Recently, a friend of mine, Carly, invited me over to help pull together some decor ideas for her formal living room. They recently moved into their home just a few blocks from me, so a couple of weeks ago I went over to see if I could help give her some ideas for a living room refresh.
Her new home is a very roomy and comfortable ranch style home. So lovely! It has plenty of space, high ceilings, a wonderful screened in porch and fabulous yard with a pool. In terms of an overhaul, that is certainly not what she needs. However, I think one of the not so fun parts of moving into a new home is trying to get your current pieces to work in a new space.
Here is the room we are currently looking at. It is their formal living space. If you can believe it, they have an equally spacious family room/den. Lucky girl!:
The room is very spacious and has a lot going for it. Tall ceilings, gorgeous parquet floor, and it is painted a very nice light gray that will be easy to work with. I would say the top 3 most impactful changes that Carly could make in this space are:
- Improve the furniture layout and flow. We need to make sure the furniture placement makes sense for the long narrow room.
- Bring in some repetition of color, texture and pattern to make it feel a more cohesive. Eclectic is good, but right now it is a little too eclectic. This can easily be solved with pillows, rugs, and drapes.
- Bring in some of the fun and color that reflects Carly’s personality. Right now, the room is too serious. It doesn’t reflect the young fun-loving family that lives here. But it can!
When looking for inspiration, I asked Carly to help me define her style. I asked her to give me at least 3 types of looks she’s drawn to. She told me her style is Palm Beach-meets-traditional-meets-coastal. To me, that translates into a space that has lots of vibrant color, traditional pieces, and crisp white. I love that she likes more than one style. Since that combination is pretty unique to Carly, it will help ensure that it comes out like a personal reflection of her style versus something straight out of a catalog. Here are a few images that jumped out at me during the initial exploration process:
After Carly gave me feedback on which rooms she was drawn to and why, I went in two different directions for colors. Both directions were inspired by art. The art prints provided the palette to bring in decor items. I sent Carly the following two boards and asked her which she liked better.
She chose board #2 – mainly because she fell in love with that rug. Who can blame her? That rug is breathtaking! It has so many fun colors: the coral…the mint…the fuchsia! But it’s grounded in navy and in a traditional pattern, so it is still sophisticated. It would definitely be the showstopper in the room. Carly loved the idea of having navy as the foundation color, and then playing around with a secondary color. In this case, we are highlighting the fuchsia.
After getting her selection, I tightened up the mood board a bit. I think a navy greek key trim on the cream linen drapes would give a little extra personality to the windows. Some plants around the fireplace surround to bring life and greenery to the room. Also, some sconces to go on either side of the round mirror so that the little vignette takes up more visual room. What do you think?
Carly is now running with some of these ideas, and that is the goal. To give just a little nudge of inspiration when you are stalled out. I hope to be able to share some “after” pictures as she makes some changes.
Chelsea Damon
Great idea with creating visual inspiration with pictures and mood boards. I have a pinterest mood board for my website that I look to for inspiration while designing photos and graphics.
Ale Post author
Thanks for stopping by, Chelsea. Yes, I find moldboards super helpful in getting going in a style direction with anything and everything.