The Pinke Post

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$12 Living room restyle

Filed Under: Family Values, Life in North Dakota Tagged With: , , 25 Comments

I am not a decorator. But my sister is and thankfully she worked magic on our living room with all things that I had on hand in my house, along with one rummage sale purchase. 
Total budget? $12 for a chair. 
Enjoy this guest post I am reposting today and learn how to restyle a room with furniture placement, accessories and make your room conversational and welcoming.

Hi! I’m Katie’s favorite–and only–sister, Kirsti.
My sister is one busy lady. She works hard and lives life abundantly. I am amazed at all she packs into her days. So, when I have an opportunity to help, I’m usually quick to respond.
Take last weekend, for example, while I was visiting. The girls were both down for their afternoon nap. Katie and I had some time for ourselves. My sister asked if I’d restyle her living room. “It needs help. We don’t really like the layout and it’s missing personality,” she said.
Now, I should tell you, I love interior design. Though I’m pursuing a different career, I’ve always enjoyed helping friends and family with space planning, color choices and furniture. Rearranging and styling my sister’s beautiful home? A dream come true.
After all, my busy big sister needed me. (How cute is this photo of Katie with sweet Miss E?!?)
Katie’s main floor is nice and open. The kitchen flows into the dining room, which flows into the living room. A gorgeous stone fireplace sits on the far wall, anchoring the space. The other two living room walls had the entertainment center opposite expansive windows. Because it’s so open, we needed a way to define the space. We started with the couch, floating it in the room, centered across from the fireplace. This gave the living room a clear boundary.
We moved the oh-so-comfortable and cute chairs to the window wall, opposite the entertainment center.
The sofa needed a table–something to ground it and feel less like it was floating in the middle of the room. Katie and I went on an exploration around the house and found her childhood dresser in the guest room. An original antique from our Grandpa Howard. Perfect!
An important thing to consider with placing the couch was the flow of traffic. The front entry is in the background on the left. The doorway in the foreground on the right goes downstairs. This is a high traffic zone that needs plenty of space.
But, as you can see in this view from the entry, we were able to allow for enough walking space by lining up the back of the couch just beyond the last living room window. It fit perfectly and felt right.
We, especially Katie, were loving the new arrangement. I wanted another chair to put in the corner between the fireplace and entertainment center. Inspiration struck. We went thrifting that morning and I found a vintage wooden rocker at a garage sale for $12. In a word, awesome. I bought it, not knowing exactly where it’d go in my house. We quickly realized it was perfect for the empty corner and totally fit with “Modern Farm House” style I tell her she has going on.
The layout finally felt balanced and complete. Now, the fun part: accessories!
The vessels of branches give height to the sofa table, helping to further ground the couch.
  Katie wanted the shelves flanking the T.V. to look stylized but not cluttered. 
“Kirsti, I don’t like as much stuff as you do,” she warned.
The little trick was to turn most of the books backward on the shelves, so the white pages were visible instead of the varying colored spines. This gives a more uniform look, making it feel less cluttered.
Some baskets to hold books and magazines,
candleholders, vases,
 brown and copper accents,
pillows, blankets,

and more items completed the Modern Farm House space.
 
It is finished. Amen.
p.s. My handsome hubby and I share our decorating decisions over on our blog. Stop by sometime–we love (virtual and real-life) visitors!
What’s your favorite way to restyle or update your home? Linking up today with Kelly’s Korner for Show Us Your Life Living Rooms.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Colleen Cecil says

    Ok Katie – The next time you come to California you can bring Kristi and drop her off at my house. My living room could use some love.

    Beautiful work. The space is gorgeous. And love the $12 chair. Grage sales are nt as reasonable in Chico. I might be inspired now to do some rearranging during my three day weekend now. Wish me luck!

    Reply

  5. Karla says

    Kirsti please come to my house. I need your help!
    I love the big reveal of the Pinke living room!! I need to come and see it in person!

    Karla

    Reply

  6. My two acres says

    I don’t know what you do for a living, Kirsti, but you definitely could give the designers on HGTV a run for their money!! Beautiful! (And it doesn’t hurt that your sister had such wonderful pieces in the first place!)

    Reply

  8. Lana says

    I wish I had a style! WE aere SLOWLY working on updating the house. That is usually the last thing on a farmer’s mind, and it’s probably the first thing on a farm wife’s mind. Leads to some “lively” discussions!

    You did a beautiful job. Love the clean lines and open spaces.

    Reply

  14. Abramyan Avenue says

    I absolutely love what you did. We have a funky layout here. I am so lost now knowing what to do. I love my fireplace but right now my couch back it to the fireplace so that we can watch TV on the ginormous wall the TV is in front of. This leaves a half as big huge empty wall to the right of the sofa…it’s bad!
    I’m going to keep perusing this past Friday’s posts to see if I can come up with some ideas!
    Thanks for sharing the amazing job you did! IT’s beautiful!!
    -april

    Reply

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