Big Fan

You've collected a few things that personally connect you to your favorite team. You don't want sports as a décor theme, but you think it would be fun to add team stuff to a room.

● Look around for specific places to showcase your collection, says redesigner Karen Root (241-0425). "The wall space around (the) television could be used to hang pictures, posters," she says. "Surfaces on the entertainment center could be utilized for strategic souvenirs."

● Put three team accessories in a room. Root suggests that the collection counts as one item; a pillow and a throw with the team colors or logo could be the other two.

● Pick one team color that you can use around a room, suggests interior designer Carol Bruyere (241-7274). Use solid red, for instance, for drapery panels and as an accent color.

● Place small, removable team-related accessories such as a lamp or a pillow in a room. You can remove them when a sports theme doesn't fit with your entertaining needs of the moment, says Bruyere.

Superfan

Your sports team dictates your room's décor. A private space such as a child's room or a man cave "is a spectacular place" to go a bit over the top, Root says.

● Use a medium or light paint hue of one team color on the walls for a neutral background. This allows the brighter official team colors throughout the room to pop, both decorators say.

● Alternatively, Bruyere says to use one bright team color to accent small architectural features of the room such as one wall, the area under the bar, a wide baseboard or columns. Use a neutral color for the rest of the features.

● Highlight your most prized collectible or memento by making it a focal point. Place it prominently on a large table, for instance, or illuminate it with its own spotlight.

Ultrafan

One of your rooms is named for a team, like Laurie and Pete Wagner's Packer Room.

"My husband's from Wisconsin, so people would get him little gifts" like pasta in the shape of the Green Bay Packers logo, says Laurie. They supplement his extensive collection that includes flags, hats and posters.

Fourteen years ago, the couple redecorated the guest bedroom of their first home in Tucson into a "shrine" to the football team, says Laurie. That theme continued in the current house they've had for a couple of years.

"The unofficial rule is that if you stay in the Packer Room, you must donate to the cause," she says.

The couple painted everything Packers green and gold. Laurie sewed matching curtains and bedding. Pete spent three days methodically putting all his stuff on the walls and shelves in the current house.

Their 15-year-old son, Patrick, has followed Dad's lead and has turned his bedroom into a Denver Broncos room.

The Wagners used these strategies to make the Packer Room décor work:

● Laurie painted the lighter gold on the walls and used the darker green for trim.

● Pete framed pictures and posters in black to make the artwork stand out against the bright wall. It also allows the wall color to pull out the gold in the art.

● Pete made sure his pennants faced the same direction, which provides a pleasing repetitive pattern around the room.

Bruyere cautions that you should temper your enthusiasm in areas where it would be costly to switch out the décor.

● Keep permanent features such as carpet or floor tiles a neutral color.

● Use one team color as a solid for large furniture pieces and then add subsequent colors in accessories.

Laurie Wagner says you shouldn't hold back if you want to create what she calls a shrine. "It should shout, 'This is who we are, this is what I love.' "

• Home Depot sells the Glidden Team Colors line of official team colors for the NFL, NHL, MLS, NBA and WNBA, plus college, NASCAR, the Olympic Team and Federación de Fútbol.

• Jeff's Mountain View Sports Cards, 6224 E. Speedway.

• Just Sports, Foothills Mall, Park Place and Tucson Mall.

• MLB.com Shop, shop.mlb.com.

• The NBA Store, store.nba.com.

• NFL Shop, www.nflshop.com.

• MLSGear.com, www.mlsgear.com.

• Shop.NHL.com, shop.nhl.com.

• Sports Zone, Foothills Mall.