Before + Afters: Fresh & Fabulous Family Home

With a mismatched color palette and traditional furniture, this single family home felt stuck in the past. To bring the tired interior into the present, designer Claire Paquin refreshed the walls with white paint and then layered in more stylish, contemporary pieces. Jewel-toned accents throughout ensure that the finished design is fabulous.

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August 21, 2018

From: Claire Paquin

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Family Room, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Family Room, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Contemporary Living Room With Colorful Curtains

The star attraction of this spacious family room is the window treatments: The pattern is an intense floral with bearded dragons and Chinese lanterns. To balance out its boldness, the designers kept the room's other prints subtle: a medium-scale geometric on the rug, a small scale geometric on the sectional pillows and a casual, tie-dye stripe on the chair pillows.

From: Claire Paquin

Living Room With Asian Shades and TV

The design inspiration for this family room was the beautiful, vibrant shade fabric: “Chiang Mai Dragon” from Schumacher. Its color palette of teals, reds, plums and chartreuses served as the base for the rest of the room, creating a fresh and youthful energy.

From: Claire Paquin

Neutral Transitional Living Room With Lucite Table

The mix of patterns in this pretty family room works because the scale is all small and the colors relatively mellow: a beige-and-white base perked up by pops of yellow and turquoise.

From: Claire Paquin

White Built-In Bookshelf With Vases

Keeping the bookshelves from being stuffed full adds to the airy, open feel of this family room. Instead, the shelves are used for a mix of storage and display, placing art and pretty vases amongst stacks of books.

From: Claire Paquin

Teal Accents Meet Subtle Patterns

A teal bench and accent pillow add a splash of color to this corner of the room, enlivening the crisp white walls. With subtle patterns in the furniture and area rug below, the vignette is stylish yet sophisticated.

From: Claire Paquin

Contemporary, Gray Living Room is Open, Airy

Sleek furniture in shades of gray create a calming, contemporary base for this modern living room. Built-in bookshelves house favorite accessories and art pieces, while floral-printed Roman shades bring pattern to the space. A Lucite coffee table takes center stage to keep the entire space airy and bright.

From: Claire Paquin

Foyer, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Foyer and Stairs With Vine Wallpaper

Wisps of vines and blooms decorate the walls of the foyer, taking the traditional architecture of the home in a fresh, contemporary direction. The wallpaper's color also picks up the warm tones of the hardwood floor.

From: Claire Paquin

Stairs With Built-In Bench

The awkward, oft-unused wall space at the foot of the stairs is transformed into an appealing bench. Instantly switch up the mood with accent pillows in different colors or patterns.

From: Claire Paquin

Foyer, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Metallic Contemporary Foyer With Green Pillows

In the right light, the foyer's wallpaper takes on a golden sheen, a metallic note that is picked up in rooms throughout the house.

From: Claire Paquin

Foyer, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Brown Contemporary Foyer With Purple Console

The foyer is the first chance any home has to show off its unique style, and designer Claire Paquin takes full advantage of the opportunity. Walls are covered in a delicate floral pattern that gets contemporary zip from a purple console table and two striped stools.

From: Claire Paquin

Tan Foyer With Wallpaper

A simple thing like wallpaper can have an amazing effect. In this foyer, the wallpaper gives the impression of magical vines surrounding the room. The mood is enhanced by the pendant light with a pattern that echoes the wall print.

From: Claire Paquin

Living Room With Striped Brown Stools

Designer Claire Paquin uses pattern in surprising places, adding to the fun and mystery of her interiors. Here, a stool gets sassy chevron stripes in shades of brown and gold.

From: Claire Paquin

Living Room, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Neutral Contemporary Living Room With Purple Bench

The foundation of this living room is basic neutrals: tan walls, white trim, beige rugs. It gets its life from the accents, bold and beautiful: yellow curtains, purple velvet armchairs, pillows with vibrant patterns.

From: Claire Paquin

Living Room, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Neutral Contemporary Living Room With Purple Chairs

Eggplant purple and gold are the majestic colors of the day in this living room that feels refined and innovative. The textures are another important part of the sumptuous look: crystal, metal, velvet, stone.

From: Claire Paquin

Contemporary Living Room With Purple Velvet Chair

In the living room, the designer creates a bold statement in an otherwise neutral space with accessories infused with rich jewel tones: topaz curtains, purple chairs and pillows.

From: Claire Paquin

Living Room, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Contemporary Living Room With Purple Bench

One of the signatures of this home's innovative style is designer Claire Paquin's bold use of color. She's unafraid to combine equally rich colors—purple and gold here in the living room, purple and chartreuse in the adjacent foyer—with results that are exciting and perfectly sophisticated.

