When Gayle King decided to add finishing touches to her home, she realized those touches would likely involve a hand other than her own.

"I had a house that had pretty things, but it just did not come together," says King, close friend to Oprah Winfrey and editor-at-large of The Oprah Magazine.

"I thought I would get around to it, but it never came." On days when she did have the time, King would check out furniture stores, "walking aimlessly around, hoping something would jump out" at her. No such luck. Time was limited and "precious," says the Manhattan-based career mom who acknowledges she was spinning her wheels.

Then a neighbor tipped her off to decorators Margi Vorder Bruegge and George Snead. The style-savvy duo creates room makeovers in a day by integrating new furniture, accessories and artwork with existing pieces. Vorder Bruegge and Snead came the next morning to King's home in Greenwich, Conn., looked around and talked to her about her needs, likes and dislikes.

"They weren't even taking notes," King recalls. "I said, 'Shouldn't you guys be writing down measurements, spaces, colors?' I was surprised how this was going to work. They said not to worry."

On their next visit, while King wasn't home, Vorder Bruegge and Snead plied their magic.

"I went to work that day, came back, they had all the lights on, and it looked very pretty," says King of her living room transformation. Working with colors compatible with her salmon and celadon-green color scheme, the couple added tables, lamps, artwork and lots of pillows.

"Who would think that a pillow would make such a difference," says King, who admits she was never a "pillow person" and, in truth, previously found them "annoying."

She was equally impressed with the furniture placement. "They are really masterful at that," she notes. "My teen-age son, who really doesn't care about furniture placement or pillows, thought it looks cool. That's about the highest compliment you can get."

King was so pleased with the job that she told Winfrey about it and suggested she invite the Connecticut-based decorators on her TV show. Vorder Bruegge and Snead appeared last February, along with a couple of before and after shots of King's living room. They'll also be featured in next month's issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

Makeovers in a day have been a Vorder Bruegge and Snead specialty since the couple teamed up in 1995. While both cater to their own clienteles for individual projects, the collaborative approach serves them well on these fast-moving assignments.

Furnishings for the projects come from a warehouse owned by Snead. The 10,000-square-foot facility includes a wide variety of traditional and reproduction furniture, lamps, fabrics, paintings, prints, posters and all manner of accessories from cachepots to topiaries. Snead shops the International Home Furnishings Market in North Carolina annually to purchase the name-brand inventory. In addition, for full-service assignments requiring more extensive furniture and fabric purchases, the couple offer clients the option to order from catalogs.

Once Vorder Bruegge and Snead determine what's needed for the makeover, they next select a variety of warehouse pieces appropriate for the client's home.

With makeovers, nine out of 10 times people are 75 percent complete with furnishing their home, says Vorder Bruegge. "They want us to come in and pull the rest together. Whether we need some interesting chairs to go with a game table or a fabric or wood, we like to mix things in. We see what their taste is, try to work with what they have and then bring in things that complement what they have."

Assignments accepted by Vorder Bruegge and Snead are a two-room minimum.

The costs of services vary, based on the amount of furniture ordered and time involved. "We will work within budgets," says Vorder Bruegge, observing that recent jobs ranged from $7,000 to $40,000. This includes the initial consultation at the client's home, time required to select furniture at the warehouse, furnishings purchased and the makeover, including furniture placement and picture hanging.

What arrives the day of the makeover is "a surprise" for the client, Vorder Bruegge says. As the decorators already know the client's taste through the initial consultation, "95 percent of the time" the furnishings brought in will stay. Still, clients get the chance to change their minds.

She says, "That's why we let them live with it for 72 hours prior to their having to purchase it."

Nadia Lerner is a reporter for The Stamford Advocate, a Tribune Publishing Newspaper.