We recently furnished the living room in a one bedroom condo in downtown Austin.  The room has an amazing view of Lady Bird Lake, with trail access and all the benefits of downtown living.

Of course, condos also often come with the downside of very limited square footage.  For this project our goal was to add ‘seats’ and include a sleeper sofa for visiting guests.

BEFORE:

Our condo owner had purchased ‘small’ furniture for her small condo, but it was not working for every-day living.  The chair was too small for comfort and the sofa did not offer much room for piling on, either.  As with most sofas, no one wanted to get stuck sitting in the middle.

Our young client is a world traveler and mountain climber and had a fantastic photo collection of the 7 largest mountains in the world that she had traveled to.  But, the three she had framed were lost on the wall and she had not gotten around to framing the rest.  We thought these could tell a great story if given more prominence.

Also included in the project was changing the dining room window treatments to match the family room when we updated those.

Install day came quickly.  Condos have the added challenge of tight spaces.  Here are our movers trying to get the sleeper sofa on the elevator. Fun, fun!

Not to mention frequent trips with bundles of art, accessories and all the other goodies we need on install day.

We had our homeowner paint the walls (thanks to her father!) before we arrived.  Bye-bye boring beige.

AFTER

Our homeowner did not like ‘color’ (we get this a lot!) and wanted to use whites, creams, beiges and grey.  Luckily she did like ‘texture’, so we used a lot of velvet, linen and wool to add depth and richness.

I love how her black and white photography collection pops off the walls in new white mats and frames.  We specified a bench seat on the sofa so no one is stuck sitting on the crack in the middle.  Is has a pillow back which allows the home owner to squeeze in more friends when necessary.

Linen and velvet drapery panels frame the wonderful view and new linen shades replaced the bulky plastic ones that felt cold and were hard to use.

We also had the homeowner update the paint in the adjacent dining area and added a little greenery for a pop.

Oh, and if you are wondering where the TV is, she does not have one.  We are seeing this more and more often.  Our younger clients are banishing TV’s to lesser used rooms or forgoing TVs altogether.  Somehow I still can’t talk Scott into taking this leap, but maybe one of these days… 

What a great example of using your life experiences to tell a story in your home.  You can do this even in a small space!  Also, lesson learned, a small space doesn’t mean you have to buy ‘small’ furniture, but it does mean you have to be very deliberate on what you do bring home.  If you do not have a lot of experience with this, you might be the perfect candidate for hiring an interior designer.  Feel free to reach out to us for more information about our services if you think you might need help from a professional!