutions to real-life challenges

From updating vintage buildings to infusing new drywall boxes with style, 16 interior designers created award-winning projects.

The Illinois-based designers were recently honored with the fourth annual "Design Excellence Awards."

These are sponsored by the American Society of Interior Designers Illinois Chapter and i4design magazine.

Here are some of our favorites.

The challenge: The walkout lower level in a brand new Wisconsin lake house needed a second row of theater seating.

The solution from Adele L. Lampert, Page One Interiors Inc., Barrington: Refurbish the homeowner's 1954 Chris-Craft boat, build a cradle to hold it on terra firma and add comfy seats.

The challenge: The clients wanted their new Chicago condominium to be a place where they can entertain business associates, but their two teenage daughters can also be comfortable.

The solution from Deborah Reinhart, Design Odyssey, Wilmette: Find luxurious, designer fabrics that look and feel great and wear well. These include mohair velvet, linen velvet and hand-woven rugs from Tibet. Have the sense to choose the color caramel rather than off-white. Venetian plaster, sophisticated lighting systems and built-ins in every room make a high-rise homey.

The challenge: After living in the vintage Chicago building for quite a while, the homeowners wanted a new look and a space that shows off their growing collection of photography.

The solution from Leslie Jones, Leslie Jones & Assoc. Inc., Chicago: The palette is shades of gray, beige and silver accented with a little fuchsia red in the Oriental rugs. But the textures and materials are plentiful -- sisal, silk, vellum, linen, leather, velvet, straw, wood and metal.

The challenge: The exterior of this 1930s Chicago home is prairie style, the husband likes the straight lines from Art Deco to contemporary and the wife prefers the curves of rococo through Art Nouveau.

The solution from Evalyn Ashmore, Design Era Inc., Highland Park: Curvy appears to have won in the living room, especially after Ashmore saw the couple's treasured pair of Art Nouveau lamps -- female nudes holding shell shades.

Art Nouveau reflects forms from nature and water, a joy to both members of the sailing couple. Throughout the house, Ashmore installed designs inspired by shells, water, flowers and even seaweed. These are in every material from tile to Lalique crystal.

The Biedermeier furniture in the guest suite is the best example of combining the two homeowners' styles. The straight lines and flat surfaces mix with rich woods and inlays.

The challenge: A 1937 landmark Northfield home designed by Nathaniel Owings of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architecture firm needed updating. The 1950s changes to the still-modern design had to go.

The solution from Frank Ponterio, Lake Forest: Replace details like the molding around the living room fireplace, but beware. "The more simple the detail the more difficult. If proportion, scale and detail aren't just right, you notice it."

The challenge: A new two-story family room was added to a 1925 French manor that is mostly single level. The new space is wide open to the kitchen of this Lake Forest Infant Welfare Society Showhouse.

The solution from Frank Ponterio, Lake Forest: "In a large, two-story space everyone's initial reaction is to go overstuffed and big and poufy. We wanted to still feel tailored and current, but not contemporary, like it'd been there for a long time."

Thus he mixed French antiques with custom-made furniture and accessories and used soft, neutral tones.

"Throughout the event we had to keep reminding people not to sit there. That's the biggest compliment -- you want people to enjoy being there."