BEFORE & AFTER: An Area Rug As Inspiration For A Serene Living Room

Most consumers don't realize that a major part of what an interior designer does for you is to help you see the things you already own in fresh new ways. Most designers do not want to throw out everything you have accumulated all your life and start all over.

Here at Casa Vilora Interiors, we feel that the things you already own tell a story about you, and we will do whatever it takes to use as many of your treasures as possible. Of course, not everything will work (no black leather college dorm sectionals please. haha), and we will make that very clear from the beginning. But we look for ways to repurpose, refresh, restyle, and combined with carefully curated pieces that we specify for your space, it is always a winning result

Calming And Serene Living Room Space Designed By Veronica Solomon, Casa Vilora Interiors. Photographed By Colleen Scott

Imagine the delight when we walk into a client's space for the first time, and discover their amazing taste and find that there is a lot we can work with to pull their space together

That was the case with this living room. We saw so much potential in the room itself, but it's the area rug that caught our attention right away.

Here's the room before

We loved the modern style of the rug even though we knew from conversations with our client that her style leans more to the traditional side. We love the juxtaposition of mixing different styles to create a more dynamic and collected vibe in every space. Our client also got some brownie points for selecting the right size rug for the room. This is where a lot of consumers make a mistake - buying the wrong size rug for a room; usually much too small. The rug has to be the right scale for the room. A small rug will make a room look smaller.

One quick tip - make sure that all the pieces in the main seating area sit on the rug - at least the front legs

The soothing color palette of the area rug was perfect for the mood we wanted to create - soft blue, cream, taupe, gray and a dash of indigo is the perfect combination for a soothing, serene, calming vibe.

Our client also already owned these beautiful indigo velvet chairs that were the perfect scale for the room. We felt strongly that they needed to be placed next to each other for a bigger impact in the space.

We loved the fact that our client also had the beautiful piano, which was a definite keeper.

Clearly the piece of sectional had to go. It was doing nothing for the room. Too casual, too "frat housey". haha

The goal was to cozy up the room a bit with a more intimate seating arrangement for conversations, freshen up the color palette, highlight the taller ceiling and soften the windows a bit.

Floor Plan For Living Room In Katy TX

The original floor plan called for two additional chairs in the room, but due to budget constraints, we used a pair of ottomans previously owned by our client instead. Although the room gets a lot of natural light, we wanted to add a ceiling fixture to the room, but also chose to remove that item for now to keep our budget in check.

This is one of the many ways we provide value to our clients. We approach the design of your space from the "PLAN A" perspective and then tweak as needed.

What does the PLAN A perspective mean? Well, it means that as an interior design firm who truly believes in helping clients create their best lives in their homes, we create for you the ideal vision that we have for you combined with your vision. We have thousands of resources available to us and we owe it to you to expose you to all the resources we feel would serve your best interest and your goals. We then let you decide if you want the full PLAN A or if we need to discuss a happy medium.

After 13 years as a practicing interior designer, we know that our clients want that power to decide what's right for them based on what we have available to them through the partnerships with vendors, artisans, trades, contractors, that we have accumulated over many years . We then make sure that the happy medium still produces an amazing end product that you will LOVE.

Transitional Katy Living Room Designed By Veronica Solomon. Photographed By Colleen Scott

We started with a fresh coat of paint. Paint works wonders in a room. We kept the color neutral to act as a soothing back drop for the furnishings

We brought in a gorgeous new reverse camel back sofa in a light taupe velvet. The lines of the sofa are very traditional, but with the fabric choice and the addition of the pillows, it feels more up to date. Pillows make a world of difference in a room. It was the perfect opportunity to mix some patterns. Notice that the pattern mix is quite daring, but we kept the colors still very soothing and cohesive with the rest of the room. My favorite pillow is the floral. It acts as the "glue" in the room. This means that it pulls the entire color palette together in just one piece. I wrote all about mixing patterns in this post in my Decorating Forum, Lux Living Lounge

The cheetah print ottomans were already owned by our client. They were planned for a different area in the house, but we brought them into this space, and that added a graphic punch to the soothing color palette. Cheetah and leopard prints can act as a great neutral in a space.

We brought in some lamp tables and lamps for some task lighting in the room

We decided to use a large rectangular coffee table with very clean lines. We loved the glass top and the faux shagreen bottom shelf, which was perfect for adding some accessories

The room needed some large scale artwork to match the scale of the walls. We chose one landscape on canvas framed in a silver leaf gallery float frame and an abstract in the same style frame. Again, we are mixing more modern, clean lines with more traditional elements

Formal Living Room In Katy TX Designed By Veronica Solomon

The windows had beautiful shutters for privacy, but they were a bit harsh-looking on their own. We brought in custom draperies to add some softness. We kept the drapery panels very "quiet" in the background, except for the trim detail on the leading edges. In this case, we didn't necessarily want them to be the focal point in the room, but instead a supporting role for more cohesiveness. We used a lucite rod with gold hardware for a more trendy feel. Again, a room needs to feel like it evolved, and adding something "trendy" that could remain timeless is a good thing

We finished out the design of the room with some beautiful floral and accessories. The florals are faux, but look very real. This is one area where we ask our clients to splurge a little bit. High quality florals come at a cost, but they are worth every penny.

You can see how the area rug was the basis from which we developed the whole vibe and color palette for this room, along with the client's lifestyle and aesthetic preference. She is very happy with her new space, and we couldn't be more excited. You can check out more REVEALS from this home HERE

What is your favorite element of the room? If you love the AFTER, feel free to pin it to Pinterest, leave a comment or share the goodness :-)

We would love to help you see your treasures with new eyes. Reach out for a consultation to get started. You can conveniently book one HERE

Wishing You Beauty And Inspiration!

Veronica