* Remodelaholic *: Living Room Makeover From Better To Best

Living Room Makeover From Better To Best

Immediately I connected with this house because of the open floor plan and good placement of the formal and informal areas, large bedrooms and beautiful neighborhood. This home had loads of character but needed much love and with at least 2700 square feet of shiny white ceramic tile (the house has a total of 4000 sq feet) that had to be removed, it is obvious why few were up to the task. We lived in this house with white tile, bad fixtures and ten, yes ten, tacky metal floor to ceiling pillars in our living room for six years before we hit the ground running with a six month remodel that made this house our home.

I have been trying to post a group of before and after photos of our home each week featuring a different room or area. This week i feel that I need explain my way through the living room because at first glance it can be difficult to spot the changes that I found absolutely necessary. Of course we took out the white tile surround below the mantle, took away the white ceiling fan, removed the carpet and removed the mirror above the mantle (that was set into the wood), I got rid of the dark red paint and of course updated the furniture.

Before

We painted the walls and ceiling a warm gray and added black honed granite to the fireplace surround. The entire house, except for the bathrooms and laundry and mud room have these fabulous 5" solid hickory plank flooring accented with area rugs.

After

Before

Now this was a hard call but in hind sight, definitely an improvement! There used to be these quaint arches(held up by tacky pillars) that divided a sitting area from the main living area. We busted them out but of course had to rip out most of the ceiling to install an 18' support beam to support the weight of the roof. A big shout out to my framer and especially my trim guy who held my hand thru this highly stressful process.

After

Got rid of drab decor and replaced with fun art, and lighter furniture and accessories.

Before After

Here we have a lesson in scale...

Before (This dining room is much too large and empty feeling)

See the tacky tile and pillars? We eliminated the useless and dangerous step up, ugly pillars and dated chandelier and replaced with all one level wood floors, two large square colomns and paneling that were much more to scale of the large room and of course a large crystal chandelier which much better fills the space.

After

I set out to create a clean and modern living space practical for a family of five with a touch of sophistication. I could not be happier with the results and still happier with the potential of continued progress to come.

Before

After

Have I mentioned that we, all five of us, Never left the house? Yep, we lived in it all through construction to save money. Again, totally worth it!

Check out these other living rooms:

Brighten Up Your Living Room With Aria Ivory Paint

Super Remodel; Living Room

Designing A Living Room With Tall Walls

This project was contributed by one of our fabulous readers! We love to share your projects with this great blogging community. So, if you have projects from kitchen renovation ideas to small bathroom remodels, overhauled and repurposed furniture, spray paint updates you name it please send it in! Thanks for reading Remodelaholic!