Mini Makeover: Living Room Edition
Are you interested in a mini makeover that doesn’t take a lot of time or money? I’m going to share an example of a client that I did a mini makeover for because she wanted her living room to look different before holiday guests. There’s no time to order furniture. There’s no time to paint. There’s no time to replace floors. We had to make it look different without changing a lot and on a small budget.
She wanted three changes with her living room. Here is her wish list
- She wanted her room to be more cozy.
- She wanted to look more sophisticated.
- She wanted to change the color palette.
- Keep the floors, paint color and sectional (which are all nice neutrals)
Here’s how we did it with six simple changes. This is her room before, which is nothing terrible. She was just ready for a change.
1. Rug
The first step that we took was to find a rug that gave her the color palette that she wanted to use throughout the room. She wanted to bring in that more dark, moody green.
I use affiliate links so I can afford to keep doing this. Hope it saves you time. See my disclosure policy.
2. Add Curtains
The second thing we did was to get affordable and light-filtering curtains. Curtains can give a room a lot more texture and make it feel a lot more cozy. Window coverings, like curtains, have a bigger impact than mini blinds, as you can see here.
3. New Light
The third thing we did was to order a light fixture that does a lot more for the space than the ceiling fan. A chandelier can make a space feel a lot more elevated. In this case, we got a brass chandelier to go with the brass in her mirror.
This light was the biggest ticket item, but lights can make a HUGE difference in a room’s look and feel.
You know that lighting shouldn’t be just limited to one type. There should be three different kinds of lighting in every room. You need the ambient light, you need the task light, and you need the accent lights. I’ll cover more about the accent lights later.
If you want to read more about how to add three types of lighting see this article I wrote: Lighting – The Tool Interior Designs Master.
4. Add art
The other thing this room needed was some artwork, and you got to have a TV. In this case, this is an ideal example of where a frame TV is the ticket. Now they make a lot of different frames for TVs where you just put the frame right over the TV, making it look like a piece of art. You can order any style frame that you want (here’s an example of a seller on ETSY that sells all kinds of different styles.
In this mini room makeover, we ordered a brass frame to go with the other brass accents in the room. I’m showing it here with some artwork that ties in the color scheme, but you can change the artwork as often as you want.
To make the artwork look even more realistic, we added some accent lighting right over the television that doesn’t need to be wired. It is battery-operated (I bought one for my office).
5. Green Chair
Next, we found a comfortable green chair to tie in the color scheme even more because she didn’t want to keep the blue chair that was in there. It’s important to use the color in lots of places.
6. Credenza
Lastly, we added a credenza that’s from Ikea. This one is also green. You could go with wood here, but we liked the brass accents on the feet. It’s affordable and ties in the green color scheme.
The Final Look
This is an example of how you can change the look of your living room dramatically without buying a lot of new furniture. The only furniture purchased was a chair and a credenza. There was already wiring for the overhead light, so this isn’t a big budget transformation, but it is a big impact transformation.
If you’re interested in a mini makeover, check out my link: Mini Makeovers.
