Star quality: Robin Bell designs a camera-ready apartment for her actress daughter in record time.

As senior designer at McMillen, one of Manhattan's most venerable decorating firms, she specializes in the kind of Park Avenue showplace where every cushion and curtain is completely custom and a project typically takes two years. But here she was faced with putting a Los Angeles apartment together in just two weeks.

"I really didn't have the time to spare, but I wasn't going to miss out on helping my daughter with her first apartment," says Robin. "This is a girl who would invariably roll her eyes whenever I tried to buy her some clothes, so I was surprised and delighted when she called."

Her daughter, Lake Bell, is an actress currently starring with Alicia Silverstone in the NBC television series Miss Match, and she needed a comfortable retreat after long hours on the set. Even though Lake may have teased her mom over the years ("You're going to paint that room red? Eeoouw!"), she knew from first-hand experience that no one was better at making a home. "I grew up with lily mother's impeccable taste, and I've always appreciated it," says Lake. "I like the way she mixes different periods and shapes. Her style is not merely run-of-the-mill traditional."

In Los Angeles, a city where Robin had never worked before, she could not rely on the services of her intrepid staff or the craftsmen in the fabled McMillen workrooms. But instead of viewing this as a liability, she turned it into a challenge. "I wanted to understand what it was like for the average person who tries to redecorate," says Robin. "So I started with the Yellow Pages." First, she looked up painters and contractors, since walls and floors are the basic bones of a home. "Any ad that said, 'no job is too small' or 'open seven days' rated a call. With so little time, every minute had to count."

The 1920s Spanish-style apartment Lake had found was redolent of old Hollywood, with coffered ceilings and elaborate grillwork. It could feel a bit stuffy and serious for a young girl--until Robin started mixing up the most dazzling paint colors. Together they chose a vibrant saffron for the living room and dining alcove, a dusty ...