This particular family has been successfully educating their 5 children in their home for many years, but their surroundings had been less than inspiring.  This is the front room of their home as it was before The Decorologist stepped in:

 Before – Homeschool Room

It was lined with bookcases full of books and curricula, a few tables and chairs (most of which were too small for their growing children), and various toys and other items.

 Before – Homeschool Room

Such a big room with untapped potential.  It seemed that there might be a more effective way to use this space to better-suit this family’s needs.

 Before – Homeschool Room

This smaller room adjacent the homeschool room was their dining room – it was also where the older kids did their schoolwork.

 Before – Dining Room and Workspace

An important part of a decorator’s mission is to marry function with beauty.  Is that possible in these two rooms where so many needs must be met?  I certainly believe it is.  Before I reveal the transformation of these rooms, I must explain that a lot of discussion and planning went into making these rooms not only more visually-pleasing, but also more functional for this busy family.  This wasn’t just about creating pretty spaces – it was about creating pretty spaces that WORKED. Now, here again is the larger of the two rooms in its ”before” state:

Before – Homeschool Room

Ready for the “after”?  Now the larger of the two rooms is a roomy and inviting dining room with a table that easily seats 10.  The pair of overhead lantern lights adds warmth and character to this transformed space.

After – Warm and Welcoming Dining Room

The paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Boca Raton Blue – a perfect foil for the dark wood tones.

 New Dining Room/Workspace

We purchased the beautiful dark wood furniture from my friends over at Merridian Home Furnishings on 8th Avenue in Nashville.  This trestle table is gorgeous but doesn’t have to be handled with kid gloves.  The older children do most of their schoolwork here and have plenty of room to spread out.

Trestle or pedestal tables accomodate more chairs than tables with four legs at the corners.

This is a room the whole family truly uses now – both for homeschooling and for dining together as a family.  It also is a great place to entertain and display their beautiful family china, which was previously stored away behind cabinets.

Family China on Display

Here again is the adjoining former dining room/homeschool workspace before:

Dining Room Before

The wallpaper and border went bye-bye, and white beadboard wainscotting was installed below the chair rail.  We decided on a rich expresso color – Benjamin Moore’s Clinton Brown, as a backdrop to all the white bookcases that hold schoolbooks and supplies.

 After:  HomeSchool Room

All the furniture was existing – this smaller table and chairs were moved in from the kitchen.  Pairing down and relocating all the school supplies into this lesser-seen room made a lot more sense than continuing to squeeze this family of 7 into a dinner table for 6!  

New HomeSchool Room

The younger kids now do their school work in this happy, cozy area.  I love this candy bowl on their work table!

“The Best is Not Too Good for You”

There’s no reason why functional, multi-use spaces can’t be lovely and inspiring.  The children in this home even help keep these new rooms organized and clean, because they enjoy working in beautiful, peaceful spaces as much as their parents enjoy having such a lovely home to live in! 

Ok, let’s get started!  This is the view of the living room from the entry of the house when I first arrived.  To be fair, my client had pulled a couple of extra pieces of furniture into the room for me to consider, like that wood dresser in the front.  Anyway, she was looking to freshen up the paint colors (currently sage green in the living room and light yellow in the dining room.  She also really wanted to add an electric fireplace, but feared that it might look too fakey in the room.

 living room before

I typically start my designs out with a good plan for furniture placement that invites conversation and highlights architecture.  The plan was to install the fireplace directly across from and centered on the bank of windows.  The new conversation area would cluster around the fireplace, leaving an easy path to walk through to the dining room (and on to the kitchen beyond).  

After Design Intervention by The Decorologist

We traded the sage green walls for a more vibrant greeny-blue.  This color really makes the dark wood look richer.

antique desk

The dining room walls went from a butter yellow to a light blue from Benjamin Moore’s Historic Collection, while the ceiling of the dining room was painted the same darker color as the living room to create flow.   I didn’t like the paint treatment below the chair rail – I suggested it be painted all out in trim color to create the look of real painted wood wainscotting.  Here’s the before of the small dining room:

dining room before

Doesn’t the wainscotting look so much better?  There’s still some work to do on the back wall of this room, but I wanted to go ahead and show you the difference the paint made.   I definitely think some vertical plate groupings would be great in here, bringing in a darker blue and the coral color.

