You've seen the kitchen and adjoining dining room of this beautiful house so far, and today it's time to bring you into the living room right off the kitchen! Scroll through to see this ridiculously amazing transformation!
You can see where we started above, and how the stairwell was flipped to deposit anyone into the main living space instead of the entry foyer. It's always a nice reminder to see where we started with all of the different flooring choices, and how choppy the entire space felt with the layout, cutout windows up in to the loft, niches galore, and the more ornate balusters up the staircase.
The one thing the clients were adamant about was a plastered black fireplace to replace the stonework you see above, and a TV above the fireplace. Don't have to tell us twice - done and done, bye bye faux stone fireplace. Ceilings fans are not my favorite, but in Texas, they really are necessary most of the time, so we replaced the traditional look of the one above with a modern LED light fan in a matte black finish as well.
We chose automated roller shades to cover these large windows because they get a lot of sun in that room in the afternoon. I loved that we were able to find a color way that perfectly matched the wall color when they are unrolled, because the windows themselves now fade away seamlessly with the touch of a button.
We selected 90" sofas with bench seats, so they can squeeze as many people on these sofas as possible. Not pictured are the fabulous swivel chairs that will sit right where the camera is in that shot above - they are so gorgeous, and I can't tell you how bummed I am they didn't make it for photoshoot day but they're installed now and we plan to photograph again in the near future.
Designer tip: Choosing sofas with additional bolster side pillows as part of the design were also very important, because the layout dictated that long sofas would be the best choice, but obviously they aren't the best choice for TV watching. That extra pillow gives them extra support to be able to lean or completely lay down to watch their favorite shows and movies.
We covered the importance of art in our post from last week, especially family photos like this sprinkled throughout a home, but I wanted to point out using these as a tie-in to bring in the black of the fireplace, as well as the cabinetry in the kitchen into the artwork in some way. And don't be afraid of negative space with large matting! This is a another great designer trick if you have only a certain size photo with good resolution - large mats give you larger frames, and therefore can take up much more space on a wall without sacrificing photo quality!
We had to add a little pop of deep green in the pillows, which we incorporated into nearly every space in some capacity.
We continued the black and white elements in the artwork on the other side of the room as well. The peekaboo gold is a nod to the gold inlay of the tile work at the bar in the kitchen, and gives us great texture in that space in large scale. In the afternoon there is a beautiful glimmer of shine as the sunlight reflects of these foils.
The open and closed storage for this coffee table is great for their family's season of life. You can store games and toys in the drawers, and the kids can pass cars and other toys through the open shelf as well. We also opted for a tempered glass topper, which yes - has to be cleaned - but it is much easier to wipe that off rather than digging crumbs out of the wood grain.
Because of their young kids, a polypropylene rug with a variety of colors and an overall dark tone was chosen to give them the best chance of disguising any spills or accidents. Another designer tip: avoid rugs with rayon or viscose, even though they are really soft, because any liquid contact with those fibers will ruin it immediately.
Stay tuned for more of the spaces in this family's new home in the weeks to come! And if you're liking what you're seeing and have projects in your own home you'd love help with, please don't hesitate to reach out to NLI here (especially if you're planning to host holiday gatherings in a newly designed space).
Design and Styling: Nancy Lane Interiors
Professional Photography: Ellen Renee Photography