Thursday, March 14, 2013

Before & After: My Living Room


So as you know, I'm not big on sharing a ton of personal stuff, tell all about my life, but I will give you a small vignette into my decorating life.  Here is the before and after of our new condo outside the city.  Drum roll...........

BEFORE (previous owners): 


This was the living room when we saw the apartment.  I mean...NOT GOOD. I thankfully saw beyond whatever was happening in this room  ie. a design murder on the eyes. 

This was the Dining Room which you can see PART of from my shots.  Also, not attractive.
DURING:


We added some recessed lighting, repainted the walls and the ceilings ourselves (that's right).

And then we had the floors redone because they were...yellow. We had them stained a coffee brown and left them unpolished, but with a matte wax finish.
AFTER:


Ta Da!  We painted the walls Ben Moore Titanium, added a larger sofa, raised the drapery rod plus new drapery panels, and styled the bookcases

Here is our awesome linen sofa with some fur pillows and two other pillows that I made!

Here is the other view of the room looking into the dining room and the front hall. That is a peek into the hall, which we wallpapered!  A demi lune console table will go below the sunburst mirror.  




This is a real Danish Modern chair (my dad had it in college so...it's...vintage.  Sorry Dad!) and I had the Naugahyde taken off and replaced with a white linen.  I made that pillow too from a Clarence House sample. 

Our media stand.  Not styled to the max but this is pretty good.  

Some of the styling magic that took place in the bookcases.  I have too many design books to fit in one bookcase and I bought those antique brackets at a shop in the city.
We read other books too...sometimes.  I bought that brass elephant at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market!
Well, there you have it folks.  That was our living room.  If you have questions about anything, where I got things, or if by chance you'd like ME to help YOU make your place look like this, feel free to contact me at aliciabdesigns@gmail.com  The only thing we need to start on next is ART.  Feel free to send some (affordable) suggestions my way.  But over all, what do you think??  I'm dying for feedback!

Alicia B. 

PS--Up next is the Dining Room!

6 comments:

Raina Cox said...

You did such an AMAZING job, Miz A.

I don't know why you didn't ask for the tapioca leather puffalump loveseat to be thrown in with the deal. ;)

Darcy said...

Alicia, your living room looks great! Congrats on your new home.

Alicia B. Designs said...

Raina & Darcy--Thanks so much! It's not every blogger's cliche style apt but who wants that?

Raina--I would have loved to have that 4" high coffee table but they said no...

xo
Alicia

Diana said...

Amazing! I had totally blocked out the "before"...you've done a beautiful - looks open and formal and yet relaxed and cozy all at once. Must come back up to see that wallpaper and maybe pet your fur pillows....

Anonymous said...

I love your living room and that wallpaper. Can you pls tell me where the sofa is from?

Alicia B. Designs said...

Hi Anon,
Thanks! The Sofa is from Mitchell Gold: http://www.mgbwhome.com/LONDON-SOFABR-available-online--P10225.aspx and I got mine in a grey linen.

Diana--Yeah I'd forgotten about the before too but that painting haunts my nightmares. eesh.

xo
Alicia