Dining Room After – Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue

Here’s a before shot of the side of the room where the fireplace ultimately went in.  Notice the fabric on the wingback – this was reupholstered to update it and tie into our new color scheme.

before

I hung about 20 pieces of art on these plaster walls in a couple of hours right before I took this photograph.  Doesn’t it look as though the fireplace has always been a part of the room?  Love the way this turned out!

Cozy Living Room After

Another “before” from the opposite angle:

Before

The “after” is a warm, inviting room to curl up in front of a fire and read a great book (historical fiction, anyone?).

Living Room by The Decorologist

Did you notice the new linen-look upholstery on the sofa?  Here’s a secret – it’s actually painter’s dropcloth!  An inexpensive, yet elegant way to recover tired furnishings.

Dropcloth Sofa Upholstery and Eclectic Art Grouping

Here is where the sofa with it’s dated upholstery was formerly positioned:

Before

Now, a cute pair of yellow bamboo chairs flank a small dresser in front of the beautiful windows. 

Fresh, New Space

There are so many interesting things to see in this room – my client wanted to make sure she could still be “surrounded by my pretties.”  I think that we achieved that goal!

Art Grouping

Last but not least, let me show you the fabulous wallpaper we found for her entry.  It’s grasscloth with a light blue trellis pattern.

Blue Trellis Wallpaper

A rectangular mirror with a fat gold frame will be hung directly above the entry table.  The table is actually a family heirloom – a baby crib flipped over and topped with glass!  I have to give all the credit for that stroke of genius to my client – what a fabulous idea that turned out to be.

Upcycled Antique Entry Table

This was the view of the entry before.  The walls were peach, as you can see.  You can also see where I taped off the area to install the fireplace with painter’s tape on the first day I was there!

Entry Before

Now, this is what you see when you enter the front door.  What a difference!

Entry After

This client and her lovely daughter were so amazing to work with – they were completely open to every recommendation I made for their space, and it really paid off in the end. 

If you’d like the gift of a room makeover for Christmas,  now is the time to purchase a Decorologist Gift Certificate.  My rates will be increasing at the first of the year, but gift certificates are available through December at my current rates. 

 source

 1. Start by paring down so the focus can be on the things you really love.   Then group these things in a cohesive, interesting way.

2.  Let in some light.  Antique interiors are often characterized by heavy, frilly window treatments.  Getting rid of those and replacing with simple but minimal window treatments lets the sun shine in on the rich woods and fabrics.

3.  Choose a new background color.  You can usually tell what decade in which a room was decorated by the undertone of the wall color.   Choosing a new, updated color that coordinates with your antiques is a great way to freshen things up.

You will see in the following before and after photos how I applied these 3 secrets.  Here is the “before” of my client’s home office:

 Office Before

A lot of clutter + pinky-mauve walls + window treatments that completely block out light (never mind the bookcase in front of the window) = an underutilized room.  What I love about this before and after is that the only things that had to be bought were some simple window panels and a gallon of paint.  Get ready for the “after.”

Antique Office by The Decorologist

 So now that you know my secrets, see what you can do to fall in love with your antiques again!

 Decorating Dilemma:  The Corner Fireplace

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a perfectly lovely piece of architecture, but it can be difficult to figure out how to arrange furniture in  a room like this:

Living Room Before

You may not believe how simple the answer is to this dilemma.  You just need to align the seating area with the fireplace, like this:

Living Room After

The fireplace – no matter where it is – is the architectural focal point of any room it is in.  So you have to address it, pay attention to it, orient towards it – or else the room ALWAYS looks “off.”

Living Room Before

Doesn’t this arrangement just feel better?  I placed the shorter sofa directly across from the fireplace, and the longer sofa at a 90 degree angle to it. 

 Living Room After

The first thing I always address in my clients’  homes is the furniture arrangement.  And this set-up doesn’t feel very inviting or cozy, does it?

 Living Room After

Proper reorientation of the furniture is followed by proper art and accessory placement, which makes the space feel peaceful and welcoming.

Living Room After

If you need help addressing the unique architecture of your home, schedule your appointment with The Decorologist today.  Admitting you need help is the first step to a beautiful home!

