Before & After: Farmhouse Living Room Redesign

Posted on Oct 17, 2016 by Erin | Earnest Home

It’s been almost seven months since I started the redesign of my downstairs living room and dining room space. I’ve been taking you through the process and showing you guys a lot of the smaller projects and changes along the way. Early on, I made the decision to swap the original living room and dining room. In my old living room (below), I struggled a lot with where to put the furniture. With both of the cased openings, the giant window and fireplace, it was nearly impossible to find a good configuration that allowed everyone to see the TV. You can read more about the switch in earlier posts about this project. Regardless, we ended up with the new living room in the dining room space.

The transformation isn’t as impactful when we’ve been speaking about every little progress detail over the last several months, but for us, it’s still such a drastic change. The old living space was very very brown. Brown sofa, brown leather, brown carpet, etc. I wanted things to still stay fairly neutral, but with an brighter, modern, updated twist.

I didn’t have the budget to get new furniture, so I brightened everything up with white paint. I used Benjamin Moore White Dove. It’s a warm white that doesn’t feel too stark.

Next, we brightened even further by recarpeting with a sisal-look textured style. I love how it almost just disappears and lets the rest of the furnishings and decor stand out. Then, I landed on a black/white/blue color palette with accents of natural textures and wood tones.

Next, we decided to change the sofa color. The old brown sofa was boring and bland. I wanted something that stood out a little more and made some sort of style impact. A custom slip cover made changing my sofa possible. The sofa was in great shape and was a classic style, so a really wonderful slip cover was a great solve. I wrote about using Comfort Works for a custom made-to-order cover over here. It was a great decision that I would make again in a heartbeat.

After the sofa color was worked out, I started with more decor related decisions. Originally, I wanted some color and was trying out a kilim rug in the space. I lived with the colorful rug for two months and it just never quite sat well with me. I liked it, but didn’t love it. Then, I swapped the color out for a cream and black Moroccan style shag rug from Plush Rugs and love how bright and light it makes the room look.

A big part of my decor was to create a gallery wall behind the TV. It’s a big wall that looked really sparse, plus I wanted to TV to be less focal. I worked with Minted to find the best art for the wall and love the mix of pieces. You can read about my choices and process here.

My last order of business was to integrate more blue into the space with pillows and accessories. I found an amazing blue lumbar pillow at Anthropologie and a navy Moroccan style cushion from Pottery Barn. The navy throw and ceramic vase are from Home Goods.

Not only do I love the way everything turned out, but I am so happy that it’s finally done. I get to enjoy the space and it all feels very serene, but updated and fresh.

I hope you’ve liked following along with the process. It was probably a bigger process than it needed to be due to working on everything while I was super pregnant, then having the baby before it was all done.

I have as many of the sources as I can provide for you guys! If there is something not listed that you’d like to know about, comment below!