Want to know what happens when you invite a home design blogger into your house for a week? My sister-in-law can probably tell you a story or two. But, I'll just share my version.
{living room before. minus the loveseat that we had already moved.}
She may have made a passing remark a couple of visits ago about wanting to re-arrange her living room. I, of course, could think of nothing more every time we visited after. But like most visits, they were always too short and went too fast. Not this time. We were house crashing for a full week....so when she mentioned it again, I jumped on it. Literally.
{living room after}
The big girls were playing nicely together and the little kids were napping, it was time to get to work. With the whole house at our disposal, we started re-arranging.
{mantel wall before}
Out went a small loveseat (which, of course, I forgot to get before pictures of ) and in came a chair from their office. Some of the storage pieces were re-arranged and a corner cabinet moved in.
{mantel wall after}
Other changes were just accessories, pillows, and artwork. Nothing new. Just re-worked. Obviously, they have good taste to begin with so I had a lot to work with. Always a plus.
{before}
Some of the things that had bothered her were how the room felt closed off and like they weren't using all the space available. By removing the loveseat and adding the two big chairs to the far end of the room, it felt much more open.
{after}
She also felt like the window covering were a bit skimpy on the big picture window. When we moved the tall dresser in front of the back windows, we were able to remove two of the four window panels. We then added the extra panels to picture window, giving it a much more balanced feel.
{after}
Ideally, she'd like the room to have a blue and white scheme. While new furnishings aren't in her near future (she does have two little kids after all), we tried to achieve the look by placing her existing blue and white items throughout the room. As well as pulling other blue items from around the house.
{after}
The final change was in the artwork. The arrangement above the mantel, which I loved, really set the tone for the whole room. Mostly gold framed watercolors with a nature theme. We simply swapped out some paintings for others that were more appropriate to the theme.
{after}
I have to say, the finished room exceeded even my expectations. It was so fun to work on this project and I thank my brother and his family for allowing me to play around in their house. (Did I mention that I also made changes in the office, dining room and kitchen - yeah, I'm that girl.) I'm not sure my sister-in-law knew what she was getting into when she gave me carte blanche, but I certainly enjoyed myself.
Want me to come to your house? All you have do is ask :)
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until next time,