Living A Colorful Life

Upon entering the home, a living room/dining room combination runs to the right of a long open hallway.   Here was the dilemma:  the front “living” room had little purpose, except as a holding place for furniture that didn’t fit anywhere else.   Because my clients love bold color, they had painted these front rooms dark orange.  Problem was, the black furniture gave it a Halloween-all-year-round kind of feeling.  And obviously, the pink and white dollhouse seemed a bit out of place.  The only two chairs in the room didn’t exactly call you to sit down and sit a spell.

 ”Living” Room Before

Did I mention this was the first room you saw when you entered the house?  The most use it saw was when it was used for practicing dance routines, but that’s another story altogether . . .

 Living Room/Dance Hall Before

Anywho, here was the task for The Decorologist:  make this space a fun and inviting space for family and visitors to use for more than just dancing (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Living Room After

Obviously, a new paint scheme was introduced, furniture was furiously rearranged and repurposed, and a few new accessories were added to the colorful mix.  The punchy yellow is Benjamin Moore’s Citrus Burst 364.  It’s still fun and quirky like the homeowners, but now it’s functional and inviting as well.

Living Room After

 This is a view from the other side of the room, before the makeover.  You may remember this before-and-after of the former dining space . . .

 Dining Room Before

that was repurposed into an office area . . .

 Office Space After

So now you can see how these spaces came together.

 After The Decorologist

Even the entrance/hallway got a little sprucing up.  It felt a little too country before:

Entrance Before

but now it’s a fresher, more contemporary space filled with the homeowner’s personal art and treasures.

Entry After

Did you notice how the bannister is now painted black and the country-style ladderback chairs are now a bold yellow?  Both color moves served to make dated elements more modern.

Hallway/Entry After

I’m not saying that this design/color scheme is right for most people.  But it was right for these homeowners, and my goal was to make their home feel like their own – full of their personality, but pulled together in a way that anyone can admire and appreciate.    If you are looking for a Nashville decorator who can help you realize your dreams for your own home, contact The Decorologist to schedule an appointment.

Kristie Barnett

You might recognize the living room from an old post of mine called “One Day Makover.”  That one day makeover was the beginning of my relationship with this client who has been working toward making this new home her own.  This is the before of the living room:

Kristie Barnett

That first day, I rearranged my client’s furniture and helped her re-think how she was going to use her public spaces.  You’ll see more about that in a bit.  Remember this family photo wall I created?  Since then, my seamstress made custom pillows to fit her style exactly.

Kristie Barnett

Here’s another before of the entire living room:

Kristie Barnett

After creating a new furniture arrangement throughout the house (no new furniture was bought), we started interjecting the turquoise color in carefully selected spots.

Kristie Barnett

Here’s a view of the right side of the room before:

Kristie Barnett

We traded out the piano for an airy console table and a pair of lamps from the bedroom.  I stacked a couple of mirrors to reflect light and add a little glamour.  My client painted this wooden dresser stored in the garage according to my instructions. 

Kristie Barnett

I chose a fun Benjamin Moore turquoise called Spirit in the Sky.  One of my all-time favorite songs, by the way!  Here’s another piece we decided to paint turquoise:

Kristie Barnett

This fun dresser makes a great spot for keys and such in the entry of my client’s beautiful home.  We found the gorgeous lamp in downtown Franklin, TN.

Kristie Barnett

Here’s a before as you enter the home – the door is to the right.

Kristie Barnett

Now the entry is warm and welcoming.   It’s really important to my client to only use accessories and art that have specific meaning to her family – we used lots of family photographs and things passed down from her family of origin.

Kristie Barnett

Now, if you follow my blog you already know I like to shake up a floorplan if it isn’t working for the family I am decorating for.  This was formerly a living room, but it was adjacent to another living room (which seems redundant, no?).  The previous owners of this house set their home up in a similar way, which influenced my client in how she set up hers when her family moved in.  See how the dining room is at the back of the space in front of the french doors.

Kristie Barnett

We moved the dining room into this space, which is directly next to the kitchen.  And we exchanged the crystal light fixture with this large burlap pendant from Pottery Barn to better-fit my client’s style.

Kristie Barnett

While this area was formerly for dining:

Kristie Barnett

Now it’s a sitting area where my client can read a magazine as she watches her children playing in the backyard.  The bookcase (formerly dark green) was also painted in our Spirit in the Sky.   I really love the pillows – I came up with the design and my seamstress from Ruffled Linens brought them to life.

