Living Room Makeover – Before Photos and Design Plan

The before photos of our living room with a massive red wall, mismatched furniture, and toys everywhere. Here’s the plan of how I plan to update it without spending a lot of money.

I’m excited to be participating in another round of the One Room Challenge, where bloggers and designers update a room in their homes in just 6 weeks.  I’ve joined in for a few other rounds, and every time I’ve thought about tackling this room but could never pull the trigger.

Here’s a look at how a few of these others rooms looked before I gave them an overhaul in the One Room Challenge.

This round, I’ll be updating my living room.  It’s basically the room of forgotten projects. I’ve been waiting to give this room a makeover for 14 years, for as long as we’ve lived in this house. It’s the largest room in our home, and one of the places where we spend a great deal of time. But, to be completely honest with you, I’ve been terrified to take this one on. Let me show you why.

This room contains the only wall in our entire home that hasn’t been painted, and it’s quite possibly the wall that needs to be painted the most!  This wall is precisely why I’m so scared. It’s been easier to just design around this ugly red wall than to do anything about it, but I’m done making excuses – this red wall will be gone!

Throughout the years of living here, I’ve brought in quite a few different pieces of furniture, rugs, and small decor items, but because I never had a vision for the space, it became a hodgepodge of a mess.

I do know that I plan to keep the vintage sideboard that we’re using as a TV stand. I have three young girls, and this room serves as a playroom as well, so I need to find a solution to contain their most used toys and games. I have an idea, but I need to make sure I can get my hands on the vintage pieces I’m envisioning.  Oh yeah, and that corner to the left of the sideboard is just screaming out for a collection of plants!

I picked up the leather sectional on Craigslist a couple of months ago to replace our cheap, broken, old couch, so it will also be staying in the room design as well.  The cabinet in the corner has been waiting to be refinished since I bought it two years ago, and the gateleg table is also in need of an update.

The staircase clearly does not match our flooring.  We had that light laminate wood in our home when we moved in, but then about 6 years ago we installed hardwood throughout the entire house. Because we did it ourselves and it was quite the project, by the time we finished I was DONE with flooring and told myself I would finish the stairs soon.  Well, 6 years wasn’t really the time frame I had in mind, but now it’s definitely time to make these stairs match with the rest of the house.

Although I’m still a little nervous to tackle this room (especially that red wall),  but I’m SO ready for it to be finished!  Here’s a rundown of what I plan to complete.

Projects to Finish:

• gallery wall of my grandpa’s artwork
• install a shelf above the couch
• transfer potted plants to new containers and make a happy plant corner
• move curtain rods up and new curtains
• refinish staircase
• sew pillow covers for throw pillows on couch
• refinish corner cabinet
• install new ceiling track lighting
• create storage for toys
• make a “coat rack” for wall by front door
• new rugs

The Vision:

Basically, I’m going bright and happy in this room with tons of greens and a mix of colors from vintage goodies. First thing is first: I need to go paint (and paint, and paint again) a very large red wall.

The Reveal!

Come see how this vintage eclectic living room makeover turned out!