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spacelift: living room makeover

We went all the way to Los Banos to visit a family whose living room just had an impressive makeover. I say it’s impressive because with the use of very simple strategies, a huge change was created, turning the previous lonely living area into a cozy and inviting entertaining space.

The house has a good foundation to begin with—well designed, naturally-lit home interiors. However, their living room furniture was a collection of antique pieces that do not exactly go together, not to mention too bulky (particularly the upholstered sofa and armchairs) for the limited space.

The Solutions:

1) Make the furniture pieces look coherent. Because the wife’s mother was having her home renovated, needing additional furniture to fill up the big house, the couple gave up the antique sofa set. This allowed them to replace it with a less bulky and more contemporary looking fully upholstered three-seater sofa. The wife chose white for the upholstery to provide a clean and basic contrast against the rest of the wood pieces.

2) Improve the furniture layout. The furniture pieces were pulled away from the walls (to open up the view of the windows) and laid out in a closed arrangement to encourage conversations. The existing printed area rug was replaced with a flat weave plain rug in a neutral color. Apart from the new sofa, the rest of the pieces are existing furniture of the family, such as the antique dowry chest (which was made into a seat with pillows) and hunter’s chair, both from Orientique.

3) Add accent lighting. Like what I always say, lighting is everything. It’s one easy way of changing the look of a space. By just adding floor and table lamps around the living area, an interplay of light and shadow is created, introducing depth and drama to the composition.

4) Accessorize. Accessories (or decorations) are like icing on the cake—they make or break the design. Because of the limited budget, the family simply went through their existing stuff to look for things that would go well with the chosen Asian theme. Coffee table books and framed black & white family photos make inexpensive accessories. Cut philodendron leaves and tropical yellow iris from their garden were placed in vases, completing the whole Asian look.

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[Have you given your space (or furniture) a makeover? Share it with us! Email us about it with before and after pictures at mydesignfolder@yahoo.com. ]