Kristie Barnett

My goal is always to take the things that are important to my client and make it all come together in a beautiful and cohesive way.   I hope that’s what I’ve done here.

Kristie Barnett

If you need help making your decor dreams come true, contact kristie@thedecorologist.com to schedule your appointment today!

Random House Floorplan

This is the dining room before I started switching everything around.  This room is carpeted, which doesn’t make it ideal for a dining room – especially when there’s a space open to the kitchen that is hardwood (it was being used as a living room).   The homeowners LOVE color, especially bold color.  They favor modern design, but with a retro twist.  They are artlovers, as well, and the husband is a gifted artist, so  it just seemed as though their home should have the feeling of an art gallery.  Art galleries typically have a neutral backdrop so that the art really stands out – so we decided to mute the background a bit and add bold punches of color.

Dining Room Before 

The homeowner had a desk tucked back in a corner of her bedroom where she used her computer.  As we talked, it became obvious that with two small children, it would make more sense to have her office area in a place where she could monitor family activity better as she worked.  So, we started moving around the furniture . . .  

New Office, Old Dining Room

After some creative arranging, this former dining room is now a perfectly lovely office space. Can you believe this is the same room?  Here it is from another angle:

The Decorologist

Ok, let’s look at the before of that room from further out.  This shot was taken during the day, and you can see how very bold the color was.  At this point, we had already moved the dining table out and started playing around with the office set-up.  The sheers on the windows were dated and almost country.  There is a large tree outside the beautiful windows here, so they really didn’t need the sheers for privacy.  We just took them down completely.

Office Before

A new paint scheme began developing and some of the walls went neutral.  I highlighted some of the more interesting architecture by selectively using a pumpkin color (Benjamin Moore’s Topaz 70) that worked well with their art, rather than the red-orange they had before.  You can see it in the left portion of the photo below.

The Decorologist

Aren’t these windows gorgeous?  The tree is a perfect privacy screen, so why not just let the light flow in and bring the outdoors in?

The Decorologist

No more working in isolated dark corners!  Now this busy mom has a beautiful place to work adjacent to the living space where she can keep an eye on the entire household. 

New Office by The Decorologist

Now, if you are wondering where the dining room went:  This is where the previous living room was.  The space is open to the kitchen and has hardwood floors.  You can see that the furniture is a bit off-balance from the natural focal point of the room, the fireplace, which made it feel a bit crowded.  Although the homeowners wanted a modern look and feel, they weren’t achieving that with Porter’s Tobacco Road, a favorite wall color of every major builder in Franklin, TN in the mid-1990′s.

 After replacing Tobacco Road with a more modern neutral, the fireplace was highlighted with Benjamin Moore’s Kiwi 544 with a rectangular block of color extending to the ceiling, which actually added an architectural element that didn’t previously exist. 

New Dining Room 

With the square Pottery Barn dining table now on an angle, this new dining room lines up perfectly with the fireplace and is the favorite place for family meals, homework, and craft projects.

Cutey-Pie Homeowner

The homeowners are enjoying entertaining friends and family even more than ever since they threw caution, and their floorplan, to the wind.  If you’d like to see more of this space, click here and “like” The Decorologist on FaceBook so you can check out additional photos from this makeover.  Stay tuned to find out where their living room went . . .

If you need a Greater Nashville interior decorator and color expert, contact The Decorologist to schedule an appointment! 

Beautiful Brick Home for Sale by Realtor Jim Allen with ReMax in Brentwood, TN

This is how the entry looked prior to staging with The Decorologist:

Entry Before Staging

In the after, the buffet from the dining room was moved into this space and topped with an antique mirror from upstairs.  The mirror makes the entry look sooo much larger!

Entry by The Decorologist

Here is the great room before staging.

Great Room Before

I focused on pairing down the distracting accessories and creating a welcoming conversation area clustered around the room’s focal point – the fireplace.  Now there’s an open walkway to the kitchen, without walking right through the conversation area.

Great Room After Staging

Here’s another before of the living room:

Before

And the after from the same angle:

After Staging

From the other direction:

Before

And then, of course, “tah-dah!”  NOW you notice the amazing fireplace and architecture, don’t you?

