Interiors
Living Room Before & After - Warm Walls, Timber Details
Gloom with a capital G. To the power of ten. Our client brief was to keep the project warm and atmospheric and to proffer certain church like detailing. So we settled at our drawing boards, whisky glasses in hand, and said our prayers...
Get down on your knees and whipser PRAISE BE! There's a certain dream like quality to our serene, new scheme and it was derived via careful planning and clever shopping. We darkened the existing inbuilt timber wall unit and made space for a flat screen TV. Attractive seating and better placement of artwork combine to make this a much more comfortable domain. Our work is done. Let us hear you say AMEN!
Living Room before and after - Midas Touch
Darlings, is this The Blitz? What a dowdy looking room this was before we took out our wands... And take it from us - if we'd had to live in a space like this we'd have gone crazy. Oops - too late! Some say we're already crazy, huh? Psychiatric analysis aside, we so wanted to help this room recover. But our brief was to re use as many items as possible. Blimey - we'd have to be EXTRA creative...
Yup, that's the SAME fireplace as before. AND the same sofas, and the same chairs, and the same floor etc etc etc! To save money we recovered all soft furnishings and we repainted the fireplace dreamy jet. Wallpapering in mid tone golden beige added atmosphere and the rest oif the transformation came via detailing woodwork in black and by thickening cornice by adding a small timber inlay and then painting it all white. Sometimes the biggest transformations come with the smallest spend! Curtaining and cushion covers were hooked out from a consignment store and cost a grand total of $80!!! Not a bad piece of work, eh, all things considered!
Living Room before and after - Compact Glamour
Old lady, Mrs Brady? Hard to believe this ramshakle little living room was the demain of a young, arty couple. More like a clearance room in a second hand store it was screaming for salvation. We girded our loins and went into battle...
Oooooh, we LOVE this project. Who says that self praise isn't a virtue? Ahem, certainly not us. Come on - cut us some slack. A modern day tribute to Barbara Cartland, our work purrs gentle glamour and the whole 'salon' feel is majesty itself. Removing the wall that divided the hallway from the main living area immediately opened the space and let it, finally, breathe. Gold accents are perfect with pink. But we didn't go overboard. Less, as we often report, is more. And meanwhile, the Hicks inspired wallpaper is a joy and a perfect compliment to that gorgeous wall hung gel firepalace. Can't you just see thsi room in Elle Deco? Precisely. Over and out.
Living Room - Before and after - small space living
Right, that's QUITE enough. Old Lady Mrs Brady might have lept through her 80 denier American tan tights to live in a space like this...but as for our clients? Well lets just say they were SOOOOOOOOO keen to change their style free ways. They'd grown allergic to the raspberry velour but, as designer correction is our forte, we weren't even remotely phased, and immediately set to work...
Mirroring one wall helped visually enlarge a tiny space while adding a solid wooden floor provided a feeling of high end quality. As our clients are raspberry daft, we showed them how to add their favourite shade but how to moderate at the same time. Our balanced solution was to hang scrolled wallpaper on 'feature' zones and add complimentary upholstery to seal the deal. And as for that dull as dishwater fireplace? A coat of paint and a mirror hanging proudly above gave the vignette a second chance. Enjoy our newly birthed and beautiful scene. Our clients certainly did! And in fact still do...
Living Room before and after - retro heaven
Oh dear. Two words that perfectly sum up the grim aesthetic of our dreary before shot. Hard to believe, then, that this room was the work of two thirty something's with a penchant for style. Or, ahem, so they told us...
Crisp white - a lovely backdrop for our proposed new look. Our client's ALWAYS have an expectation that we'll deliver perfect results EVERY time. So that meant art gallery chic and an assembly of mid century detailing. To save some money we re used the existing circular sofa but re invented it with clever upholstery and faux pony skin inserts. Fresh blue accents and timber touches helped us completely rebrand this space. Little wonder our chaps wept as we welcomed them home. Home to a place they could finally love...
Living room before and after - smart family room
Typical of so many family living rooms, this chaotic scene desperately needed attention. Blimey - all that stone, all that clutter. Time for a spot of serious life laundry....
Dolly dimple, pure and simple. Hey; minimum input, MAXIMUM visual return. Painting the stone chimney breast provided immediate relief while the addition of mustard walls elicited a calm, relaxed feel. We simplified furnishings by specifying a creamy white sofa and slipper chairs, then detailed the entire scheme with black accessories. We hung Ikea LACK shelves in the regular manner but chopped another into sections to form upstands. For us, it is all about looking at standard kit with keener eyes. A faux zebra rug and a graphic monochrome blind became perfect finishing details. And so it came to pass that another flatlining room breathed once more...
Living room before and after - raspberry accented living room
Clutter, to the power of ten and an overwhelmingly grim design aesthetic to boot! Who lives in a house like this? David, it's over to you...
Elegant striped wallpaper accents and a deepest berry red sofa bring immediate warmth to the previously desolate space. A touchy feely rug adds extra depth while clever accessorising pulls our project to life. Schemes like this are easy to achieve as long, that is, as you plan every detail and NEVER rush quickly at your project.
Living Room before and after - Purple Reign
Clearly a clutter nutter, our client had lived like this for decades… and his home had gradually overwhelmed him. As a big fan of the colour purple (not that you’d have guessed that from scanning our before shot) we picked up his preferred palette and ran with it…
Purple, while potentially a very dominant colour, is beautifully restrained by the addition of white. We used 2” x 1” timber straps to create 3D interest, and we custom manufactured an amethyst chesterfield which we juxtaposed with white 'slipper' chairs. A smart wall hung TV and round glass coffee tables from Ikea completed the look.
Living Room before and after - Beach Chic
Gloomy with a capital G! And blimey - all that wood! This area is actually a secondary living space arranged just off a bedroom so it’s not massive – but it had massive potential.
We composed this design for a young couple who live by the beach in Canada and their only stipulation was that the results should feel light and airy. Against a new backdrop of white paint and drapery we added seagrass, the colour of which evokes breezy days on the sand. To enliven our scene further we employed yellow ticking fabric, a white sofa and a chic weather beaten driftwood table. Oh we DO like to be beside the seaside…
Living Room before and after - Living With Colour
Was there ever a duller, more uninviting living space? Hmm? Composed of mis-matched furniture and showing no design pedigree whatsoever the room was a decorative flat line and needed immediate attention!
Stand by for serious decorative lift off. To open the space up as much as possible we specified crisp, art gallery white for the walls. Adding orange rugs and an orange sectional sofa helped us set the juice loose while chocolate detailing via toss pillows and throws provided perfect decorating accents.
Living Room before and after - New Asian Style
Our client spent loads of money decorating this room but she stopped investing some twenty years past when her confidence as designer started to wane. Redolent of times gone by, the space needed to be properly brightened and, at her behest, we set about creating a dreamy cream palette with shots of blue…
The keystone for our new look was this elegant fireplace. As a scene setter for the project we dressed around it with simple wall panelling, white shutters built into new apertures and we added floral wallpaper as a secondary design ‘layer’. Blue upholstery and gold detailing completed our new design. With the room thoroughly re branded, our client has now become the perfect lounge wizard in her magic new world.
