Texture in the Front Room

Good morning friends! Today I’m sharing with you some ways I’ve completely changed the look of my front room, by moving furniture and adding texture that together has made a big impact. In this post you will learn how add texture and refresh a room by learning how to install crown molding, bringing in softer textures with a rug and throws, and changing the layout of the furniture so it is conducive to conversation.

If you remember earlier this year, my front room looked like this:

(pic from my Spring home tour)

This wasn’t bad, I know. But I have been living with this layout for over a year, and I just wasn’t loving it anymore. I grew tired of most everything.

It started with the rug. I have had that stripey number for 10 years. Yes you read that right. It was my very first nice rug purchase, and it has held up amazingly well, considering. But the colors were just a little too dark and the pattern just wasn’t my jam.

So I switched out the rug with this Textures B01 Braided Solid rug from RugsUSA. (p.s. it is 75% off right now!!)

Basically it looks like a cable knit sweater and feels extra cushy underfoot. It is also wool, so it cleans well, wears well, and sheds some (but a lot less than my other rugs when they were new).  This was just the beginning to my goal of brightening the space and making it feel comfortable and beautiful.

Then I took down the gallery wall. I was craving simplicity and a tad more elegance, and while the gallery wall was cute, it was so much to look at above the statement green couch I painted last year. I had NO idea what I was going to put in it’s place, however. Like totally stumped. I asked all my friends and I liked their ideas, but most involved spending money.

So then I went online and started researching and came across an article by a designer who talked about ways to combat a blank wall– one of them resonated: rearrange the furniture! I always dismissed this option in the past because I KNEW the green sofa couldn’t go in front the the only window in this room– it would block too much light! But, I loved the idea of anchoring the room around the dresser, adding a mirror on top, and let the furniture ‘talk’ to each other. So, late on a Friday night, I convinced Bruno to help me move some stuff around. It didn’t take much convincing actually, because he loves to do this sort of thing too.

I centered the rug on that big blank wall that used to have the green sofa on it, then centered the dresser over the rug. I thought I needed the sofa to be centered in front of the window but it looked odd. So I decided to ignore the window a bit, and just center the sofa on the long side of the rug. The other two chairs of course would go opposite, but it would still feel open, since they don’t occupy a lot of space.

The coffee table went between this all and my new brass lamp from Target went in the corner and all was well for a few days! Until! I got to taking pictures for my home tour and things weren’t looking quite right when I did full room shots. I don’t know why. But it was the little things that were hanging me up. So I didn’t mess with it for a week… maybe two. Then, this past week after perusing through lots of inspiring spaces and analyzing, and talking with friends, I put a brass table between the two chairs, moved the trestle end table I built on the other side of the couch, and added a gold leaf frame above it balancing out the warm metallic of the lamp. I also restyled the coffee table and added some fresh (grocery store) flowers. The flowers stayed in my green-cream-white color palette so really they just added some additional texture. The frames within frame idea came from Kristen and I love the simple elegance of it.

I also installed crown molding this week.

SEE THE TUTORIAL ON EHOW HERE.

The color contrast isn’t dramatic. The sheen of the crown molding, the creamy walls, the white architectural details of the wainscoting, and the soft white curtains, all create layers of texture that makes this room inviting…. and interesting.

So I’m not quiiiiite done with this room. Lucy gave me the idea of doing floor to ceiling wainscoting, continuing up what is already there below the chair rail. Only, I’m going to only do it on one wall (the blank wall), as a feature point, rather than around the entire room. I’m pretty excited about this idea, so I will have to exercise restraint to not get started on it before the holidays are over.

Oh, and in case you were curious, I can’t tell therefore I’m not convinced there is less light in here now that the sofa is in front of the window. The room makes sense now… it feels bigger because of the new cohesive furniture arrangement.  With the lighter rug and light walls, everything reflects well and it just makes sense.

The rug mentioned in this post was provided to me by RugsUSA in exchange for mention in this post. All opinions are my own and I wouldn’t recommend it (and I DO) if I didn’t love it. 🙂