The Horse Farm Project: Formal Living Room Transformation

I’m glad to be back with you guys today to share the transformation of the formal living room at The Horse Farm Project.

The homeowner uses this space on a regular basis for quiet time in the morning and for entertaining away from the main living area and tv. It’s a great spot just off the dining room with French doors on each end providing a view of the gardens and beautiful pasture. It also has a large window that makes the entire room feel sun drenched most of the day.

From the beginning, we knew we would keep most of the existing furniture in this room.

I say most because if you’ve been following along in this series, you may have seen we moved this table into the newly created entry

So, our only goal was to give the space a bit of a refresh and to marry the look we used in the entry, the dining room and the den into the formal living room.

Here’s a look at all the details….

The reason the space is so great for entertaining is because it’s right off the dining room which made it convenient for groups of people to be able to gather in each area and still feel connected.

This room like many of the other rooms was painted in Behr’s Swiss Coffee, trim and moldings were all painted in white,

the ceilings were scraped and new flooring was installed. You can see what a big difference it makes to have the same flooring throughout a home especially in the common areas. This shot is standing inside to the formal living room looking into the dining room, the entry and the den.

I also asked my dad to install the chandelier that was in the dining room in the formal living room to replace the existing fan. It was a perfect fit!

I feel like I’ve said this with every post but the homeowners already had some really great pieces of furniture. All we did to the media cabinet was to restyle the bookshelves a bit.

Of course, I left that all up to my mom and she nailed it!

Can I just tell you how badly I wanted to take a piece of tape and write, “CoCo” on it and then stick it to the bottom of this awesome trophy? Oh, my word, so bad!

My mom helped me to source a lot of these books at thrift stores and estate sales to help keep costs down since we needed so many.

I love the patina they have!

The “Mary Beth” mug was a thrifted find as well.

The homeowner had most everything else.

We did move the seating area around a bit. The couch is now facing the media cabinet and the wing back chairs are facing each other.

That change provided the perfect opportunity to snuggle the ottoman in between all three pieces.

Next to one of the chairs is this sweet table. My mom created this vignette too!

I know there have been a lot of pictures in this post so let me just remind you of what the formal living room looked like before…

and after…

A few takeaways from the formal living room makeover…

• Keep flooring consistent with the rest of the house if at all possible.
• Don’t be afraid to mix new finds, thrifted finds and cherished family favorites for a layered look.
• Reimagine the pieces you already have in a fresh way by changing up the seating area or moving a piece of furniture from one room into another room.
• Paint is a powerful and inexpensive way to change the look of any space, just make sure you’re using a color palette that is consistent with the rest of your home.

I hope these tips have helped! I’ll see you guys back here tomorrow with a post from the When Love Shows Up series, it’s a good one so don’t miss it! Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo