A Renovation 25 Years in the Making, Part 2

So, once the kitchen and the family room got a makeover, you know that dramatic reveal we had two weeks ago, we knew the rest of the house would get envious. It never fails. So a makeover of the living/dining room, foyer and hallway was next.
Let's take a look at some of the offenses: popcorn ceiling, dated track lighting, mirrored walls, outdated light fixture in the foyer and awkward space planning.

The living room had dated furniture, dark walls, insufficient lighting and was just not the warm and inviting space our clients craved.

No, they are not pack rats! The clutter you see is from the chaos of the family moving from room to room as they lived through two stages of a renovation. Now, brace yourselves. 
Let there be light. And then some.

I've said it a thousand times but let me say it again, lighting should be your best friend when designing your home. In this case, we installed several recessed lights and used lamps the client already owned for additional lighting. We removed the carpet and installed hardwood floors which grounded the space, we replaced the previous Asian-influenced doors with a much cleaner/contemporary version (and talk about re-purposing, the older doors are now installed in Ralph's office). We also used the couples original artwork, their coffee and side tables.

Debbie and I saw these chairs at Home Goods and we both swooned! I wasn't sure at the time if I could make them work in the space, but they were too amazing not to have and what a great decision! They create a perfect little conversation space.

To save funds, we purchased store bought pillows and curtains (in lieu of custom made items) and a budget-friendly space's BFF, slip covers. They transformed the dated sofas into things of soft demure beauty. We also used a soft blue grey color in this space as well to balance out the browns and beiges.

Ah, the foyer. Well, there are four women in this house (and I'm counting a little one I dubbed Princess Lailah) and they all loved to look at themselves in these mirrors as they left the house. But nothing screamed more dated than that wall of mirrors so we trashed it. Replacing the front doors was not in the budget, so we focused on creating other wow factors to make it fade to the background.  

We replaced the mirrored walls with a large mirror - of course - and did a striped wall in metallic bronze (from the Martha Stewart paint collection), and brown to give the foyer some fun while pulling in some of the other colors throughout the room.

The dining room was not to be left undone. Strange enough, in the chaos of the renovation process, we took no before photos of this room. Our clients did have the amazing dining table and buffet, but they were lost in the sea of other outdated items i.e. mirrored walls, dated tiles, popcorn ceilings, no lighting or accessories.

We repeated the same transition technique we did from the kitchen to the family room, for the kitchen to dining room transition.

We carried the light blue/grey paint through to this room, added a mirror above the buffet and scored that amazing pendant light at Lowes (I gotta say, Lowes has some killer lighting options that are ridiculously budget friendly). Again, since the kitchen/family room devoured much of the budget, we sourced budget-friendly items for these rooms including these amazing curtains from Bed, Bath and Beyond.

We then dressed the table with items from one of our favorite places, Home Goods. I grabbed some flowers from my favorite local florist, Flowers by Grace for the floral arrangements and encouraged my client's hubby to bring her some fresh cut flowers every week to keep the room refreshed! We'll see how he does.  

 

And there you have it. The end of one of our most challenging, lengthy yet rewarding projects. I spoke with Debbie yesterday to wish her a happy birthday - I swear she has a youth serum because she is the youngest looking retiree I've even seen. And she's a workout fanatic - which explains why I had to step up my workout game. She was still gushing about the reactions from guests who come to her home, and just how wonderful she and Ralph feels every time they walk into their home. Music to my ears. Psst, we've already whipped up plans for the Master Bedroom so start saving!