Are you stressed out over trying to get your living room makeover done? Does the thought of making a mistake with decorating keep you up worrying? Let me guess, you have a summer wedding coming up and the clock is ticking. That old busted sofa has to go and you can’t bear the thought of hosting a pre-wedding cocktail party in your tired and dated living room. So, first thing you do is hit up Pinterest and after a glass of wine or 4, you’re totally overwhelmed and even less sure about what you wanted your room to look like than before, sound familiar? Well, my dear, you are not alone. One of the most common decorating laments I hear is I don’t know where to start, help! In my experience if you take it one step at a time, you can make something pretty amazing and that is no different with decorating your living room or any room for that matter. Here are 7 steps to a total living room makeover that you can use for any room!
7 Steps To A Total Living Room Makeover, Step 1: Choose Flooring
Start By choosing the floor cover. This tends to be the most expensive and hardest to change. Choose the wood tone, wall to wall carpet or tile that will go on the floor. Think about this step as the base that everything else will coordinate with. Hard wood floors will look great with just about anything, wood, upholstery metal and stone, etc. When it comes to whole room wall to wall carpet or tile, it’s best to stick to neutrals. That way you are not locked in to a specific color story for many years. You won’t want to rip up your flooring each time you decide to change décor, right?
7 Steps To A Total Living Room Makeover, Step 2: Choose Rugs, Wallpaper, Drapes
Next, you can bring in the area rugs, wallpaper, and drapes. This step is where you can bring in the foundation for your color story. Unlike flooring, the choices above your permanent flooring do not need to be neutral. Go ahead and fall in love with an area rug, wallpaper pattern or drapery fabric. Use that foundation as a palate to draw your accent colors into the rest of the room. You’ll refer to step 2 throughout the decorating process for many of your color and finish options.
7 Steps To A Total Living Room Makeover, Step 3: Choose Furniture
The next step is to pick out your furniture for the space. A great place to start to coordinate your look is to take a neutral color out of your area rug, wallpaper or drapes and use that as the foundation for the upholstery fabric on the largest piece, sofa, sectional, upholstered bed, etc. By keeping the largest, typically most expensive piece neutral, you can add color with the other pieces. Bring in the other colors from the inspiration pieces as accents. Think patterned accent chair, cocktail ottoman, accent pillows, etc..
7 Steps To A Total Living Room Makeover, Step 4: Choose Art
Artwork is step 4. When bringing in art, you can have a lot of fun coordinating the color story of your room. You do not need to subscribe to anybody else’s idea of what “beautiful” is. Art is subjective. A few tips would be, keep building on the color theme with your art. I usually like to unify my framed art with a similar frame. Perhaps that is the classic black frames. They give a nice contrast to the subject matter of the art. Or, maybe you prefer gold gilded frames or bronze. Whatever direction, try to replicate that detail around the room. By picking up touches of that same frame color in your mirrors, family photos or other art pieces, you will have a nice cohesive look throughout the space.
7 Steps To A Total Living Room Makeover, Step 5: Choose Lighting
Now it’s time to add in the lights. Adding decorative lamps to your space is another area you can bring in some character and texture. I like to pick lighting that brings in an interesting shape, texture, metal or painted finish. You may want to bring in black bases as an option. Touches of black around the room will help your eye find places to rest. Adding in black lamp bases is a great way to bring in that touch of black that every room needs.
7 Steps To A Total Living Room Makeover, Step 6: Choose Accessories
The last place to really polish off the color story of your room is by adding in accessories. Bring in pottery, candles, baskets, accent fabrics, live plants etc. A good rule to follow is, place accessories in odd numbers, 3’s and 5’s work well. DON’T oversaturate surfaces with too much clutter. A few well chosen pieces go a long way. By all means, if you have collections of items, bring them in too. Just follow the same advice and edit the collection down. If you have a large collection of items, place them throughout the room, not just all on one place. You want to enjoy your collection and by placing them around the room you’ll be able to show them off them in pleasing, curated groups.
7 Steps To A Total Living Room Makeover, Step 7: Choose Wall Color
When all the other elements are picked out, now it’s time to choose the wall color. I often hear that people think the wall color should come first. I say, it is a snap to pick the wall color once you have all the other pieces picked out. The color of your wall should be based on your choices from Step 2. Consider the whole of your space as a canvas. The floor and walls are the foundation that will support all the other elements in the space. Bring in a neutral color from the wall to wall carpet or tile as the basis for the wall color choice. As a general rule, I like to find a more neutral color from the background of my area rug, wallpaper or drapes as the basis for my wall color. This will unify the space adding a thoughtful and cohesive final product!
It’s that easy! Seven Steps to get you out of that decorating rut! Now you can plan that party and show off your new living room with confidence and pride!
Michael is Principal designer and blogger at Michael Helwig Interiors in beautiful Buffalo, New York. Since 2011, he’s a space planning expert, offering online interior e-design services for folks living in small homes, or for those with awkward and tricky layouts. He’s a frequent expert contributor to many National media publications and news outlets on topics related to decorating, interior design, diy projects, and more. Michael happily shares his experience to help folks avoid expensive mistakes and decorating disappointments. You can follow him on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook @interiorsmh.
