I like to think of this as a step along the way to a makeover/living room redesign. A few weeks ago I surprised my mother by rearranging her living room. She loved it. Whew!
When you have 0 dollars to buy new furniture you can definitely breathe new life into a space by moving your current furniture into a better flowing/more logical floor plan! I also wanted mother to get a sense of how the living room might be once we get new furnishings for her. She saw the light and approves!
If you recall, the old space was dark and the full size of the room was cut in half because mom had the sofa sitting in the middle of the space!
I opened all the blinds, moved the armoir, put in a rug, donated 2 chairs, and the space really opened up.
I moved the sofa to its most logical position, on the longest wall between the 2 furthest apart windows. Just like mother is short on books for the built-ins (as written about in the entry below), she is short on art. But that’s okay…we’ll get there. I put what I could find above the sofa to fill the empty space. And guys, don’t look at those pillows. HAHA.
I also got rid of EVERY SINGLE fake plant. Now all plants in the room are 100% real. Whew!
The crystal lamps flank the sofa on either side (though the sunlight here washes them out).
This rattan/glass coffee table came from another room in the house. To add texture and mix things up a bit (be not so traditional) I switched out her old coffee table for this one. I could have styled the table with a tray of knickknacks. Lord knows mom has oodles of those fake fruits and those twine balls from Kirklands (anybody?)…but I didn’t care to bother. So…clean space it is! It’s been a few weeks and she still has the vase sitting there.
The red recliner that was in the room was too heavy and dark seeming so I got rid of it! Having the daintiness of this chair (the open legs) keeps the flow of the room light and airy.
The poo tv is still in focus but not blocking the built-in like before. The 2 new chairs provide much needed seating for guests. In fact, shortly after she had visitors! And they had a place to sit! How about that! 😛
There was some clutter on the mantle, which I removed, and like the coffee table chose to leave bare.
Look how big the space is as opposed to before! The rug makes it so much cozier and now she opens the blinds every day. She never did that before. 🙂
Plenty of room for 2 animal print stools in front on the coffee table, switch out my high backs for Billy Haines brentwood chairs, get a new sofa, some sort of coffee table (burled walnut or acrylic), strip the fireplace so the natural wood shows, find a vertical mirror, paint the walls, accessorize, find a boat load of books, add a floor lamp, get new side tables, wallpaper the focal sofa wall, buy some art and presto!
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