Haven's Housecalls: Malia's Living Room

Yeah! I was so excited when I saw this room.

Great teal paint color. Great solid furniture. No clutter. What's not to love....

This is Malia's living room. It just needed a little lovin'.

Let's talk about what's great.

1. Awesome scale to the mirror over the fireplace. That is what its supposed to look like, people!

2. Nice, quality, NEUTRAL furniture. Yes!

3. Interesting, but not obnoxious area rug.

There are only a few things I'd do to up the "great" quotient...

Furniture up against the walls: Lots of people do this. Malia has done this partially because her kids play on the rug, but she said she's ready to be done with that.

Here's another angle of the room

To fix this, the couch should go on the opposite wall (where the chair is now), and have the black console (here) behind the couch.

She can add two chunky lamps there, to add some more light. Like this ($50 at Pier 1):

Then, the two black cubes they are currently using as end tables can be butted up together to be the new "coffee" table. Lastly, the chair and ottoman can move in front of the window at an angle. She does need one more accent chair, curtains, and a few more accessories.

Here is an awesome rounded accent chair ($499) from West Elm The reason I saw rounded is because she has a lot of square stuff going on, and its nice to break it up.

See the close up of the fabric below.

Curtains fabric: This is from my fave place, Lewis and Sheron. This fabric is $35/yard, which is a little spendy, but she will only need 5 yards. I wanted to offer another suggestion besides store bought curtains. Malia said that she and her husband bought curtains, sheers, and rods from Pottery Barn, and took it all back due to buyer's remorse, after spending almost $1000. This will only set you back $170 plus construction. ($40/panel). These would stand open all the time (you don't need to have them functional when you have blinds the way Malia does.

In terms of choice of fabric, I've been on a "match a texture fabric to my wall paint" kick. She has those beautiful teal walls, and those are the bang for the buck. Any window treatments shouldn't compete with the wall color or, specifically, that area rug.

Other than a few wall art pieces, like this (ooooh! scrump!), I think she's good to go. Doesn't this art have so much life and light to it? Its only $129 at CostPlus! Love it!!

I really hope these housecalls are helping you see that there's no magic to this. Just thinking the room all the way through to the end is the key. Mixing colors, textures, and adding color in the right spots.

Happy Decor!