AFTER 10 years of having the same look for her living room, associate professor Valerie Du Toit-Low was ready for a change.

And she got it for free when she won a new living room in The Straits Times Life! Home Makeover contest.

The free makeover worth $15,000, including furnishings, styling and design consultancy, was sponsored by furnishings retail hub Park Mall and home-grown lifestyle store Air Division.

Of her living room in her three-bedroom apartment in Bukit Timah, Mrs Du Toit-Low, 42, confesses that she did not do much to it as she was worried about her two young daughters ruining the furniture in their toddler years.

'Now that they are both past the age of four, I am longing for a fresh, new, modern look to uplift the entire house,' she wrote in her contest form.

She lives with her husband, an architect, and their two daughters Anna, six, and Sophie, five.

She had said her dream living room would be one that complements and reflects the natural beauty of the apartment's view of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Her old living room, which she described as comfortable, contained furniture mostly made of teak wood, such as her TV console, coffee tables and living room chairs.

'The furniture was still functional, so there wasn't a need to change it,' she says.

She had thrown in a few colourful cushions to perk up the otherwise mostly white living room.

Other accessories in the room included a few leather pouffes from South Africa, where her husband is from. They were a wedding gift.

Park Mall says this apartment was chosen as a winner because the living room did not require much work and could be jazzed up with proper colour coordination and new furnishings.

Mr Nathan Yong, 37, design director of Air Division, chose to keep most of the house as it was. 'It still looks new, so little renovation, besides painting the walls, was needed,' he says.

The living room took on new colours. On one wall is grey, textured wallpaper while another was painted an off-white colour. Mr Yong says these two shades are neutral colours, so it is easier to match the furniture and accessories.

As the room itself needed little work, most of the prize money was spent on furniture.

He chose mostly teak pieces as he didn't want to interfere too much with the original style. This went down well with Mrs Du Toit-Low, who appreciated that her new living room still reflected her taste.

The new wooden pieces to the living room include two side tables, a TV console and a chair. Mr Yong also gave them a new modular sofa and a marble-top coffee table.

'The sofa is big enough for the family to lounge on and for the kids to roll around on,' he says.

The family can still enjoy the view of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve's lush greenery from their new sofa.

The living room now has a cosy, modern look. Where possible, old items - the paintings of flowers, for example - were kept.

The transformation took more than a month because the furniture had to be ordered.

Mrs Du Toit-Low says it gives the whole apartment an uplift.

'I love the freshness after 10 years of the old look,' she says.