A Modern, Affordable Living Room Makeover

*This post was sponsored by World Market, however all thought, opinions and hard work are m own #worldmarkettribe *

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We spend the most time of any room of our house, in the living room. Yes this space was the one I could never get quite right. Between hand-me-down furniture and a small budget, I could never hit a home run in here. I started thinking I needed to go bold like I have in other rooms of our house. I mean, our dining room is black and white, the hallway is white with pops of black. I love a good high contrast space. But for whatever reason I had been holding back in this room. But I decided enough was enough and came up with a plan that World Market graciously helped me make happen.

Let’s take a look at the before photos first. They’re kinda scary and a little embarrassing, but everyone starts somewhere, right?

I started this affordable, budget friendly makeover with $1500 and by picking out a sofa and chairs online since I don’t have a local World Market. This is where the fear sets in as a Mother of 3 kiddos, 2 cats, and a well-meaning but sometimes messy husband. They spill things. And they hit each other with my pillows. And they jump on the couch. Generally, they go nuts in this room. So I worry about plunking down a year of college tuition on furniture that will inevitably get mistreated. That’s just not where we are in life right now and I’m okay with that. But I still want nice things, darn it! So I scoured World Market until I found this sofa that I love but was also affordable and sturdy. It’s the Apel Sofa and we are besties now. She doesn’t mind if a few of the tears I cry while watching ‘This Is Us’ drop on her. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Of course the perfect sofa needs a couple chairs to keep it company. Have you noticed I treat my furniture like they have feelings? Hmmm. I loved these Xander Armchairs so I pulled the trigger on two! They are super comfy and the minimal, mid-century shape is soooo my jam.

Once I found such affordable finds in the living room furniture part of World Market I figured I might have the same luck with decor and I was totally right (as usual!). I wound up getting curtains, a couple of sconces, a terrarium and a super fun piece triangle wall art.

These curtains are light and breezy. I really debated, as you can see on Instagram, about whether I should add curtains to these windows at all. After I painted the window mullions black, I was kind of sad to cover them with blinds and curtains. You can see there were plenty of opinions about it. In the end I decided to try the curtains. I do think they add a nice softness to the room.

Once I had all my living room furniture and decor, I started brainstorming a few DIY projects to really take this room where I wanted it to go. After talking to some of my best blogging friends, I decided on a raw wood shiplap above the fireplace. I actually wound up splurging just a tad on this project. I bought Cedar V-Groove Planks. I originally had planned to get plywood ripped down at the home improvement store but I wasn’t crazy about the wood color or quality so I spent a few extra dollars for these planks. They went up SO EASILY. Joel and I had them measured, cut and nailed in about an hour. That’s my kind of project! Less more, more impact 😉

Of course, the big elephant in the room…the black fireplace. It was painted white and that was one of the first projects I wrote about here on the blog. But I was never so happy as when I put that first brush stroke of black on. It just makes my heart siiiiing! The color is by Sherwin Williams and is the same black I use every where else in my house, it’s called Tricorn Black and it’s PERFECT.

I also added a coat of white spray paint to the top of my box frame coffee table. That was an easy fix too. All in all, this was a very EASY makeover and very affordable. I’m relaxing on that sofa from World Market as I type this post and I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out.

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