Sarah's Living Room Reveal

Sarah is one of my favorite people on the planet. She’s dry, sarcastic, and hilarious, with this surprise edge that is all bright colors and encouraging notes with just a touch of frill. So much of her home reflects this, with her peach bathroom and bright blue kitchen, but she’d been sitting in her living room for the last few years hating almost every inch of it. Here’s the before:

Her space is huge and had a ton of potential, with attractive floors and a great sliding door with good sunlight. But without the sunlight, there was a ceiling light over what was intended as the dining area and another in the entryway, leaving a dark corner where the living room was set. She’d also done that thing we’ve all done at least once, where the paint looks great on the swatch but once it’s on the walls it's just immediate regret!

So she’d been living for several years with her darkish lime/mustard/green walls and red plush sofas and dark wood furniture, and finally hit critical mass and got rid of every single scrap. What an unbelievable canvas!

Here’s what things look like now:

Can you even believe that room! It’s bright and light and feminine, and I’m in love. Our first priority was the lighting. Repurposing the ceiling light over the dining area into a string pendant hung in the middle of the living room instantly put the best light where it needed to be. Incorporating additional lamps and sconce lighting behind the TV also brightens up the space and makes sure there’s good light for reading or crafting on the sofa, as Sarah is wont to do on the regular.

One of my favorite things about Sarah is that she has no shortage of opinions (exactly like yours truly), and that she speaks up when she’s on board with an idea and when she’s not. She was incredibly involved in the process, and sent us back to the drawing board more than once on some of the details of the space. It’s so obvious in the end that this room is uniquely hers—I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve gone over there and found her wearing an outfit that matches the room perfectly.

I’m so in love with this bookcase. Sarah had a fantastic collection of hymn postcards from Magnolia that we framed to display around the room. They’re one of my favorite elements in the entire space, even though they got hymns stuck in my head for days at a time!

We repurposed this credenza from an entryway table to excess kitchen storage. By converting the glass doors with contact paper, she’s able to clear clutter from the top of her fridge, and display her fantastic vintage teacup collection on the open shelves instead.

Can we also talk about that fantastic tapestry?! We needed something on a gigantic scale to fill that corner, but had so much trouble finding something that wasn’t hundreds of dollars. I finally found this tapestry piece for under a hundred, and it’s so wonderfully huge. It’s the perfect note in that corner combined with a gigantic Chinese fan fern.

I’m so in love. Once again, the before:

And the after!

If you like this, we’re just a few weeks away from wrapping Tosha’s home office redesign, and she surprisingly chose a very similar vibe. Catch you then!

-Jennifer

Photos courtesy of the marvelous Cascades Photography