My living room makeover – part 1

Posted on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 by KiM

Last week I shared my dining room makeover here and here, and today I wanted to share my now dark and dramatic living room. I have featured little bits and pieces of it over the past year or so but I never had all the finishing touches done (like trim, and painting out the fireplace tile) until recently. It was finally time to snap some photos and do a little feature on the blog. This is now my favourite room in the house and I am really stoked at the result, even if it will never REALLY be finished because as I mentioned last week, I’m always on the hunt for that “perfect” item. Ok, so here is a before shot:

This photo was taken right after we moved in. Gross taupe walls, even grosser yellow/orange oak floors, mahogany varnished trim and terracotta coloured dirty fireplace tiles.

Everything has been replaced, re-painted or re-stained. The floors, like in the dining room, were stripped and re-stained with Minwax’s Classic Grey. The walls are Farrow & Ball’s Downpipe with Plummett on the ceiling. These 2 colours are incredible and in my top 5 colours of all time. Especially Downpipe – it can look green, yellow, blue, black depending on the amount of light coming in the room.

Sources: The unit next to my desk is vintage Marc Held for Prisunic, manufactured by Flair. Vintage Panton S chair by Vitra. Ikea Alex desk. Artemide Tizio lamp from GR Shop. Vintage Jieldé wall mount light via eBay. Tall plastic plant stand from Plust Collection by Euro3plast from Alteriors. Console table legs by Pretty Pegs. Table top by Daff Design. Featuring former ferals Bernie and Frankie.

This vase is from a local shop now closed, and used to be a really bad minty green. I spray painted it glossy grey. Funky little dried pineapple flowers from blumenstudio.

Vintage flower frog holding feathers (including an eagle feather from P.E.I.). Original butterfly drawing by Nicomi Nix Turner.  MAD et LEN candle from Cendre and Lvnea candle.

Notebook I think from Chapters, Hay Denmark pencil from The Modern Shop.

Bug ad from a magazine from Decadisme, my cat tattoo drawing by Pari Corbitt, embroidered bat by Caitlin T. McCormack.

Cheap pots from Rona/Home Depot/Lowe’s, small handmade pot by Wolf + Sadie (le lou ula)

I have 4 of these white plastic pots from Ikea from many years ago and a crazy big aloe.

Lounge chair from Green Light District. Pillow by Fotofibre. Original painting from a blog reader named Angela from Singapore. Vintage Jieldé purchased from a blog reader. Hanging pot with a fishbone cactus from a shop in Montreal whose name I can’t recall.

Reproduction tulip table from WISEMAN + CROMWELL. Ferm Living pot from The Modern Shop. Thrifted teal West German vase and Japanese (?) box. Vintage grey vase from a care package sent from Jo. Swirly pot handmade by Jeremy Ford.

Here is a photo of my fireplace taken right after we moved in. Boring. Ugly. Those tiles were so terrible.

When the I had tile work done in the foyer and kitchen I also had the tile guy replace the fireplace tile along the front and I painted the tile inside the fireplace with special heat-resistant spray paint. I even had painters tape on hand that was the size of the grout lines to make the tiles stand out a bit more.

I like this MUCH better 🙂

This tile was pretty costly considering I only needed less than 1 box but I really wanted to do a statement tile and these are really fun (and tile selection in this city sucks and it was pretty much the only thing I even remotely liked for this space). They’re a mix of mirrored and cement and other materials that I found at Euro Tile & Stone.

Stay tuned for the other half of the room.

Ruth says:

Wow, Kim. That project took so much guts and determination! It turned out so nice. Thx for sharing!

Margaret says:

Kim I loved the cat portrait in the before pic! Did it not look good in the room after?
I think it would be very dramatic against the dark walls….and that's not to say it doesn't
Look great because it does…

KiM says:

Thanks Ruth and Margaret
Husband and I decided staring at a painting of our deceased cat while chilling in the living room would not be ideal. As much as I think it would look great against the grey walls. It is now part of a gallery wall in our bedroom.

margaret says:

Ah… totally get that..

Anna L says:

Beautiful. I liked your old writing desk, perhaps because I am looking for a small fold out desk myself. The plant stand to the right of the new desk caught my eye and, as someone who struggles to keep houseplants alive, I admire all the plants.

KiM says:

I loved the detail of that desk but it was SOOOOO small and low. Drove me bonkers considering how much time I spend sitting at it.
And I too struggle to keep my plants alive. They may last a few months but they all end up dying in the end. 🙁

Anna L says:

Wow! Just noticed the floor…

ombia says:

Great transition!

c. says:

absolutely beautiful job. Your walls are especially gorgeous and that round rug was the perfect choice. Thank you for sharing your personal space.
C.

Laurent says:

I love what you did with the space, especially the whole desk area with all the frames and art above it! =)

The hanging pot was actually from Galerie CO on St-Laurent street, I live in Montreal, but the shop closed down last winter!

I love reading your updates on your home =)

Leave a Reply to Ruth Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.
Required fields are indicated by *