Before & After: A Living Room Transformed with a New Rug, Paint and Sofa... and Some Digging Through the Cupboards

Don't you love before and after photos? I especially like when the before and after incorporates what the client already has in her home-- just re-positioned or re-configured. This home featured below was like a treasure hunt. We literally dug around in my client's attic in search of vintage and antique pieces to incorporate into her fresh new living spaces. Below I show you what we did to her living room in just a few short weeks.

  

Everything in this photo already existed in my client's home. I just put them all together here.

 

This is the before photo of her living room.  There we are sitting on the sofa thinking about what needs to happen to create a home my Client will love with what we've been given.

 

This is the living room after!  We had the room painted and purchased sofas from Quatrine, a beautiful light and airy rug from Tony Kitz, a plant from the Flower Mart, pillows from Pottery Barn, and end tables from Crate & Barrel.  Everything else you see in this photo my client already had throughout her house. (We actually did order new, larger table lamps but they were on back order when I snapped this photo).

We moved the dresser to the opposite side of the room and took that family painting and propped it on the chest.  The other painting to the right was dug out from the attic.

 Another before shot.  Since recovering this chair wasn't in the first phase of the budget, we used a piece of leftover fabric (from the Alameda Flea market) from recovering the dining room chairs to breathe new life into this tired chair...

 Voila!  Now this old chair has a fresh new look.  We stacked old books from the bookcase next to the fireplace and found that great old Royal Crown Cola box in the office to prop on top for a make-shift end table.  We took a mirror from the hallway that was too small for the space and placed it over the fireplace.  The two paintings on top of each other to the right of that mirror were a perfect fit.  We found the basket and the plant and brought them together.

 

You may recall seeing this potted head in the fireplace.  We found a new home for him right here.  Everything in this vignette was pulled from their house.  Sometimes we had to dig through cupboards.  Good thing our client let us scour the place. She and her husband have a fabulous collection of antique and vintage items all over the place!

 

I couldn't resist picking up a trendy but perfect-for-the-space fiddle leaf fig

This area rug is so beautiful in person. These photos do not do it justice!  This lovely piece was definitely an investment but with all of the money we saved re-using what my client already had, it felt good to splurge.  The bench was brought in from the front porch and was just the right size so the boys can still wrestle around on the floor without banging their heads!

  

I hope you enjoyed this tour of my client's home and are inspired to dig through your own cabinets and closets to re-purpose what you already own.  Happy hunting!