From: Claire Paquin

Contemporary Living Room With Yellow Curtains

The living room elevates basic neutral walls and a rug by pairing them with striking accents, like yellow curtains, a metallic end table and royal purple pillows.

From: Claire Paquin

Kitchen, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Kitchen, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Kitchen, Before

From: Claire Paquin

White Open Plan Chef Kitchen With Lucite Barstools

Lucite barstools vanish into the kitchen island, and yet, pull off the useful magic trick of offering plenty of seating!

From: Claire Paquin

White Eat-In Kitchen With Hardwood Floor

Joining the dining room and kitchen instead of keeping them separate spaces with a wall in between lets light flood into both areas. Also, the overall mood becomes more friendly and approachable with easy communion between chef and diners.

From: Claire Paquin

White Chef Kitchen With Red Accents

This kitchen is a wonderful example of how a white palette can be the ideal blank canvas on which to layer energizing pops of color and pattern. Here, the accents are brilliant red.

From: Claire Paquin

White Chef Kitchen With Colorful Books

At one end of the island, a small bookshelf houses cookbooks and recipe boxes, their cheerful colors adding to the room's other bright accents.

From: Claire Paquin

White Dining Room With Hydrangea

Part of the kitchen's renovation was this light-infused dining area. The room itself is fairly spare, which calls attention to lovely details like the stained glass above the French doors.

From: Claire Paquin

White Kitchen Bar With Tulips

The simple move of glass-front upper cabinets instantly infuses this kitchen bar area with an airy lightness.

From: Claire Paquin

Powder Room, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Contemporary Powder Room With Chevron Floor

Marble tiles in a chevron stripe give a snap of pattern to this powder room's quiet palette. The sink is small and streamlined as can be, so as not to overwhelm the wee space.

From: Claire Paquin

Master Bedroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Master Bedroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Gray Blue Transitional Master Bedroom With Ghost Chair

Shake off any worldly worries when entering this blissful bedroom. Cool shades of gray and blue are peaceful and so soothing. Underfoot, a velvety rug invites bare toes.

From: Claire Paquin

Neutral Contemporary Master Bedroom With Blue Shades

Instead of bright colors, the designers treated the master bedroom to beautiful patterns: blue and gold starbursts on the window shades, a big, graphic print for the bed's accent pillow.

From: Claire Paquin

Master Bathroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Master Bathroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Freestanding Mirrored Tub in Master Bathroom

The master bathroom's star attraction is this freestanding tub with a reflective outer surface.

From: Claire Paquin

Master Bathroom With Gray and White Door

Chrome fixtures pop against the master bathroom's marble backsplash. There's a huge walk-in shower and a soaking tub to pamper occupants in ultimate luxury.

From: Claire Paquin

White Master Bathroom With Marble Backsplash

The lower half of the master bathroom was done in marble, white shot through with gray. The move gives the clean space a dreamy, cloudlike feel.

From: Claire Paquin

Marble Walk-In Shower With Hanging Towel

Glass and gray marble are a luxury combo for any shower. This one mixes up the formula with tiny mosaic tiles for the floor.

From: Claire Paquin

Kids' Bathroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Kids' Bathroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

Gray Kids' Bathroom With Baby Photos

The kids' bathroom is anything but childish, sweet black-and-white baby photos going handsomely with the clean lines and pops of black in the mosaic tile floor.

From: Claire Paquin

Small Bathroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

White Walk-In Shower With Small Mosaic Tiles

Extra-small mosaic tiles in varying shades of gray—in the toiletry niche and again on the floor— break up the all-white walls of this walk-in shower.

From: Claire Paquin

Gray Single-Vanity Bathroom With Purple Towel

Simple does not have to mean boring as this single-vanity bathroom demonstrates. Subtle purple accents give a hint of color to the white-and-gray palette. Small mosaic floor tiles bounce the natural light all around the room.

From: Claire Paquin

Mudroom, Before

From: Claire Paquin

White Mudroom With Colorful Baskets

A highly practical space—the mudroom—also becomes highly fun with a rainbow assortment of colors, courtesy of bright storage baskets and common items like jackets and shoes.

From: Claire Paquin

White Mudroom With Rainbow Baskets

In the mudroom, a rainbow of baskets makes a colorful and handy spot to stash everyday clutter: keys, phones, wallets. Underneath are wall hooks, benches and shoe cubbies, all of which allow bright sneakers and jackets to become a cheery part of the decor.

From: Claire Paquin

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