One Room Challenge: A Moody Living Room Reveal
*if you’re here for the photos- check back tomorrow. Install/shoot day got replaced with a trip to the ER (don’t worry, everyone is fine)
To say my updates have been sparse would be an understatement. While I usually love to share what’s happening in real-time this past month, life has gotten in the way, but we’ve continued to plug away at this one, motivated in no small part by the need to put the house back together before the holidays. We’ve been planning, Craigslisting, DIY-ing, and collecting art- so much art. I can’t wait to show you how it’s all come together.
The inspiration for the space was the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. I used to spend countless hours wandering around there, and when I thought about how I wanted the place I retreat to at the end of the day to make me feel, it immediately sprang to mind. The bold, moody colors, the floor-to-ceiling gallery walls, and the way she mixed antique furniture, decor, and art. Most of all, the art.
So I set about designing the space, starting with the more pragmatic considerations, How I needed the space to function. How to layout the awkward little room and lend it some much-needed symmetry. How to make it more kid-friendly (plenty of soft upholstered surfaces and lightweight ottomans that could be tucked away to make room to play.) I then moved on to the aesthetics of the space. Because it sits in the center of our Victorian with neighbors on either side, it has very little window light of its own, relying instead on light from other rooms spilling in at various times of the day. Instead of trying to force it into being a brighter space, I leaned into the moodiness. It is, after all, a place where we cozy up at the end of the day. I went with dark walls in a shade somewhere between gray, green, and midnight blue and utilized texture with limewash to take advantage of the way the light is always changing throughout the day.
Check back tomorrow for more images! In the meantime here’s a peek at one of the design boards for the space.
