How to Make a Room Better: Before and After

Rarely does designing a space happen overnight. It can take months and sometimes a couple of years. I recently wrapped up a project that took a little over a year where we began with just replacing a dining table in a family room space. That’s where it started, and ended with a complete room redo. It turned out to be a fresh, clean and comfy place to pull up a chair and stay a while.  

When I first began this project, the client had called because they wanted to talk about rearranging the room to make it work better for their family. They had a round dining room table that sat in the bay window of the family room. The rest of the furniture worked around it. It was an awkward set up and more importantly, just didn’t work for them. We began by moving the table away from the bay window and putting it in the back of the room. Before we bought a new table we decided to have the family live with their current pieces in the new arrangement. This way they could see if the set up worked better for them. There is no sense in spending money if you’re not 100% sure the new arrangement will make you happy.

After several months of spending time in the new setup, the couple was ready to move forward with a new table and chairs. Here is where we started (I don’t have before pictures of the old table and chairs. This is where we were once we added the new table and chairs.):

We changed from a round table to a rectangular table that has the ability to expand. They are a family of six so gatherings can get large, especially with added friends and family.

They needed a table that could accommodate a big group, but would be easy and hassle free. We found  one that has an expandable leaf within the table. You just pull it apart and the leaf pops up. Makes life way easier.

Sometimes when you start replacing pieces of a room, some of the older pieces start looking worn and dated. Without realizing it, you begin comparing the new with the old. The old just begins to stick out more in your mind. The family’s sofa had seen better days. They have 2 dogs and one of them loves back cushions. You know what I’m talking about when your pet climbs up on your sofa and sits right in the middle of those back cushions. Those cushions get lots of love from our animals and it begins to show with constant sagging and not being able to really fluff them back up. That’s exactly what happened in this case.

The couple decided they wanted a sofa that would sit more people and had no back cushions for their dogs to destroy. We settled on a sofa with a chaise to get that extra seating and one that had a cushioned back, but no actual cushions. It’s soft and comfortable, but dog friendly with a Crypton fabric and no back cushions. Nothing to mess up any way you look at it.

When we changed the location of the dining table we moved their club chairs into the bay window. They looked great there, but with a new sofa on the way, the chairs needed to be recovered to look fresh and to work better with the fabric on the sofa. We recovered both of them in a blue and white stripe fabric that coordinated with the dining table’s blue wicker chairs.

The already owned a gorgeous, red rug that anchored the space.

It looked great and worked even better with the new fabrics. We changed the coffee table and found an old one of theirs in the basement. We brought it up and it fit perfectly into the spot created by the sofa and chaise.

We also found another odd chair that we were able to recover in a neutral linen that’s comfortable and fit nicely in a corner of the room.

The last pieces we added were two animal hide ottomans that can be pulled out for extra seating. When they are not being used they fit perfectly under an antique console the couple already owned.

We had  pillows made to work with the new pieces.

The room works wonderfully now to accommodate large and small crowds. We were able to use existing antique pieces and added upholstery to update the room. You don’t always have to replace everything to make a room feel updated and more functionable. Using old and new can give you a great mix that reflects the family’s taste. Sometimes rooms can take time to evolve. Once they do, it’s so worth the effort it took to get it there.

Here are some additional pics of the finished space:

That’s all for now. See ya next time!