my LIVING room- before & after

Everything started with the faux wood wall.

I wanted this room to be a more accurate reflection of who I am as a decorator. Is where I spend most of my free time. Yes, it had already undergone some changes. When I first mooved in the walls were baby yellow, the floors were dark and worn out, and the balcony doors didn’t close properly.

First came the white paint. That’s when the room started to feel fresher. Then came the new balcony doors. That change felt radical to me. I actually loved it so much that I took the curtains out.

In January 2020 I installed the new floors. They are luxury vynil planks and I installed them myself. It seemed easy, you can cut them with an x-acto knife, and you glue them down. But as I was changing the floors for the entire house, it took me MONTHS. I don’t regret it at all, but if you are thinking of doing the same at home, please take a break every half hour, stretch, and then continue. Your back will thank you.

At this point the space had changed a lot and I felt much more comfortable. But there was still something missing. I didn’t think it represented what I was capable of doing as a designer, so I started to make some extra changes.

This is what the living room looked like with the first round of changes.

This is how the new changes started, with the faux wood wall, in January 2022.

I wanted to do something special with that wall, but I had a hard time deciding what. I had started building a 3D model of the room and wasn’t sold on any idea, until this.

The material is the same as the floors, just a little darker because it’s from a different batch. The install was really quick (three hours tops) and now I started to fell the room taking shape, leaning closer to my style.

When I was happy with the 3D model I started making a list of all the tasks I had to do, and also the budget that I needed. Little by little, I started completing them:

👉Painted the door the same colour as the bathroom vanity
👉Reupholstered the sofa and the armchair
👉Made new chushion covers
👉Bought a rug that was the right size for the room (I had two sticked together before!)
👉Hung the TV and added two shelves for books
👉Painted and reupholstered the chairs
👉Painted over the geometric mural and created new art
👉Covered the hutch at the entrance with faux wood vynil and made a new top for it

It took me months, but having an actual list of the tasks helped me a lot to realize how far along I was and what thing, even if it was something really small, I could do to continue.

This is how it turned out.

 

If this transformation sparked your need to make some changes in your own home, I can help! Check out my online consultations.