Hip Living Room

An oversized living room with mismatched couches gets a sophisticated makeover.

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Filed under: Living Rooms, Neutral, Color, Furniture, Makeover, Decorating

Makeover Room, after: $1,600

Inspiration Room: $26,000

The Inspiration Room
Host Brooke Channon tours the hip, sophisticated living room created by designer Yvonne Lane. The lounge look for this inviting room, perfect for entertaining, uses a neutral beige background sparked with contrasting dark wood and spots of bright color from pillows and wall vases. Geometric shapes — in the curved couch, the round table, square pillows, triangular flower vases and fun, retro fabric with overlapping circles used for the seating — give the room a sophisticated retro coolness.

Makeover Room, before

Transforming the Makeover Room
Guided by designer Yvonne Lane, the Sensible Chic crew transforms an oversized living room with mismatched couches and a transitory "student look" into a sassy, sophisticated entertaining space. Here's how:

Coated the walls with a warm beige, neutral paint (Benjamin Moore: Bleeker Beige).
Covered the wood floors with a natural sisal area rug.
Hung full-length cream curtains at the windows.
Angled two matching cream-colored sofas in a V shape to mimic the curved sofa of the Inspiration Room.
Placed throw pillows in the same size and shape (to maintain the modern look) on the couch, using different textures and colors.

Painted four clear vases with blue glass paint in a swirled pattern; hung them from metal wall brackets and filled them with silk orchids.

Stacked two espresso-finished drawer units to create a four-drawer table between the two couches; finished them with three ceramic pears on a tray.

Added plants on black cubes in the corners of the room, to soften the look.

Painted white lampshades for simple black floor lamps with a khaki band around the bottom and added a ribbon trim at the upper edge of the paint.

Placed an espresso wood, glass-topped round coffee table in front of the couches and accessorized it with magazines and whimsical turtle figures.

Covered two dark wood lounge chairs with a geometric retro-look fabric.

Copied the original softly colored abstract artwork of the Inspiration Room on a large canvas for low-cost impact.

The Bottom Line
To see where the savings are, take a look at this direct cost comparison of some Inspiration Room items and the creatively comparable ones used in the Makeover Room:

Curved sofa, $6,400 / Two angled sofas, $200 each

Vivid blue custom-made wall vases, $1,500 / Handpainted clear vases and orchids, $95

Colored glass pears, $575 / White ceramic pears, $48

Fifties-style lamps with two-tone shades, $885 / Customized lamps and shades, $50

Round coffee table, hand-rubbed stain, $1,195 / Retro round glass-top table, $160

Original artwork, $6,500 / Sensible copy, $60

tree stands, drum shades, stacked sofa table, pillows - Target
floor lamps (Yra), sofa (Klippan), chairs and cushions (Poang), sisal rug, curtain rods and brackets (Index), curtain rings (Adele) — IKEA
wall sconces — Domestications
glass paint (Pebeo: Lazuli and Lapis), artificial orchids, painting canvas and supplies — Michaels
gold dupioni silk pillows — Mervyn's
box pillows (Sonoma) — Linens n' Things
ceramic pears — Expo Design Center
round coffee table — National Furniture Liquidators
porcelain turtles — Burlington Coat Factory
fabric — Poppy Fabric
brushed twill curtain panels — Wal-Mart