Courteney Cox Plays Interior Designer

By Stephen M. Silverman

01/30/2003 at 12:00 PM EST

With only one more season to go -- and a short one, at that -- "Friends" star Courteney Cox will shift to a dual role behind the camera as creator and executive producer of "Mix It Up," a new home-improvement program scheduled to premiere this fall on the cable channel WE: Women's Entertainment.

Production of the first 13 episodes is due to start in the spring or summer.

The program is described by the network as "an unscripted, 'Trading Spaces'-like show" that will track people with diverse tastes who move in together.

Interior designers will play peacemaker and stylist as roommates blend their two styles into something both can live with. By roommates, the network explained, the show will present a husband and wife, a parent and child, or even friends and strangers matched by a service.

"If you're moving in with your girlfriend, and you have a wagon-wheel coffee table and she has all chintz and feathers, the show will find a middle ground," a WE spokeswoman says.

Cox, who's married to actor David Arquette, 31, credits the idea for the show to her own personal experience.

"When my husband and I moved in together, it was quite a challenge blending my more refined sensibilities with his more outrageous tastes and vast collection of tchotchkes," says Cox, 38.

"It's the reality of moving in with anyone, a situation which often involves conflict, which should make for a very entertaining program."