Sobremesa Stories

Letting stories unfold around the table

Our Front Room Makeover: A Long Overdue Reveal!

By

Oh man, this post is SO long coming.  When I completely painted and made over our wood hutch a few months back, I promised I’d share more about our front room makeover soon.  Welllll, one positive pregnancy test, lots of morning (aka all-day) sickness, and about six weeks later, I’m finally getting around to sharing some pictures of our front room makeover!

This room is a small space right off our front door (you can see our most recent house tour from a few months ago here).  I think it’s designed to be a “sitting room” or more formal parlor of sorts, but it’s not our main living space so it really isn’t all that functional.  It might eventually become some sort of kids’ space for homework, books, etc, but for now, it’s just a fun space we get to play with and walk by without really doing anything practical there (we’ll soak that in as much as we can before kiddos enter the picture and destroy everything, you know?).

Front Room Reveal Before

When we started, everything in this room just seemed BEIGE.  It’s the same paint color as the rest of our main level (a pretty greige from Behr called Wheat Bread), but that paint combined with the burlap curtains we inherited from the previous owner, our brown coffee table, our brown hutch, and the tan sofa we bought when we got married made the whole space just feel blah and beige and boring.  It needed some brightness, lightness, and color and I was more than happy to give it just that! So without further ado…

Front Room Reveal Full View

The first step that inspired me to makeover this room was painting the hutch.  We inherited this beautiful piece from a friend’s grandparents, but the dark wood just didn’t fit in our new, open space.  I wanted something light that would fit into the general theme of whites, blues, and greens throughout our house, so I chose a light shade of green-blue-gray that would add light to a room instead of absorb it all.  You can read more about how I made over this hutch here, but for now, let’s just admire how bright and pretty it is, shall we?

How To Paint And Distress a Wood Hutch Sobremesa Stories

 

Front Room Reveal Flower Hutch Details

Next, we needed to fill that big wall.  I’ve always loved the look of frames and art of various sizes lined up on a shelf (Shelf gallery walls? Is there a name for this?), so with that vision in mind I started looking for some fun pieces to add.  We bought the little hanging white shelves from Ikea for about $5 a pop, and then I did my super formal and fancy method for creating gallery walls and just played around with everything we had out on the floor until I found a combination that looked good together.  (See below for a picture of how glamorous things look when we work on our house.)

Front Room In Progress

We did have to be creative to get multiple frames to fit on the shelf, so there are lots of Command strips holding these frames to the wall and to each other.  But you can’t see those unless you look really close, so I think we’re good.  When I do a gallery wall, I try to keep a general color theme and make sure there is overall balance in the layout.  For this, I tried to stick with crisp whites, rustic wood, and some shades of blue and green and have pieces of relatively equal height on either side to keep it balanced.  I love how it turned out!

Front Room Reveal Full View, Coastal Blues and Greens With Rustic Wood and White, Painted Hutch

A quick side-note…I love this silly map print we found in Colorado.  I’m a big believer that the things on our walls should be both beautiful things we love and silly things that tell our story, and since we laughed about this map print for about 30 minutes during our trip to Boulder, CO, we love having it up in our home to make other people giggle too! (PS, I stole this picture off of the Sunny Side Up Etsy shop because I think it’s actually impossible for me to take a picture of a frame with glass on it and not have it be a shiny white square. My photography skills are quite limited, people.)

US Stereotypes Map Etsy

The rest of the furniture in here is a hodge-podge of things we already had (like the couch, end table, hutch, lamps, etc), and things we’ve gradually accumulated, like this coffee table we’ve admired at World Market forever and finally bought when it was on major sale AND we had a coupon.  I love the soft, weathered look of the wood in this coffee table and think it looks so pretty with the crisp whites and blues of the gallery wall and the hutch!

Front Room Reveal Full View, Coastal Blues and Greens With Rustic Wood and White, Painted Hutch

Front Room Reveal Full View, Coastal Blues and Greens With Rustic Wood and White, Painted Hutch

Finally, I added some pretty white curtains (Ikea), a cheap light fixture (also Ikea) to replace the big metallic one that was there before, grabbed some pillows and accessories from other parts of the house (and two new sale pillows from Target), and called it good! This space will very likely be a work in progress as our little ones grow and we figure out a more functional use for it in the years to come.  But for now, I love how clean and bright it looks, especially opposite our dining room which has a more moody feel to it.

Front Room Reveal Full View, Coastal Blues and Greens With Rustic Wood and White, Painted Hutch

Since we moved into this house, I’ve learned that decorating and creativity come in seasons, that sometimes I feel motivated to work on my home and sometimes I need to dedicate my time and energy elsewhere.  It took several months for all the pieces of this room to come together, but I’m so glad we took the time to let it happen.  Because you know what? I think the final result is pretty darn beautiful.  And if it makes me smile every time I walk by it, then I call it a room well decorated!

