Power Tools Rater: Before/After Living Room Renovation

We are SO thrilled today to have the very talented Whitney of the Instagram account Carpendaughter here to share some of her amazing living room with you! Be sure to check her out over on Instagram (gorgeous feed!) and she’ll be here sharing once a month, too. Give Whitney a warm Remodelaholic welcome:

I was flattered when Cassity asked me to jump on board and join all the lovely creatives that fill this space. So where should I start? I thought I’d write a little about what I’ve been up to the last few years.

I bought my house in 2011. I stalked the neighborhood I knew I wanted to buy in for months and eventually honed in on a perfectly dilapidated house with overgrown yard and never any lights on. It was only one block from a beautiful rose garden, pond and playground. The perfect location. Of course, “run down” not only meant it was going to be a deal, but meant lots and lots of projects were waiting for me.

The house belonged to an elderly woman who had passed away and I tracked down her next of kin before it went on the market. I’ve learned the hard way that once a house is on the market it means there’ll be cut throat competition with local flippers that wanna paint every wall with the same beige color and carpet every surface with the cheapest Berber they can find. Ew.

I knew this house was gonna be work but, being my first complete home renovation, I didn’t realize just how much work I would have to do before I got to the fun stuff. Long story short, we ended up taking each and every wall in the house down to the studs and hauled out hundreds of pounds of plaster and lathe. In hindsight I would have rented a huge dumpster, but I was young and dumb. We ripped up all the carpet and found beautiful red oak floors begging to be refinished. We had all the knob and tube wiring replaced and all the walls spray-foamed and drywalled. Then came the fun stuff.

I thought I’d first talk about the room we spend most of our time: our living room. Now that it’s finally starting to feel equal parts cozy and stylish, here are a few ways I’ve been able to mold this room into the space I wanted.

Tips for a Living Room Renovation

A mixture of painted and dark stained wood.

Yes, I painted lots of oak woodwork but I also refinished the oak floors so consider it a trade-off for all those who consider painting wood a sin.

Adding built-ins on either side of fireplace.

I am incredibly lucky to have a dad who is skilled in woodworking. To be able to explain to my dad what I’m thinking, supply him with wood and measurements and shortly thereafter have something ready to install is truly a dream. But if you can afford to hire out or if you are handy with wood yourself, I think adding custom shelving or built-ins makes a huge difference. Not to mention the added storage.

Customized furniture.

I fell in love with a bright green sofa from Anthropologie, but it was way out of my price range. And, funny enough, I found almost the exact same sofa at IKEA, but it didn’t have the legs I wanted. With a little luck and an evening sifting through the ocean of sofa legs available online, I had what I needed. Even with its replacement legs, my IKEA sofa cost over $1,000 less than Anthro. Yay! I’m not an advocate for filling your entire house with IKEA furniture but the other sofa in my living room is also IKEA. My way of making it look a little more unique was opting out of the available oversized arms. I wasn’t sure if it would still be comfy without the arms but let me tell you it is. Maybe even more so.

Painting the interior window frames.

The biggest bang for my buck was definitely painting all my window frames black. It just makes them pop. My friend, Dana from House Tweaking, once described it as “eyeliner for windows.” Brilliant. I personally just feel prettier with eyeliner on and I’m pretty sure my windows feel the same.

One really dark wall in a sea of white.

Making the stairwell wall dark makes such a big impact on the room. The contrast between it and the crisp white woodwork of the staircase is just my favorite. Period.

Welp, there you have it. My first blog post ever! Thanks for letting me share. I’m really looking forward to sharing other spaces in my home and how I’ve renovated and customized them! If you want to see more of what I’m up to on a daily basis (or some unabashed breakfast and cat photos), you can always find me on Instagram.

Sources

Pouf: Etsy (gifted)
Wooden hand mannequin + Glass cloche: Amazon
Wall color: Valspar, Sawyer White
Dark wall color: Valspar, English Tea Party
Stain color: Minwax, Dark Walnut
Large area rug: Rugs USA
Pink runner: West Elm
Mirror above firepace: CB2
Candle holders: Target
Wooden vase: Target (discontinued)
Floor lamp: IKEA
Grey sofa: IKEA, Kivik
Green sofa: IKEA, Stockholm
Sheepskin: IKEA
Coffee table: West Elm
Entry way table lamp: Target
Grey and white pillow: CB2
Black and white pillow: Target
Pink and white pillow: Target
Black side table: Target
Wood tray: Crate & Barrel
White vases: West Elm
Flower print: Lulie Wallace
Cactus print: Urban Outfitters
Watercolor: Britt Bass
Fiddle-leaf fig: Home Depot
Plant basket: Target
Small wall-shelf: Urban Outfitters (discontinued)
Black and white planter: Target
Driftwood and brass armadillo: thrifted
Brass/glass terrarium: Hobby Lobby