By Rudy Dicks

Interior designer Pamela Bayer of Hudson recently helped spruce up a client's apartment in Shaker Heights. She offers some tips on how to revive an apartment as autumn fades into the holidays:

• First, clean up. "It sounds funny, but it's so important." Steam-vacuum the carpets, and hit the sofa while you're at it. Companies will often do the upholstery in addition for free, so ask.

• Protect the carpets and upholstery. "What people don't understand is, once they clean their apartment and upholstery, the Scotchgard that the manufacturer puts on has now been broken. So they need to reseal it. There's a great company called Fiber-Seal. It's really an important step because you're having company over, you've got kids tracking in, you've got stuffing falling on your upholstery."

• Stash away the knickknacks and clear up space for dinner guests. "Nine times out of 10, people don't have a giant formal dining room, so guests are going to use your living room, coffee tables, side tables, other areas that can be used to sit a plate down on if it's a buffet and not a sit-down situation. Clean up your counter tops and island."

• Rent not only tables and chairs, but tablecloths and napkins - "the smartest idea in the world. They drop them off and they pick them up. You don't have to wash the linens, you don't have to wash the napkins."

• Use the kitchen table as the buffet table for easy access for guests who want second helpings. An elongated table in the living room will do for 8-10 guests, but for more, consider setting up smaller tables - one for children, another for teen-agers - that can be in the same area yet provide "a little bit separate entity" for the other age groups.

• Use accessories. Ms. Bayer found "the most magnificent holiday pillows," in red, orange, brown, gold and silver at Banyan Tree in Tremont. They dramatically enhance a sofa, and "you can use them throughout the year." She found "luxurious throws" for sofas and chairs at Pier 1, and they are functional as well as decorative.

• Flowers. Now is a time to splurge on fresh flowers, but mums, gladiolas, irises and sunflowers are economical and come in "really rich tones." You can also find a variety of silk flowers, "and you'd have to literally touch them to know that they were silk and not the real deal."