Looking for DIY living room makeover ideas that won’t break the bank? Discover how to revamp your space using existing decor, budget-friendly finds, and a little creativity for a stunning transformation.
Prepping and Painting
The goal was to do this on a budget because construction has been expensive, so all of the finishing work and painting was done as a DIY project. Resetting old furniture, incorporating a few key new pieces, and reworking and restyling existing home decor creates an amazing result.
First, prepping the walls and working on the baseboards by caulking them is essential. This allows for everything to be painted to be way more cohesive and fit in with the rest of the house and kind of have a flow to it. Then, the fun Parts, like the living room furniture and the decor, can be addressed.
It’s important to prep and paint your living room for a cohesive look.
Putty Stick for Baseboards
A new product that was used for the baseboards is called a putty stick. The idea came from seeing them use this when installing new cabinets at the crown molding at the top. They just used it to fill in all of the nail holes.
If that can work on crown molding on the ceiling, it can work on molding on the baseboards. It does require a little bit of elbow grease, but it fills in all the holes, dents, imperfections, and seams without needing any long dry times or lots of sanding.
It’s a great alternative to wood filler or caulk, and it was so quick and easy.
Quick Dry Spackle
The quick dry spackle by the dry decks brand goes on pink and turns white when it’s dry. This is nice to use after using the real deal in the kitchen on the backsplash. Being able to have this go on and dry within like 30 minutes for minor imperfections is perfect.
Choosing the Right White Paint
This is the perfect white color. It does so much for a small space because it has such a highlight reflective value, so it makes it feel bigger and brighter, even with a kind of closed off floor plan and limited light sources. But it’s got warm undertones, so it doesn’t compromise that cozy, warm, inviting feeling.
Painting Outlet Covers
If you have not been painting your outlet covers and switch plate covers to match your wall color, take this as a sign that you need to try it. For the longest time, the outlet covers would just be removed, the wall painted, and they’d be put back on. It just looked like this random white square on the wall, and they would stick out like a sore thumb.
One day the thought occurred, how bad would it be to paint them the same color? What’s the worst thing that could happen? That the switch plate cover has to be replaced because it isn’t liked. But it is liked. It goes such a long way to feel more cohesive and have those Outlets kind of blend in. It’s super quick, easy, and budget friendly. Try it if you haven’t already.
Home Goods Trip
While the paint is drying, a quick trip to Home Goods is in order. Looking for a few things for this space that weren’t already available. Home Goods has such good prices, especially on rugs, which was the number one thing that was needed.
Home Goods has a huge wall of hanging rugs which makes it really easy to see them. One blue rug was oversized, definitely too big for the living room, and a little too blue for the aesthetic, but 3.99 was a very fair price for how big and soft and fluffy that rug was. Another rug was a little too blue, but the contrast and the colors were gorgeous, and it was on clearance for a hundred and fifty dollars.
A rug was eventually found.
Armchairs at Home Goods
There were armchairs that were very tempting to buy. They just would not work except in the fall season because the color and the design is a bit too mid-century. They swiveled, the lines looked very designer and high-end, the fabric was so soft and beautiful, and they were only 2.99.
There was also a table that was needed. It’s a little accent table. It has a travertine Stone top, which is a material that a lot of designers are using right now. It had iron legs. The lines of it and the size were great.
The Perfect Rug
After literally months of searching for a rug, after purchasing at least four rugs and having to return them because they either weren’t the right size, weren’t quite the right color, or didn’t have enough contrast, one was finally found at Home Goods. It was previously purchased, and somebody returned it, and they stained it before they returned it, so it was marked down 50 off.
It will need to be vacuumed and deep cleaned. Hopefully, the stain can be removed. If it can’t be removed, it can be brought back and returned. They completely understand. The stain isn’t very big, so it should be able to be cleaned. It doesn’t smell like an animal stain. It honestly looks like they spilled coffee or something.
The vacuum was used, and then the carpet was deep cleaned. It’s satisfying seeing those carpet lines. The carpets in an old house were just too matted, too worn, and too old, and satisfying carpet lines were never achieved when vacuuming. This rug looks great, though.
Carpet Cleaner
The Hoover carpet cleaner works very efficiently and is easy to use. It’s basically like vacuuming. You just push it forward, and that distributes all of the soapy water and rolls the brush heads to scrub into the carpets, and then when you pull back, it automatically switches to a dry mode, and it extracts all of that water and gets it all out of the carpet. Seeing that and it wasn’t even next to the stain, whoever had bought it before spilled on it, tried to fix it, didn’t really try to fix it very well, got frustrated, and returned it. This allowed for it to be obtained completely clean, looking brand new, and it looks great in this space.
