Cathy Lee isn't out to redesign people's homes, but to give them the tools to do it themselves.

Usually she does this through her home design and decor teaching company RSVPstyle, but she gave special attention to the Agena family of Moanalua Valley, grand-prize winners of The Honolulu Advertiser co-sponsored Style My Room makeover contest. They not only had Lee's guidance, but also $30,000 in donations from local businesses to transform their living room.

Chris Agena, a postal worker, sent in the winning entry, which explained that he wanted the prize for his wife Jo Ann, a fifth-grade teacher at Salt Lake Elementary School. "She works so hard raising four kids, and I just wanted to give her a nice living room to relax in after a long day's work," he said.

Before the makeover, the living room had been kid-oriented, a place to watch TV or play video games — or even do both at the same time, since the room was dominated by two large television sets. "We wanted to have it look not so kidsy but more formal and stylish and a bit adultish," Chris said.

Now, with Lee's help and a lot of elbow grease from the Agenas, the living room is still kid-friendly, with a special area to organize games and DVDs, but the whole room has had such a dramatic transformation that it's fit for a local do-it-yourself home makeover show.

And that was Lee's intent.

"We did this contest so people can see how an average house can really look beautiful by applying the fundamentals," Lee said, referring to the techniques she teaches on her DVDs and in her workshops. "We teach, we inspire. I wanted to show a family going through the process of making an ordinary house look beautiful."

Thursday's show on KITV will show how much teaching she did, because Lee and the Agenas agree the family did the bulk of work — and not just Chris and Jo Ann, but all the family members who watched the kids while their parents visited multiple vendors with Lee.

"We had to select the flooring, the furniture, the window treatment, the wall color and the accessories," Chris said.

Lee had a few surprises of her own, but in general, the Agenas made the major choices, a time-consuming process that paid off by giving them not only a beautiful living room, but the confidence to redesign the rest of their six-bedroom home.

Chris said viewers will likely take away some design ideas of their own from the show, since it focuses on an O'ahu home and uses local accents in the design. "Many local families can and will relate to our dilemmas and see the great solutions in the makeover," he said.