Budget Friendly Living Room Transformation: Before & After

I’ve got a treat for you today, a fun and inspiring before and after project. It’s not in my house, but my next door neighbor’s, Yvonne. A couple months ago, Yvonne asked me if I would be interested in doing a makeover project with her on her living room. It sounded fun, so I said yes and she hired me to help her through the process of making over her living room. Yvonne has great taste and a beautiful home and I wasn’t sure that she really needed my help, but she asked so I said yes. I haven’t done a consultation project like this in a long time, but I took this one on and it turned out so nice. I didn’t think her living room was bad at all, but she said that when they moved in their house over 10 years ago, that she bought the sofa and oversized chair as a place holder, but it wasn’t meant to stay long term. Yvonne is 10 years older than me and she mentioned that she wasn’t interested in high-end furnishings that would need to last for years and years, she just wanted to replace with furniture that looked good, sat good, but was reasonable in price. So that’s where we started. I love a good makeover, don’t you?!

Here’s her living room BEFORE. I took pics so that I could remember what all was there. Yvonne has a great eye for nice things and she has collected a lot of pretty accessories and furniture pieces in her home, so she was also planning to shop her own home to fill in as needed. What we were concentrating on looking for new was: New sofa, 2 new chairs to take the place of the oversized chair, new rug and possibly lamps, and new pillows. She ended up shopping her house for the lamps that ended up in here and they look great with what we bought.

She initially thought about replacing her Queen Anne end tables, but they are so well made and solid wood that she changed her mind and kept them and they look great in here. The scale and size of them are perfect. I did mention that her rug was way too small for her space and she agreed, so we were looking for an 8×10 rug to replace this one. She has that great looking classic coffee table and I told her I hoped she was keeping that and she definitely was. It’s such a classic piece! You can see a closeup of it below in the after shots.

Yvonne just had total hip replacement on one hip like I did (she went to the same ortho surgeon that I did as well) and she really wanted to get this project done before her surgery if possible, but we only had about a month and we weren’t sure how it would go, but I’m happy that it all went so smooth and it did indeed all get completed before her surgery. She did very well after surgery and is recovering very nicely at home.

She really likes neutrals with a little color added, wasn’t married to the burgundy or pillows that were in the room, but she did have some pretty yellow and gray pillows that she already had and we took those along as inspiration in case we wanted to go that direction, but we were open to other possibilities too.

She also had 2 occasional Chippendale style chairs with upholstered seats that she wanted to recover in new fabric, plus another chair in her adjoining office space that she wanted to recover, so we went fabric shopping too to complete this project. I love that bamboo barcart and she was able to use it in her office space.

So, we planned a shopping day and we went to several furniture stores on Barrett Pkwy. If you’re from this area, you’ll know the ones: Haverty’s, Ashley, and Bassett. We found a few things in Haverty’s, but they were really overpriced for what they were, so we moved on and headed to Woodstock Furniture Outlet. It’s really gotten hard to furniture shop in person these days, but don’t we all want to see and sit on furniture before we buy it?! So many of our furniture stores have gone out of business, so it’s more challenging than ever. We also went to Homegoods while we were in that area and looked at rugs and found one that first day out. On our second shopping day, we found 2 yellow floral pillows at Homegoods that really looked great with the yellow and gray pillow covers she already had, so that was the direction we went. We also found 2 larger solid yellow pillows that blended well with the scheme. We were looking for a rug that would flow and they had a great selection of 8×10 rugs that day and she found a gray toned neutral wool rug that caught her eye also for a good price. The rug set the tone for where we would go with furniture fabrics and undertones. The rug had a nice mix of cool and warm tones which was nice too.

Woodstock Furniture is one of the biggest retailers around that carry many different brands and price points, so I thought they would be a good choice for furniture and they were. We found just what we were looking for in sofa and two swivel chairs and for a great price!

And now here’s the AFTER of the room:

The sofa and 2 swivel chairs from Woodstock Furniture outlet were all in stock and were delivered the following week. She got a rug pad and got the new 8×10 rug down and got all the furniture in place and it looks fantastic, doesn’t it?!

She shopped her house and brought in that narrow bamboo table for between the chairs. I’m a little jealous of all her bamboo pieces, you know how much I love it too! The swivel chairs are sort of a boucle fabric, very soft and cozy and they feel so good to sit in and they have a mix of cream, gray and beige tones. I mentioned putting a plant on this little table and she has plenty of nice plants, so this one looks great. Notice she switched out the lamps on either side of the sofa, by shopping her house. She just moved them around and these look great in here.

