My Living Room Revealed - How Much Did She Spend?
Disclosure: For this post I received gifted product. All opinions are my own and always will be! Thank you for supporting content that keeps Creekwoodhill going.
A couple of weeks ago you may have caught my living room reveal over on Emily Henderson's blog where I occasionally write but if not and you'd like to catch up you can find the Design Agony - Solved here. After reading through the comments sections both on the blog and on my Instagram I learned that many of you are like me, and just don't know where to start and not everyone has an Emily Henderson on their speed dial. So today, I'm here to share with you how I prepared for this project and well... how much it cost (or didn't) - keep reading!
Let's start with my open floor plan, here I'm going to share my stick figure drawing with you:
This will give you the context of the basic space I had to work with. This may be helpful to give you scale when selecting your own rugs, furnishings, draperies, etc.
I'm also going to share the most recent Before pic and I'll tell you why in a minute:
The sofa was great, but it was too small for this really large window (111" wide) so it didn't sit proportionally on it. The sofa was given to one of my daughter's friends who bought his first apartment.
The rug was cleaned and then donated. Dark rugs with light dog fur that sheds uncontrollably just was too much maintenance. The wood end table was donated at the end of our driveway with a Free sign on it.
The curtains, rod, coffee table and chair were moved to storage to be used in a future project(s).
Here's another Before angle:
The IKEA Billy bookcases were also moved to storage and currently hold all of my staging props and that lamp will be donated as soon as I can dig it out.
The purpose of this makeover was to create a more family-friendly and useful living room where we want to hang out in while also looking stylish and bright and cozy. I feel like this was accomplished and here are some Afters:
Ok so, how did I start this project? That's what you really want to know, right? Well, as mentioned, it began with the sofa. Because we knew our current sofa was too small and although I loved how it looked and the performance fabric was great, one of our cats loved that fabric a bit too much and began shredding it as well as it was too small for the window and it just wasn't a lounging kind of sofa and we're sofa loungers over here. This time I wanted something less structured. That's when I found this sofa by Article. Still, the configuration would've been too small so I added this armless chair piece and this ottoman. This changed our sofa length on this window from 83" to 131.5" (our window is 111" wide). I also chose the Chill White sofa fabric because I wanted this space to feel light and bright and...chill.
Next up, I knew we needed to address the curtains. While I love the curtains we had (you'll see them in another project soon) they didn't brighten the room and that's what I wanted. So because I love Calico Corners I turned to them again, this time going with Laisse Chambray which I fell in love with at first sight and quickly learned that Emily pointed me in the direction of finding a chunky weave which this one is definitely chunky! I love when we're on the same wave length! In addition, this time I worked with one of the Calico Corners in-house designers and she came out to my house to measure and fit my windows and I'm so happy she did, here's why:
She measured my windows properly and measured past my windows about 18” – that sounds like a lot but her advice was when your curtains are fully open and pulled back, you don’t want them to cover your windows. This allows as much natural light in as possible.
She measured the length so that they hit the floor more at a tailored Trouser length than Floor length or Puddle length, this allows the curtains to hit the floor with just a slight tailored bend - just like a perfectly tailored trouser pant.
Again, for the hardware I also chose to go with Calico Corners French rod and this time we had their installer do all of the installation and I'm again, so happy because I also learned a great tip:
Lightly spray silicon spray on your curtain rod and always lift up on your wand and then push/pull your curtains vs. dragging them across your rod. The silicon spray is a game-changer and now my curtains glide across that rod so effortlessly.
Ok, so my window is 111" wide and by adding the extra width of the rod this measures 147" wide.
Since most of you don't have an Emily in your back pocket; Calico’s Free In-home or In-store Design Services are an added benefit and extremely useful and resourceful to honing in on your style, fabrics, trimmings and the overall look you are going for. Not to mention the correct fit.
Next up, was to address that wall that had the bookshelves on it. Originally they were going to stay but after the new sofa came in and because it sits so low to the ground and it's more of a modern design the bookcases felt towering. So instead Emily had mentioned to bring in contrast to the wall since it's a white wall with a white sofa. That's when I started searching for a nice wood piece for this wall that would also provide some much needed storage, and so I landed on this media cabinet by Article.
I also needed to change the coffee table because the old coffee table was too small in proportion now to the new sofa. Some things really are a trickle down effect. I sourced and sourced cool coffee tables that fit my budget and finally found this coffee table from West Elm it checked the boxes of scale, affordability and aesthetic.
I was finally at a stage in the design process to select a rug and I chose this rug by Annie Selkie for its geometric design as well as it checked all of my rug check boxes (I clearly have lots of boxes that need checking):
Wool or wool-blend for cleanability and stain resistance (hello, this is an open floor plan right off the front door of our house and we have 2 cats and a dog).
Cozy, shaggy, or high-pile for sitting or laying comfortably on the floor
Hides dog fur
Gives some pattern to the room without overwhelming the room
Not so precious (remember my antique Sultanabad rug?) that I became crazed about whenever our cats would even look at it?
For our scale room as well as the new size of the furnishings I chose a 9x12 rug. Previously, the dark blue one was an 8x10 but our sofa was also much smaller.
The rest of the furnishings were existing pieces that were in this room before but there were some purchases too, here's the cost breakdown:
Article Solae left arm modular sofa
Calico Corners custom drapery, rod - under 20% off sale with professional measure and installation - approximate retail $3220
(disclosure: this price is an estimate only and will factor the following depending on final price):
Size of window
Stationary vs. Functional window treatments (draperies that open/close require more yardage)
Style of treatment
Fabric cost
Custom options – i.e. banding, decorative trim, etc.
Hardware selection
Installation can vary as well (i.e. two-story windows would be more)
*I point this out because I know how many of you want to invest in custom draperies and want to know an approximate figure to know how to budget for your own projects.
Hudson Valley Lighting Vesper wall sconce
Lulu & Georgia swing arm wall lamp - no longer available
Food52 blanket ladder - no longer available
Lumber pillow on sofa, throw on armchair and architectural salvaged wall art piece
Pillow on armchair - H&M discontinued
Industry West Abattoir table stool
Farrow & Ball Pitch Black paint
Emtek Melrose hardware in French Antique finish
West Elm Small cocktail side table - no longer available
Vintage art, pottery, books, and the oddities (mostly thrifted)
The big question: How Much Did She Spend?
This may go against all the unwritten rules of being a blogger but...that's just how I roll...I first want to say, yes, I am very fortunate to have worked for partnerships and sponsorships to create content like this (and a beautiful home). I also realize this is not the case for most people so please do not feel pressured to purchase or compare (I'm not affiliated and TBH I wouldn't have half the things in my home at the rate they've been put here for it not being for very generous partnerships and collaborations) so if you choose to purchase anything from the brands I've shared here I am so very grateful to you all just as I'm so very grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to share my vision.
My total out of pocket costs were $1404 (excluding photography costs) - this is in no way to be braggadocios in anyway, this post is to give you a real life price point if you want to shop the items in this room for yourselves.
This also brings awareness to the amount of work put on behind the scenes for someone like me who blogs or promotes or appears on social media if you were to look at the BTS of what a social media career may look like, the contracts, the hours allocated towards the project (ie. sourcing, negotiating, researching, installing, promoting, writing, photographing and editing, etc.).
I hope this post answers many of your questions (this was the most asked question out of this project which is why it needed a whole blog post to itself). At the same time, I value all of you who continuously read and support my small business. My dream. I will always do my best to stay transparent and give my honest review with you.
XO Lea