Living Room After Staging

Here’s an arial shot of the space before staging:

Before Living Room

Even a cavernous room like this can be made to feel cozy and welcoming with the proper furniture arrangement.

After Staging

This is the dining room before staging:

Before

For the after, we removed several plants and the buffet.  We also updated the artwork a bit and “loosened up” the formal dining area by pulling the chair out as if a casual dinner party was about to begin.

Dining Room After Staging

Another angle of the dining room before:

Before

People can be easily intimidated by formal, fussy dining rooms.   Here I just simplified the window treatments and added a pretty table setting to make the space more welcoming.

Staged Dining Room

Shall we check out a couple of bedrooms?  This was the master bedroom before staging:

Master Bedroom Before

Everything matched in the bedroom, but I wanted to give it a slightly more contemporary look.  No major changes here, but the ones we made definitely took things up a notch.  Everyone wants their bedroom to feel like a luxury hotel suite, so posh bedding and more significant lamps were required.

Master Bedroom After

You know I love a good pillowscape, and a few special details!

Staged Bedroom

Now here’s the guest room before staging:

Guest Room Before

A few little changes make a big impact:

Guest Bedroom After Staging

Couldn’t you spend the night here?

Staged Bed

No new furnishings were needed for this staging;  in fact, this is a great example of how less is more.  Maybe this makeover will inspire you to make some small changes that make a big impact in your home!  Of course, you can always contact a Greater Nashville home stager like The Decorologist to do the work for you.   (If you want to view more of this house, check out The Decorologist FaceBook page this weekend.)

We talked about what kind of look and feeling she wanted for this room.  She has young children and spends lots of time at home.  She wanted a place that was comfortable and welcoming, but not a free-for-all kidzone.  And for the time being, she only had what she had to work with – so no shopping elsewhere!   We “shopped” from around the rest of the house and found some pieces that worked together in a more interesting way, adding personal photos and decor to warm up the space.  I decided to use a sofa she currently had in a different room, so that the living room could be a sophisticated retreat for the grown-ups.  Here’s the after:

When installing an art or photography grouping, here’s how I determine the placement of the pieces:

And, of course, I determine where the grouping will be placed.  In this case, I wanted to cluster these family pictures above the sofa in the living room.

And here’s how it looked once I installed the grouping:

Here’s a before shot of the other side of the room.  The wall between the windows was really too small for the piano that was placed there.

Using a slender table and a pair of lamps in place of the oversized piano adds balance and warmth to this side of the room.  And the stacked mirrors reflect the light from the lamps.  This shot is a bit dark, but here’s the more sophisticated after shot:

What a difference a day (and a different perspective) can make!  If you want to make your house feel more like a home without breaking the budget, schedule a One Day Make-over with The Decorologist.

This room had to include the bed, dresser, and a baby crib/toddler bed.   There’s a balcony off this room, and the green plastic chairs had been brought inside for some reason.  We obviously needed to pull those out, as well as that black chair with the UT emblem. 

The first thing I had to do was to reorient the bed so that it would be the focal point of the room.  Feng Shui says that you should never face the foot of your bed towards to door, something about that being the “coffin” position.  Hmm.  That’s why I DON’T do Feng Shui.  I believe the best position for a bed is exactly that – facing the door!  I switched the dresser to where the bed was before, a much better position visually for a tall piece.  The placement of lamps is also important in warming up a room and making it feel inviting.  Go back to the first picture and notice the difference in regards to the lighting alone – lamplight changes the whole mood of the room. 

The trickiest thing about this room was finding a place for the crib/toddler bed.  If I had placed it on the left wall, it would have been very cramped walking between it and the bed.  I decided the foot of the bed was the best place for it, especially by styling it out like a daybed/bench.  Another thing I did to change the mood of this room was flip the duvet over to the striped side and fold it down at the end of the bed.  That black floral pattern was a little overwhelming on the whole bed, but just right for an accent pillow.  A few accessories and wall art from the attic round out the new look.  I think my client’s daughters will be happy to spend the night in this lovely room, and they won’t even have to step around those green plastic chairs!

This weekend I’ll post the before and after of the grandchildren’s guest room.  Happy Friday!

Photo Credits:  Kristie Barnett