The stain was removed, so the deep clean was a blessing in disguise.
The Rug’s Color and Size
The rug is absolutely perfect. The color and the contrast are great. It does look a little bit more charcoaly gray on camera, but in person, the undertone of this gray is definitely a similar green to our entryway, so it complements so nicely. The size of the rug is a 7.9 by 9.9, so a little not standard, but it works really well, just a little bit smaller than an 8 by 10, and it’s the perfect size. All of the furniture on here looks great. It looks like such a cozy living space and kind of separates this area but still works really well with the open entryway, like it all flows together.
The only thing that isn’t loved is the color of the wood on these arm chairs. They’re just a little too light now. They’re definitely a light oak color and they’re gorgeous, but it would be preferred for them to be more a darker color.
If you have a room similar to this that you have been struggling with, this is the rug to get.
Decorating the Space
Now, the space will be warmed up with some living room Decor, filling in all of these blank areas and start pulling the room together.
Starting with this small awkward stretch of wall in between the front door and the couch, trying to figure out how to fill this space without overpowering it has been troublesome. The wall art that was already there is reused, and then that little side table that was found at home goods works perfectly. It fills the space without overpowering it, and it’s layered with the little black side table that was already available for some visual interest and contrast. Also adding in this Twiggy Arrangement that was already available from a studio McGee collection a couple of years back at Target.
The designer magazines that were sent in the mail work so perfectly to Accent this space and fill it with without having a big bulky piece of furniture there, which is definitely not what was wanted. The room was to feel more open and less closed in, so nothing too bulky.
Corner Decor
Moving on to this corner of the room in between the couch and the arm chairs, starting out by adding in a lamp. It was obtained last Christmas on clearance to fill this exact corner, and it works here. A faux tree from a storage unit is beautiful, substantial, and realistic looking. It’s one of those that you have to go up and touch it to see if it’s real or not. It works in this space so well. It is out of stock because it’s an older collection, but there’s still a link on the website which means it might restock.
Also setting another little stool side table here more like a little drink side table and adding this decorative storage box which is perfect for holding all of our remotes and then a reed diffuser for a nice scent to aerate through the room and some coasters. It’s important to keep it super simple over here and not overcrowd it but still looking very intentionally styled.
Couch Styling
Moving on to the couch, it was missing something after adding in all of that other Decor, but it is a pretty small couch, so too much wasn’t wanted. A blanket from the new Hearth and hand fall collection at Target is gorgeous, very soft, very pretty, and thought it would be the perfect pop of contrast after painting the walls white and having everything be so much lighter in here all the furniture is white and linen colors.
To kind of pop off of that, grabbing some pillow covers out of the Decor Closet, stuffing them with some pillow inserts, and layering just two of them on this couch again it is a very small couch so a whole line of pillows that would prevent anybody from actually being able to sit on it wasn’t wanted. Two pillows in a couple of different sizes worked together to be set in this area that has the blanket which is what a lot of designers and some favorite YouTubers do. Couch styling has always been so difficult, but this little corner turned out great. It looks so cozy, so pretty, exactly the vibe that was going for.
Coffee Table Styling
The coffee table has been difficult to style just because it’s so big and round. A designer blog recently suggested arranging things to look kind of like a triangle shape. A vase, a couple of books stacked together in a candle created the triangle there, and then a couple of favorite stems from a floral and a couple of little accents on top of those books. It was so simple, but it made such a high impact. It’s gorgeous, it’s the best styling on this coffee table, and that triangle trick really worked. If you have a round coffee table that you struggle to style, maybe try doing that little triangle trick with a grouping of items that make the three sides of the triangle.
Wall Art
There’s a blank stretch of wall above the armchairs. This is the wall art that was up there before. It’s actually the same print, and the repetition is liked. A little bit more contrast was wanted, so some of a daughter’s paints, gouache paint so they’re like an acrylic watercolor, were used to start mixing a few colors that would work in this space and to kind of accent the lines that are already in the artwork and diffuse it as best as can be to create a little bit of contrast, a little bit more visual interest, and also try to make them look like they are different pieces that work well together instead of just the same one over and over again.
