This project in South Austin has several rooms I will share in the coming weeks.  This is a new build home which is nice and large but is your typical ‘beige’ house- beige walls, beige floor, etc.  The homeowners are full of character and personality and were ready to make it their own.

Before:

Because everything in the house is new, we focused on ‘decorating’ elements versus construction.  The homeowners wanted a ‘collected’ look to their home and were interested in a darker, grayish-blue color palette.  In this room we re-used their newly purchased sectional sofa and loveseat, but otherwise we were starting fresh.

After:

We had two key challenges in this space:

1) It is long and narrow, making seating arrangements difficult.  The bay window area was essentially empty before, too far removed from the main area

2) Lack of lighting.   The homeowners only had one overhead fan with lights and no other lamps or overhead lighting

To address the layout challenge, we used a room sized rug to unite the space, then created this unique seating vignette in the bay window area.  We added a large scale overhead light to give it some character and address the lighting challenge.  This is the perfect place for lounging by the light, enjoying the view and reading a book.

To further improve the lighting situation, we added a solid console behind the sofa, placed lights on top and ran the plugs under the sofa and rug to the wall behind the loveseat. You would never know there isn’t a plug in the floor.

We also added lamps by the loveseat.  Lighting problem solved.  Layout problem solved.  Interior design is a great tool to help you solve a number of interior issues to improve your space and make it feel like a home you want to spend time in.  I will be sharing several other spaces from this home over the next few weeks.  Hopefully you can use these spaces to think about the interior challenges you face and how they can be remedied.