I’m sharing a living room today where a few tweaks made a big difference in the overall feel of the room. This was one of my Designed in a Click consultations done last year, and I just got the photos of the completed room recently from the homeowner.

See the before and after of her living room below. :-)

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Before Pics - Living Room with A Mediterranean Vibe

BEFORE - Living room sectional with dark wood coffee table

BEFORE - Living room tv wall needed some tweaking.

This homeowner had a Mediterranean vibe in her Texas hill country home. With terracotta stained concrete floors and a golden color on the walls, she was tired of the warm, darker look and wanted to freshen thing up.

She was primarily looking for a paint color recommendation, what to do about a window treatment, as they used this space for tv viewing and needed to close the curtains sometimes, and was wondering about a possible coffee table replacement.

This homeowner was an artist. I had seen her work at our area’s art fair, where I was a judge last year, and loved her pastels with natural, organic subject matter. I was excited to get to weigh in here and help her pull this room together!

Here was my response….

The first item I asked her about was moving that sectional sofa into the corner of the space where the left side would be against the tv wall and the right side then faced the window wall. I felt like that would open up the seating area a bit.

They could then need to relocate the tv to another wall or over the fireplace.

That wasn’t possible here, although she realized the sectional was really big for the room, it was a big investment and had to stay. They really like the seating arrangement for watching tv, so that needed to stay too.

In light of that, I stuck to recommendations for her concerns.

The existing paint color was SW Macadamia, a very golden toned beige. Changing to a warm white, would be so helpful here to lighten things up and minimize the golden scheme.

I suggested SW Creamy as an option here, but really I liked the idea of the trim, ceiling and walls being all the same color, wrapping the room completely. She could do a lighter warm white too, like SW Alabaster.

Minimizing the contrast in walls and trim would help open up and lighten the overall look.

Coffee Table

I recommended a new coffee table similar to this one, something smaller and lighter. I felt like the space had too much heavy, dark wood furniture and changing that out to something like this would be better. I liked the white surface of this one. it would reflect light up into this space.

Window Treatments

For window treatments, I recommended she go with a white natural linen look fabric with a simple panel style that would blend with the new wall color. I wanted to give the illusion of no drapery there, I felt like the dark, existing panels sort of chopped up the space as it was. I also liked taking the treatment up higher on the wall.

Here’s one option I gave her too, some custom window treatments I did in this dining room, that had a textural sheer fabric.

Sheer, crewel work drapery panels soften this room while adding texture.

Fireplace / TV Wall

Since she is an artist, I suggested she use one of her larger pieces over the fireplace, to add more color and make a bigger statement there.

For the fireplace wall, I felt like the carved wood panels were hung too high.

BEFORE - Living room with wall arrangement that could be improved upon.

I recommended she lower those wood panels, staggering them as I've shown in the sketch below. Since they aren't really artwork, I see them as more of a wall treatment, like paneling and therefore, didn’t mind them being hung slightly behind the tv.

It makes the tv less "framed in" and adds more height to the wall. It feels less boxy and geometric too.

Here’s a quick sketch to show an improved wall layout for decorating and new items in space.

I proposed removing the dried branches from the vase for a simpler look beside the tv. I thought having a floor lamp something like this one there could illuminate the corner and then a possible new tv cabinet in a rustic painted finish would be nice.

That would still relate to the style of the space, but I like the taller height and the painted wood, as we were trying to delete some of the dark wood finishes in this space.

After pics - Lighter, Brighter and fresher feel

The creamy white painted envelope, new coffee table, window treatments and changes made to the tv wall made a big difference in this room.

I was so happy to see how it turned out!

AFTER - Living room with fresh paint, new wall decor arrangement, coffee table and floor lamp. These items all serve to brighten up this Mediterranean style look.

AFTER - The new coffee table provides a nice, bright look in the middle of the darker, warmer toned furnishings and relates to the new white paint color.

AFTER - The new white paint color on the walls, trim and ceiling provides a simple envelope for the darker elements in the room. The drapery panels blend in with the walls and don’t serve to chop up the back window wall like the darker panels had done before.

I think she did a great job and was so happy she shared her “after” photos with me.

If I’ve done an email consultation with you and you’ve yet to send me your after photos, please do! I’d love to share a post about your project. :-)

BEFORE AND AFTER - See How These Living Room Tweaks Made A Big Difference