OUR LIVING ROOM IS FINALLY DONE, & now that we are on home quarantine, timing couldn’t have been more perfect because this space is just the ultimate cozy & chic VIBE.
I really wanted this space to be true to our typical style- which is modern, minimal, a little bit Danish inspired… but when we moved in, something weird happened. I became absolutely OBSESSED with art deco decor- think a Miami in the 80’s meets your Grandma’s house kind of vibe. This was SO far off from anything I’ve liked before, but I knew I wanted to bring some of that style throughout the house, but especially in the living room… while still keeping it sleek & modern.
Which, now that it’s all done, I feel like we TOTALLY achieved the exact vibe I was going for & I’m gonna break down EVERYTHING we did to make this space come to life.
EVERYTHING WE DID TO ELEVATE OUR LIVING ROOM SPACE
**see below for a full before & after for reference as I go through a total breakdown of all the things we changed since we saw the house staged**
♡ THE BASICS:
+ floors: we redid the floors & this was the biggest pain in the ass + made the biggest difference in the house. We wanted light floors to make everything look BRIGHTER.
+ paint: we painted ALL the walls in our house white, before they were a DRAB grey & white walls = BRIGHT! The front door was a weird blue color that I hated, so when we our painters sprayed all of our cabinets black (as seen in the kitchen makeover post & bathroom makeover post), we also had them spray the door black. MUCH BETTER… but I do feel like we could use a more modern front door one day.
+ layout change: we definitely had to change the layout from when the house was staged because your girl does not want to look out an open window, I need to look at a TV when sitting on the couch TYVM.
+ barn door: & speaking of layout changes, peep the photos above from the before- notice that door swinging into the middle of the living room? That’s the door to our bedroom (I know, kind of a weird space but it was built on to the house) & we needed to maximize living room space so we took off the swinging door & replaced it with this chic chevron barn door with black hardware.
♡ NEW RUG, WHO DIS:
NOW FOR THE FURNITURE, let’s start with the rug because this was the first thing we bought for the living room. When I first saw the Virgil Abloh x Ikea collab, I knew I needed the KEEP OFF rug in our new house. I was obsessed! YES- we had to be at the store when they opened & people were offering to buy it off of my assistant in the parking lot, but we got one!! Unfortunately it is discontinued from Ikea as it was a limited collab & sold out on super quickly, BUT I found a few being resold here & here (for more than it was originally, because that’s just what people do sadly).
♡ THE SWAN COFFEE TABLE:
MY BELOVED COFFEE TABLE!! This was our ode to art deco in this room & Diana is my baby (yes, we named the swan Diana after Princess Di, naturally).
I found this bad boy while browsing OfferUp & we picked it up about 2 hours after I first found it. It is vintage, so I can’t link it for you but here is an expired listing of the same table for reference & I 10 out 10 suggest setting up alerts on OfferUp!!! I find so much stuff that people are basically giving away.
On top of the coffee table we’ve got a book all about vintage Chanel, a green faux crocodile box I found at HomeGoods, black marble coasters, MY FAVE CANDLE- Vatican by the Fvith, & a little shell dish that I found at Goodwill (it was gold, we painted it white! similar style here).
♡ TV CONSOLE:
we had this from our previous house & decided to keep it, for now. Maybe one day we will swap it out but I personally love how low the ground & chic it is. It is also sold out cause it was from years ago, but this one is super similar. Ours also had two doors on the left & right like this one does but we just moved them around so we had one door in the middle & two open space on the sides for more visible storage.
We styled the top with propped up art work (a map of Copenhagen that I made + the smoking tiger print from Kim Legler), lots of candles, these black modern square tea light holders, Fredericks & Mae extra long black matches, a small plant (DIY-ed this planter from an old candle!), a miniature David statue we got in Italy (similar style here).
Inside the console itself we’ve got some fun coffee table books & fashion magazines (all white, to keep it cohesive) + a little digital clock from Amazon that I oddly love. Oh & the planter to the left, we got that from HomeGoods & the Coke bottle art is a vintage piece by Howard Finster that belonged to my grandfather!
♡ SIDEBOARD CONSOLE:
this was also something we already owned & I do love it, so it’s staying- for now. I would love something art deco/vintage to go here one day. It is sold out completely, but this one is pretty similar!
It is filled with more books, some vintage magazines, and then all the stuff we want close by but hidden in the living room. On top we’ve got more books, a fake plant, a chess set (we love chess!), & a vintage ashtray filled with mini disco balls (aka Christmas tree ornaments lol).
AND THAT MIRROR, let’s chat about that mirror real quick. This is the original mirror we got, but a few weeks ago I decided to give it a little makeover. I took off the rubber around the edge & put color changing LED lights behind it. I AM OBSESSED with how it turned out & was such an easy little hack.
♡ & NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT OUR BADASS SOFA!!!
Our previous couch was 5 years old, destroyed by the dogs, had moved with us 3x, & it was long overdue for replacing. It’s from Ikea, & while it did fall apart, I gotta say- we fucking LOVED that couch. It pulled out into a full bed & was the comfiest couch ever.
… but it HAD TO GO. I could only Photoshop the rips & tears out of my photos for so long.
SO- I shared with my audience on Instagram I was looking for a comfy & cool art deco inspired couch and someone ended up sending me a listing on OfferUp (again, love me some OfferUp) for a sofa & chair set being sold for $100… 5 minutes from me?! It was faded orange, but the condition was perfect, the vibes were amazing, & I couldn’t understand how these were being sold for $100?! I messaged him, he said he got hundreds of replies in MINUTES & had to raise the price to $300.
I said we’d be there in 10 minutes. We got the pieces that day & put them in our garage, only to then go inside & lay on our trusty old destroyed Ikea couch… for like 2 months.
I couldn’t decide wtf to do with these sofas. My first thought was to try and make a tutorial on how to paint upholstery. Apparently it’s a thing that works pretty well, but it seemed like a A LOT of work & although I love a DIY- this just didn’t seem like a good idea, but my only other option was reupholstery & I didn’t know if I wanted to put that much into it.
Then, I decided to research this sofa + chair I got for $300… & here’s where things get JUICY.
Thanks to a DEEP google search, I found the couches on a high end antique site & apparently they are Italian art deco sofas from the 70’s and worth quite a pretty little penny. Once I saw what they were selling for, there was NO way I was gonna try my hand at painting those bad boys.
SO- we decided to invest the money into getting them reupholstered in a chic af black velvet & this was the MOVE. I am obsessed with how it turned out, the velvet is so cozy, & it really brought my whole vision to life.
OKAY, THAT’S IT- the entire breakdown of our new living room! What do you guys think?!
SHOP OUR ART DECO MODERN LIVING ROOM
