The absolute best part of my business is having the privilege of making a home reflect the interests and personalities of its owners. The Colorful Contemporary project is such a powerful transformation for that very reason; it turned a rather drab and dull house with builder-basic finishes and colors into a vibrant, fun space for a vibrant, fun family!
Here’s the family room before:
The family had already upgraded the boring builder-grade mantel and added this stunning stacked stone. They weren’t as thrilled with the results as they thought they would be, though. The bright blue-gray undertones in the stone clashed with the warmer green-gray undertones in the builder-basic paint color, which made the walls look dirty.
The plain gray rug wasn’t helping matters, either. Neither were the bare windows. And the mantel needed some color!
Here’s the After:
The sofa and two black and chrome chairs are existing pieces that we kept. My clients also had stone pieces left over from a previous renovation and purchased bases to create a side table and a coffee table.
As I mentioned before, the mantel was supposed to be the showpiece of the room, but was somehow falling flat. I changed up the wallpaper from the drab gray to this happy light turquoise. Believe it or not, this turquoise is actually on the Sherwin-Williams WHITE paint list. It’s JUST turquoise enough to add color to the space without turning it into a juvenile clown room.
Here’s a better view of that white turquoise color:
This view also shows you the new rug, which 1) is bigger so it fits under all the furniture, 2) is turned 45 degrees so it’s parallel to the windows, and 3) has some nice color to it that compliments all the other accents in the space.
You can also see the new blue velvet club chairs, which I’ve floated in the room so that they’re a part of the conversation area.
So what was where the blue chairs are now? Nothing. There were two smaller chairs pushed against the stairway wall, but they were way too far away from the sofa and other chairs to be used for conversation.
This is a layout issue I run across all the time – everyone wants to push the furniture against the walls. Don’t do that. You can often float chairs and even sofas in rooms. So then what do you put against the walls? Why not a cabinet?
Cabinets add practical storage for toys, blankets, books, and whatever else tends to pile up in the family room. Plus, they look nice! Just make sure there’s enough space to walk in between the furniture and the cabinet (2.5 to 3 feet is ideal).
Speaking of cabinets, my clients had another cabinet hiding downstairs in storage that happened to be the perfect size for their TV. I’m all about reusing and re-purposing items my clients already own, but it was a bit rough in its current state.
My talented furniture refinisher took from beaten and brown to polished and perfectly painted!
Isn’t that an incredible transformation?!?! Yep – that’s the same piece!
Let’s take one last look at the Before:
And the After:
I’ll dive into the eating area and kitchen in another blog post, so stay tuned!