My super talented friend Becca is ready to make some changes at her home at the beginning of the year. She is in a situation that I think is common for many of us. We neglect keeping up with our home, look around one day, then all of sudden realize that we suddenly hate all of it. Looking at Pinterest, magazines, or maybe someone’s new home, you start feeling like you can’t find any redeeming qualities in your own place. It can almost make you feel like the only solution is to start over with a new home. Not a very practical option for most of us though, so we end up grumpy in our spaces until we get this brand new space we envision in our heads. It’s the “all or nothing” approach.
One approach that can really help if you find yourself in this situation is a “refresh” of your current home. Instead of requiring contractors to start construction or realtors to get you out of the house, a refresh requires looking at your space through a new lens. And imagining what it “could” be if you invested a little energy and time into it versus turning your back on it. And although it probably won’t be free, it will probably be a fraction of the cost of a full remodel, new construction or buying a new home.
So back to Becca. Their current home isn’t feel like “her” any more. It’s like wearing a shoe the wrong size. She is working with brown leather sofas, tan walls, and light wood cabinets in the kitchen. None of these things are bad individually, but together, it is a lot of brown, and very far off from what she loves.
Becca’s style is a mix of cottage, traditional with touches of rustic elements. She likes everything light and bright. She also loves a touch of glam and sparkle. Becca’s husband enjoys hunting and the outdoors, so we have to find a nice balance for him too.
Here are some of the inspiration photos of what I envision for Becca. There is a lot of variety in these because there are elements from each that fit her. Using those elements in combination with each other will create a space that is unique to their family, and not a copy of someone else’s style.
Source: Miss Mustard Seed Blog
Source: The Inspired Room
The GREAT NEWS there is that for very little money, we can make a DRASTIC change in her home with just paint. Here are the first 3 changes that she can make that will take no longer than a weekend and take significant steps towards creating the home of her dreams:
1. Paint all the walls in the open living space. We both love and are set on Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl, lightened by 50%. Light and airy. Cool, but not too cool.
2. Paint all the trim work a nice, bright white. We chose Benjamin Moore’s Simply White. There are so many whites out there, but having seen several spaces with this combo, we know they work well together.
3. Paint the kitchen cabinets the same white as the trim and change out the hardware. This is actually an example of the cabinets in Simply White with the walls painted in Gray Owl lightened by 50%.
Source: The Lettered Cottage
Once the space is painted, I truly feel Becca will love her home 100% more. That might be enough to make her love her home again. And with such little time and money and such a huge return, it is a no-brainer.
I am in the process of putting together mood boards for the different spaces in her open-floor plan space in case she wants to continue taking her refresh to the next level. The living room is first. We are working with her current leather couch because a) it is super comfortable, b) it is extremely expensive to buy a new couch, and c) by getting rid of the other brown surfaces in the room, a little warmth is welcome and necessary! I also included her current natural fiber rug, which is so perfect. The textures and colors we are bringing in are light, bright and natural. This will help bring dimension to the space.
The colors were inspired by this pillow. The fabric, Carnival by Christopher Farr, is so gorgeous and has so many colors to pull from. It also has the added benefit of being very light and fresh, which completely changes the feel of a leather couch.
Source: Etsy
The pieces in the mood board are a mix of high and low. Since this was completely for inspiration purposes, I wanted to find pieces that worked. Later on, if Becca decides to make any changes to the choices on the mood board, she can make swaps. In fact, I also created an additional board with different choices Becca could go with if she wanted to go in a different direction with decor, using the same wall and trim colors as a base.
Working on these has been so much fun. Next up…the breakfast nook!
