Traditional Style Living Room Makeover
I am so excited to share this Living Room Makeover project with you today! Recently I worked with a wonderful client in Florida. She had been in her home for awhile but confessed she never really loved her Living Room. She was overwhelmed and not sure where to start…so she hadn’t done much to it at all.
What she wasn’t able to do in years, we were able to do in two short weeks with online interior design!
Neutral Living Room Design with Pops of Navy
One thing I loved about this client was she said from the beginning she wasn’t even sure of her style: she liked traditional, modern, even a bit of boho…this is so common! A lot of my clients know what they like, but it is hard to put it exactly into words. However, when I saw my clients Pinterest board a clear pattern popped out: a traditional look with some modern elements, and pops of navy and gold. This is a woman after my own heart as Navy is my favorite color to use in home design. It is the perfect neutral but has as a boldness to it-a little goes a long way.
Tips for a Neutral Living Room Design
My #1 design tip to designing any room:
Go neutral with the foundation pieces.
That includes things like sofas, chairs (with the exception of maybe a fun accent chair), tables, etc. This Mood Board has a lot of color to it, but all of the main pieces are neutral. As your tastes change, you can keep these larger, more expensive pieces and re-work them. In this version we kept her two existing stone colored loveseats, and I added in some dark furniture with this media console and coffee table (with some gold blinged out legs!). And this gorgeous caramel colored leather chair brings in some warm tones. Furthermore, in this room we also started with warm white walls to let all of the colors really pop.
Choose an Accent Color: Navy
Then I layered in some navy accents like these modern-meets-boho pillows. To keep it from looking boring or too one-dimensional, you want to mix in some other colors and textures into the group. Pops of teal, black and brown in the pillows add in some more layers, as do different fabrics. In this pillow mix there is cotton, leather, and velvet: all of the pillows coordinate without looking too matchy-matchy.
When using an accent color you want touches out it sprinkled throughout the room, layering in this blue area rug, some poufs, and navy modern art circulates this color throughout the space.
Modern Meets Traditional Living Room Design
The best rooms always have a mix of different styles, or something just a bit unexpected to keep things interesting.
So how do you mix modern and traditional together in a Living Room?
Traditional Living Room Items
The sofas, media console, patterned wood end tables, and twist on a Persian style area rug all bring in classic, traditional elements. But to help balance it out, we needed some modern elements as well:
Modern Living Room Items
The sleek lined coffee table and hairpin side tables (both with gold tones), the modern abstract art, modern gold table lamps, and a clean lined chandelier all pull in modern elements. Furthermore, inexpensive decor accents like these vases, succulents, and burled wood tray add in a modern touch without going too far.
Plus remember the Boho element? Adding in natural elements like these agate sculptures, succulent plant, and global patterned rugs and vases add in some of these bohemian charm going too heavy.
Living Room Design Twist
But I also wanted to give her a couple of new options including new Pottery Barn sofas, a lighter wood media console and adding in some more colors, like this pop of turquoise. The rest of the items are the same, but a few new pieces give the room a different look:
And here is the Alternate Mood Board with some of the original items. When choosing accents colors I wouldn’t go more than 3-4 main colors. In this case I used navy, gold, white, and browns (shown in woods and the leather chair). It gave a very calm, serene look and the navy adds some sophistication to the room.
How to Hide a TV in a Living Room Design
There are so many different ways to hide a TV in the Living Room, but in this case I “hid” the TV in plain site by adding it as part of a Gallery Wall. My client can install a grid of gold frames with black and white photos. I personally would stick with either black and white, or neutral, sepia tones so not to make the space too busy.
I created this Elevation drawing for my client so she can see exactly what her media area would look like with the items from her Mood Boards:
How to Mix Different Styles in your
Living Room Design
When mixing design styles, you don’t want a cluttered, confusing look by mixing items that don’t work together. So start with a main foundation of a certain style: in this case a traditional Living Room style. Then choose a few items that have a different style, in this case, a Modern style. Just one modern piece might look odd, but having several makes it look cohesive. And finally, add just a few smaller decor touches of your third style: in this case, the Boho style. In this Living Room design they are small pieces that can easily be swapped out in the future: pillow covers, vases, plants, and a few photographs.
When working with a few different styles, it helps to keep some cohesive details flowing throughout the space. In this case the use of dark woods, pops of navy, and gold accents flow throughout the room.
5 Week Design Jumpstart Program
Want more free interior design ideas?
Then join me for Week #4 of the 5 Week Design Jumpstart Program: every week I create a brand new freebie for you based on that week’s theme. We’ve covered things like “75 Ways to Update your Bathroom” Guide, Free Mudroom Locker Building Plans, and a free Playroom Mood Board + Shopping List.
You can find all of these Freebies plus dozens of others right here in my:
See you back here next week…same time, same place.
Kristin
Jen Mangino says
Can you tell me what size picture frames were used around the TV?
PostboxDesigns says
Hi Jen! The frames are very similar to these-the largest size-I hope this helps! 🙂 https://www.target.com/p/metal-frame-brass-matted-photo-project-62-153/-/A-52850560?preselect=17318268#lnk=sametab
Jcee says
Where can I purchase this navy rug? Love it!
Beth says
Where is the tan chair that had the electronic footstool from?
PostboxDesigns says
Hi! The leather chair is from West Elm!