Everything looks so good with this Ralph Lauren wool rug in a checked pattern. It’s just gorgeous with the chairs and sofa. You can see one of the yellow pillow covers she already had, which we decided to go with and it set the color tone for what we were searching for in fabrics.

Those pillows went in the chairs and the newer pillows on the sofa. You can see the fabric we ended up getting at Fabric and Fringe Warehouse. I took the one chair without the nailheads to my house and unscrewed the seat and stapled on the new fabric for her. That was an easy job. She had the other 2 chairs recovered by a local upholstery guy and he was able to get them back to her in just a few days.

She has some gorgeous furniture pieces in her home and now this room is complete.

The sofa is made by Ashley Furniture and is a light beige tone and the chairs I’m not sure of the brand, but they sure do work together well. I’ll share all the costs below too, so you can see what a budget makeover this was. But it certainly doesn’t look budget at all! She’s got some pretty landscape oil paintings on that left wall that have blues and greens and those colors are picked up in the new fabric too.

She added yellow roses for the photo shoot and it all looks so good! Here is her wood bamboo look coffee table that she’s had for a long time. It is beautiful and classic and I’ve always admired this style.

With pretty and simple accessories, that is all that is needed. The rug sure shines too!

Here’s a closer look at the fabric we found at the fabric store. It has that pop of yellow with blues, greens and a little purple. You can see the new pillows found at Homegoods here too.

The sofa is a classic style and the fabric is cozy and soft. It’s not as deep as the old sofa which is what she was looking for. She had the pillow in the middle already and the other 4 are the Homegoods finds. They all look great together. Those yellow and white ones from Homegoods are embroidered and very pretty with the tassels.

Looking back to the front door and office area that adjoins. I forgot to take before pics of that area, but it had the same burgundy rug in there, so we found a new rug that flows so well with the new look in here.

That’s a look at the whole room and I wanted to take plenty of pics so you could see all the details. The new fabric on the Chippendale chairs really adds a nice pop of color.

She also picked up this pair of buffet lamps at Homegoods while we were shopping and I love the capiz shell shades and marble bases.

Here’s her office space with the new rug. This rug was rolled up at Homegoods and is a 5×7′ size. It had all the shades we are using with a little bit of yellow in there as well, so it flows great with the new look. That desk lamp is from Amazon.

This pretty gold fabric we found at Fabric and Fringe Warehouse too and she had this chair recovered. Looks great!

That yellow/gold shade is picked up in the rug as well. You can see she moved the pretty bamboo bar cart in this room.

So that’s a look at this before and after project with my neighbor, Yvonne. I really enjoyed doing this with her and I might consider doing more. I used to do consultations years ago when I first started my blog and some when I moved back here in 2011 from AL. I have more time now since my blog isn’t taking up a lot of time anymore, so I would be open to doing more of these in the future if I have any local clients who are interested. This one went so smooth that I can hardly believe it took less than 5 weeks to accomplish all of this.

Yvonne shared the breakdown of costs with me, so I’m sharing with you. We all love to see how much projects cost, don’t we? We spent about 8 hours total shopping (I gave her a good deal on hiring my help). The first shopping day was the longest, going to several furniture stores and Homegoods, but we knocked out the sofa, chairs, and rug that first shopping day. The second shopping day we went back to Homegoods, bought the pillows and rug for her desk and then went to the fabric store to look at fabric. I’m so happy with how fast it all went and we found everything we were looking for without having to drive all over the county. Yvonne is thrilled with her new living room and I’m happy that she is happy with it all. I’m very pleased with how it came out too.

Here’s the cost breakdown:

$1,459.87 – Sofa ($459) and 2 swivel chairs ($374 each)  + $170 delivery fee/tax

$720.73 – Homegoods (8×10 rug, 5×7 rug, 2 buffet lamps, 4 decorative pillows)

$225.00 – John Butler upholstery (2 chairs)

$121.86 – Amazon (desk lamp, 2 rug pads)

$88.84 – Fabric from Fabric & Fringe Warehouse

Grand Total: $2,616.30

Really great price for a budget friendly living room makeover, don’t you think?! I hope you enjoyed this makeover today. I don’t have a lot of makeovers in our house anymore, since I’m pretty much done for now, so this was fun to share.

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