The Story of a Room: The Living Room

Living Room | April 1, 2014

If you are just tuning into this series you can check out the introduction here

Erin and I started planning as soon as we got done with our initial consult. We found a bunch of ideas, put together a basic design plan and sent over this initial board for all three spaces:

 

Today I’ll be talking about the decisions we made for just the Living Room and tomorrow I’ll cover the office and entryway.

 

Our client had mentioned maybe doing some blue chairs on either side of the t.v. credenza so that was our first item to source.  Here were some options that we loved:

 

 After seeing the options she loved the look and shape of the first World Market chairs. But she was unsure of the color since some reviews said it was more blue than they
thought, others thought it was more green. She was a little nervous about them being too green.  Erin and I had seen the chairs in person and we just loved them and thought they would be fine.
 World Market
also has a 60 day return period which makes it nice for returning purposes if she totally hated them. We were convinced for the price these were the best option!
Next to one chair we decided to do a floor lamp and next to the other chair a side table.  For the floor lamp I loved both of these options:
She loved both lamps but ultimately decided on the Bradley lamp because she liked the look a little more.
We always like our clients to take out and inspect items once they arrive if we are having them shipped directly to them.  When she got the floor lamp she couldn’t screw the top rod into the bottom rod.  Such a bummer.
So I called Ballard to get a new one sent out and sadly they were backordered for a few months! With our install date quickly approaching I decided to just return it all together and get the Urban Outfitters Stella lamp instead.  It’s the same lamp I have in Jane’s Nursery and I love it so I knew it would work!
For the side table I sent these options:
She decided on the first Target table. It’s so great in person.  When it got delivered to my house I couldn’t resist trying it out in my Living Room. 😉
picture via my instagram feed (@kirstenkrason)
For the T.V. credenza we budgeted under $1,000. With that budget in mind these were the options we sent over:
She loved the first one in white but was worried the mirrors would be hard to keep clean. The mirrored piece was my favorite for the space because of it’s
size and price point. I had looked ALL OVER and I truly didn’t think
we’d find anything else that was that big and for such a good deal.  I also loved the amount of storage it would give her. So we ultimately agreed to get the Reflections cabinet.
Because our client has kids we didn’t’ want any sharp edges for our coffee table  so we set out to find something round. Erin found some great options for the space including these:
The nailhead table was her favorite and our favorite so that was an easy decision!
The table for the awkward nook that we talked about yesterday was a little tricky because it had to go with the t.v. credenza and also provide storage for toys.  It also needed to fit within the nook dimensions and it couldn’t be too expensive.  We sent these options over to our client:
Even though it wasn’t the cheapest one she liked the Jonathan Adler
JC Penney table best. She loved the color and how it looked with the mirrored t.v. credenza.  Although it didn’t have a lot of storage we could add baskets to the bottom to hide toys.
Once we had decided on the console table we thought it would be nice to put two lamps on either side. I sent these options over:
We both were in love with the first option so we decided to go with those.  Once they arrived at her house she took them out to inspect them and realized how huge they were! She sent me these pictures to get our opinion.

 

Although they were taller than we expected (the measurements were different once we got the shades on) Erin and I still loved them.  I don’t like to stick to any strict rules when it comes to decorating and I usually just go off of how it looks and feels.  I didn’t mind the lamps and I felt like once we styled the table it would be fine.  Plus they were just so beautiful!!
Erin was heavily involved in the fabric selection so I’m going to have her explain the process for what we picked in the Living Room!
When we first had our initial consultation with Leah and she
picked out a beautiful Lee Jofa floral we thought we were going to
die, we were so excited!
It’s really fun to have adventurous clients who
like fabrics that are out of the norm, or most popular. Right away we
knew we wanted to do blue chairs to go with the floral, but when we got
to the sofa it was a little more difficult. We were having a hard time
pulling colors out of the floral to go off of what the client liked as
well. We originally wanted to go with the La Fiorentina in the wine
color way.
We thought that it would compliment the pinks in the floral
so well, but we were given strict instructions from the clients husband
to have no pink. We were pretty devastated to say the least! So we
decided to go with the same La fiorentina pattern but in the lime color
way paired with a simple purple polka dot.
These patterns and colors
kept things fresh and light and still went great with her sofa color. In
the end we broke the rules and brought a pink pillow to put on the
sofa, it wasn’t what the client was picturing but when they saw the room
all put together they could appreciate the pop of pink!
We struggled a little more with picking the material for the roman shades.  Our initial pick was a pretty neutral fabric from Serena and Lily.
However, our client wasn’t in love with the pattern. So we decided on another neutral alternative.
This was a mock up of the fabric scheme that we sent to the client of what would have been our first choice with the La Fiorentina in the wine colorway.
She was totally on board with the roman shade fabric so we started to move forward with that plan! Roman shades are not cheap to have made and because they are so custom they are a big commitment.  Ultimately she started to get cold feet about doing something so permanent in a fabric she wasn’t 100% in love with so we suggested doing natural woven shades instead. Woven shades area always a great idea because they bring in texture, color and they are a classic choice. Our client liked the Ananda/Mist colorway.
 I can’t wait for you to see how all the fabric choices came together!
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Thanks Erin!

 

Stay tuned tomorrow and we’ll be sharing the plan we came up with for the Office and Entryway!