Before and After: Cleveland Heights Interior Design

I’m calling this one the Citrus Garden House.

The inspiration for this Cleveland Heights, OH project design concept comes from Schumacher’s Citrus Garden fabric in the Pool colorway.

It’s SOOOOO PRETTY! The fabric features multiple shades of blue, teal, green, and yellow, all on a pure white background.

Let’s dig into the Before & Afters to see where I used this inspiration!

The Living Room: BEFORE

The living room had good bones. The sofa, chairs, bar cabinet, coffee table, and rug were all the correct scale for the space.

However, the space lacked adequate lighting and side tables. The cushions and pillows on the sofa had also seen better days.

The room was begging for some more color.

The back sofa cushions were looking a little sad.

The family pets LOVE sitting on the cushions and looking out the windows, but the constant weight of little fluff balls made the cushions sag over time.

The Living Room: AFTER

I added blue side tables and fun swirly blue table lamps. I also added some beautiful Citrus Garden pillows with a contrasting blue welt that coordinates with the solid blue throw pillows.

My upholsterer re-stuffed the back cushions for my client. Yes, that’s a thing!

It made such a HUGE difference at a small fraction of the price of purchasing a new sofa.

The Dining Room: BEFORE

The room had some pretty sad drapery sheers that the previous owner had left behind. They were too long, too yellow, and too broken to be reused.

I don’t even have a good photo of them—you’ll just have to trust that they were in pretty rough shape.

My clients still needed sheers, since the dining room window has a pretty awkward view of the neighbor’s kitchen. Sheers by themselves aren’t very interesting. Honestly, they kinda look unfinished!

To be fair, my clients did NOT usually have all of their book stacked on the table like that—this was taken right before I arranged their built-in bookshelves (more of that below!). So ignore the books.

The table was too narrow and the legs were in really wonky spots, making seating 10 people a huge challenge. The chairs were your typical $50 big box specials, which look pretty, but were super unstable.

The legs had to be re-screwed on every time they used the chairs. Eek. And the light fixture is a builder basic special. Bleh.

The Dining Room: AFTER

I recommended two stationary panels on either side of the window to add some more color to the room.

Since Citrus Garden can be a LOT of pattern on a full drapery panel, I chose to break up the pattern by adding a solid fabric for the top third of the drapery.

My initial rendering of the drapery design is shown below, followed by the final result:

LOVE!

AAAAAAAH – that’s better!

My clients host lots of large dinner parties, so I brought in a wide table and ten total chairs.

The chairs and table are made with solid North American hardwood. The legs are part of the chair frame itself, so there’s no chance they’re going to come loose!

The light fixture is made from recycled glass. Its larger size and more contemporary feel fits in perfectly with the space.

The Family Room: BEFORE

Above is the casual family room in its original state. The table was a little undersized for the large sectional. It was also made from cheap wood and stained like crazy.

The pillows they had were nice… but they lacked variety.

Below is a wider view of the family room. The side table on the right was too small and awkward in the space, and there was no task lighting for reading a book.

The bookshelves were sadly empty. I have the Accessorizing Gene. It’s a thing. Most of my clients do not have said gene, which is totally fine.

That’s why I do what I do! (And there are plenty of things I can’t do. Ask me to paint you a picture and you’ll quickly find out I don’t have the Painting Gene.)

The Family Room: AFTER

It’s amazing what some extra throw pillows, a new table, and some accessories will do for a room!

The table is a one-of-a-kind creation. The top is a remnant of quartz, which requires no maintenance and shouldn’t stain.The base was handmade by the client’s father. He used wood from the family farm. Talk about a meaningful piece!

The new table is a more appropriate scale for the space and adds another pop of BLUE! I also added a table lamp so the client can read a book without putting on the recessed lighting.

And it’s amazing what a few well-placed accessories will do for shelving!

This was a fun and rewarding project.

One of my favorite parts was seeing my adorable little helpers every time I went over. Here’s one of them—she’s the tiniest, most vocal little kitty EVER! She has opinions!

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