Sitting Room Before & After

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I love this sitting room because of its location at the front of the house and the abundant sunlight it gets in the morning. When we first purchased our house we used this room as the guest bedroom but over time we felt that it didn't really feel right and needed to be used in, the right way. As I mentioned the two things I love about this room are the location and sunlight. When I realized what this space should be I redesigned it to be a sitting room.

Hello and welcome, today, I'm sharing the before and after photographs of our completed sitting room that my husband and I worked on together.

Let's take a look at the before pictures. This photograph shows the first makeover we did years ago when we changed this room from a guest bedroom to a sitting room. We painted the walls a pale yellow and installed a wall-to-wall carpet. The navy blue curtains have a beautiful stripe fabric trim that was an easy no-sew project. I created a small gallery wall with a painting and a print I purchased at a yard sale.

Fast forward to today, we emptied the room, of everything.

BEFORE

Then we stripped the room of the carpet and trim. We painted the walls, ceiling, and all the trim work the same color. We plan on using the desk so we left it in the room. The desk was a quick and easy DIY project mentioned later in the post.

AFTER

And now what a difference! The walls, ceiling, and trim are painted with the color Pure White by the Sherwin Williams Infinity collection in a flat finish and the new plank laminate floor is from the Home Depot. After all the work was complete it was time to place the furniture and decorate the room.

Decorating a room is the fun part for me! However before any furniture or decor is placed in the room I think about the layout, color, and how the space will be used. The next step is to look at the room to see what fits. The size and shape of the room will determine what furniture pieces will fit the best. I like to shop around our home before purchasing any new items. Something in one room is now going to be in this room and used in a completely different way. About 90 percent of the furniture and items in our home I bought second-hand, found on the side of the road, or were given to us.

Moving all the pieces to different rooms and putting them where I know where to use them is a great way of figuring out how to utilize them as best as possible in their new space.

I shopped around our home and asked my husband to move the two bookcases in my workroom into this room. I decided to separate the bookcases and flank them opposite each other against the wall between the two windows. This created a cozy space with enough room for two chairs and a comfortable spot for two people to converse with each other. I then designed the two bookcases, one for books and one for office supplies and photography equipment. My favorite chair to lounge in is the second-hand tufted floral chair that I slipcovered to cover a small rip in the upholstery. As you can see it's also B's favorite. Lucky for me there is another comfortable chair.

The ottoman I purchased online a few years ago. Amazon has a nice selection of ottomans for the home.

Trifted Vintage objects find new use in the sitting room like this nightstand pulled from one of the bedrooms. Just because a piece of furniture is meant for a specific room doesn't mean you have to exclusively use it in, that room. This small nightstand is the perfect storage solution to hold books and other items. The basket and drawer are storage for things I, don't want to see like maybe B's stuff.☺

Although I find it challenging to find the right size shade for my lamps I also find it fun to see what I can find. This beautiful crystal lamp came with a large empire shade that was too big for this space so I changed it to a woven seagrass shade. Later in this post, you'll see that I changed the seagrass shade to a beautiful silk shade making the lamp look even more elegant.

I like to give each area of a room a purpose by setting up different zones. Setting up different zones makes the room feel bigger. I used the middle of the room as the sitting area. The round jute rug between the chairs creates a specific zone for reading and conversation. The rug I purchased years ago for my living room makeover. You can read about my living room makeover here. I plan on purchasing a new rug for this space and have my eye on this one from Amazon.

I used the walls in this room as a second zone for office space by placing one of the bookcases in the far right corner. This bookcase holds office supplies and my photography equipment so it made sense to place the desk against the wall, tucked between the window and bookcase. Now I have a nice view out the window and easy access to the items on the bookcase.

Can, you guess that the desk was once a coffee table? It became a desk after thinking it was too long a coffee table when we would walk around it and bump into the edge. Changing out the legs was an easy fix to give it a new life as a desk.

One of my photographs of a moody ocean scene hangs above the desk. I love gazing up from whatever I'm working on, taking a moment to stare at this photograph giving my soul and eyes a place to rest.

Leaning on top of, a DIY desk is an oversized picture frame I covered in burlap. I was, thinking of using it as an inspiration board or to style my photographs inside the frame. A small lamp and plant are just enough for this desk. Keeping the desk minimally styled allows the freedom to use it when needed for projects. If you want to use a small lamp in your home Amazon has a nice selection with many colors to, choose from.

Striping this room down to a blank canvas was hard work but the right decision. I had fun piecing this room together like a puzzle, opening my eyes to see what it could be, and putting on my thinking cap to create a cozy sitting room using the things around our home.