Front Room Reveal Sobremesa Stories Blog

Here’s where I need your help: The two things left to do in this room are fill that back corner (that currently has just a lonely little floor lamp) and put something by the window.  I’m thinking maybe some sort of end table/lamp combo in that corner or a pretty, rustic wood blanket ladder.  For the window, I’m dreaming of some sort of tufted bench (gray maybe?) or something else low and small that might be a good place to sit while putting shoes on or something like that. But maybe a chair could work? I clearly haven’t made up my mind yet! Any other suggestions? I love hearing other people’s ideas!

Bright And Beautiful Living Room Reveal With Rustic Wood Accents And White, Blues, And Greens - Sobremesa Stories Blog

You might also like…

If you're dreaming of a beautiful nursery gallery wall, you've got to check out these tips! They'll help keep it cozy, balanced, and fun for your little one!

Caleb’s Rustic, Neutral Nursery Reveal

Ikea Rast Hack Nightstands

Ikea Rast Hack Nightstand Makeover

How To Paint And Distress a Wood Hutch Sobremesa Stories

How To Paint And Distress a Wood Hutch

Sign up to get our weekly newsletter with post updates and other goodies.

No spam guarantee.


Comments

  2. Oh my goodness Lauren, I am in love with this room and admire your decorating skills! The hutch is absolutely stunning and really keeps the room bright and airy. I love all your details, from the pillows, your picture choices, and the tea kettles. Simply perfect : )
    Lindsay recently posted…DIY Love Story MapMy Profile

    • Thanks, Hayley! Those are pretty much the colors in our whole house, so I agree. Ooooh a ladder bookshelf would be so pretty! Good idea!

  7. Looks so so adorable! And it matches your blog now! 🙂 I can’t wait to have a house to do fun stuff like this to!

    • Hahaha I know isn’t that funny? When Madison sent over the blog inspiration board I laughed about how it basically matched the makeover we’d just done on this room. i’d say that’s the sign of a good graphic designer 😉

  8. I love your new living room!!! It’s gorgeous and it really does lighten this space up. It looks so different despite the fact that it wasn’t much of a change (changing the color of the hutch helped a lot!) but a simple paint job and facelift and addition of the shelf 🙂

    I actually think you could just add an end table similar to the one to the left of the couch (from the picture).
    Liz Joiner recently posted…there would only be oneMy Profile

    • Thanks, Liz! I love how much brighter it is too. I love the idea of an end table too! Only problem we have now is we only have one of that end table and Target no longer sells it 🙁 We’ll have to be creative somehow! 🙂

    • Thanks, Brittany! I’m learning the value of “shopping the house” and just using things we already have. It saves us a lot of money! Ha I agree…at the moment is’ just an Olive couch and our pup has pretty much claimed it as her own (although she’s not a fan of having so many pillows that she can’t stretch out and noses them out of the way). 🙂

  16. Love this makeover and the cool decorations! My hubby and I are laughing at the picture of the US! We live in the too mean section 🙂 This is amazing! What a creative idea! I would love for you to share this at my link party Making Memories Mondays going on now! 🙂
    Cathy

  21. In LOVE and so OBSESSED with your living room update! Holy cow, that hutch is so perfect! I want to have a hutch so bad, I just can’t find anywhere to put it. I’ve definitely got some envy for this room!
    Lexi recently posted…Thursday Huddle Week 2My Profile

  25. Lovely colors! For the other side of the sofa, I would put another end table and then place a chair on the other side of the window angled toward the coffee table to make a conversation area. That always makes a room so inviting! Great job!!

  26. I absolutely love this room! I’m needing to fill up space on a wall and this shelf idea is great! Where did you get that floral pillow? Love love love!!

  27. I absolutely love this room! I am needing to fill up space on a wall in my living room and this shelf idea is perfect! Where did you get the floral pillow? Love love love!!

    • Hi Cassie! It was a seasonal pillow from Target last year. I love all those pillows and have to stop myself from buying more each time I go. 🙂 Thanks for your sweet words!

  28. I absolutely LOVE this living room! Quick/very odd question: What color is your couch? We’ve been trying to find a cover that color and have had some disagreements on what color that is considered but we both agree we love this color haha. If you know, that would really help me out in redecorating our living room. 🙂

    • Haha no worries, I’ve had that kind of conversation with my husband many times! I think on the website it was called Stone but it’s really just a light tan. Hope that helps!