Barb's Living Room

Our aunt has lived in her house in the Chicago suburbs for over 10 years and wanted to update her living room.  She sent us some pictures so that we could get a sense for what needed changing:

Well hello dark depressing cave. Nice to meet you.  Also, WTF is that tiny stool?

Our priorities in this room were:

1.  Addressing the horrible furniture arrangement
2.  Bringing more light into the space
3.  Re-accessorizing/staging the room
4.  Taking out some of the unnecessary furniture.  You can't tell from these pictures (or maybe you can) but this room was a furniture graveyard.

We had to get this done on a minimal budget.  We spent one day at her place, working with what she had to transform the room.  Here's what we came up with:

 Our aunt has a great art collection and a lot of solid, pretty wood pieces that we were able to use in the space.  We swapped out the small photograph over the couch for a pretty watercolor (done by our grandma).  The big white flowers added a feminine touch over the heavy sofa and brought more light into the room.

We moved the chairs to face the couch to make it a more intimate space for conversation.  This also divided up a big room into more distinct spaces.  Previously, their furniture lined the perimeter of the room, which left the purpose of the room less defined.  The new arrangement makes the room feel more pulled together.  Although "floating furniture" can feel scary, sometimes it is necessary in large spaces.  To further define the space and ground the furniture, she can always add an area rug.

We brought in the glass-top coffee table (a freebie from our grandma) to bring in a material other than wood and, again, lighten up the space.  It's hard to see in the pictures, but it also has brass feet...love it!

Because we borrowed and repurposed things that she already had, the only money we spent was on new pillows and a throw blanket.  Final cost of this mini makeover? $90.

You never need to spend a ton of money or time to make a big change in a room.  Rearranging furniture, borrowing accessories from other rooms, and thinking outside the box can bring new life into tired spaces.