Living Room Transformation

Welcome to the Carter Project living room tour before and after. As I stated in my first tour (the kitchen), I named this the Carter project because this home was built by a family with the last name Carter back in the 1980s. They must have loved entertain because it has a VERY open floor plan. What we love the most is the main living areas are huge and there are no two same houses around here.

Below is what the room looked like when I moved in.  The majority of the house walls were gold, burgundy, and green – which is common in the south.  We've been painting all of the walls in the house either a light blue, cream or very light gray; I love the new colors so much.

The Living Room Before

Windows, windows, there are windows everywhere!

I'd say that Mark's (my better half) design style is traditional with country accents.  He loves big, bulky (you should see our 4 poster bed which is on its way out the door), ornate and rustic decor.

My style is more transitional with a blend of urban, country chic and rustic.  I like everything bright, clutter-free and clean. When looking online to furnish this room, I kept the stone fireplace in mind and all of Mark's trophies. He plays in a lot of the Golf Channel AM tournaments and was on a winning streak last year.

Since he doesn't have a personal office in the house I decided to showcase his prized possessions in our living room; I think it worked out well and so does he, lol. I'll link the product sources to everything I can at the end of this post. We hope you like it, enjoy!

The Living Room After

[update: I added this new art over the fireplace, so in love!]

Sofa vs Love Seat Tip: If you have space, purchase two sofas instead of a sofa and love seat. Here's why – the price; we paid $849 for each sofa. Well, the love seat was $809, so for another $40 we have one additional seat, not to mention it looks so much more balanced.

The Two Sofas: We've had them since August 2015 and we love them. Because of the color, I don't recommend using them in a high traffic room. We have a family room with a brown leather sectional that we use daily. This room is used about 3 times a week (mostly in the mornings when I reflect and meditate or when we have visitors).

Window Windows Windows: Let's talk about these beautiful windows, the room has 5 floor-to-ceiling windows and 2 others that are a standard size here in Georgia.  They don't make houses like this anymore, I love the floorplan so much so that if we decide to build a new one in the city, we'll definitely borrow some ideas from this one.

Custom Window Treatments: The window treatments were done by us here at Elaine Thomas Interiors. I ordered the fabric and shipped it to our workroom (a facility specially equipped for sewing our designs.) years ago. I was going to use it to make drapes for my master bedroom in my last house but decided to do something different.

A few months after ordering this furniture I was up at the workroom picking up our kitchen valance and saw this fabric. I like to say that it was fate because I was just about to start on my search to find something for this room; so grateful that I still had it.

Fireplace: I love the simplicity of this – since I couldn't find any pretty wood around where we live, I decided to get these birch wood logs online – we love them.  I ordered the hurricanes that come with a metal candle holder that sits on top.

I removed the metal piece and filled each jar with 2 each of the faux green berry branches. The mirrored picture frames go beautifully with the horse and acorns on the table.

The basket on Coffee Table: I did the same thing as with the candle holder.  Using the same faux green berry branch, I placed them in the basket and then added faux finished acorns.

Mark's trophies are on both end tables and the sofa table.  I purchased these grass plants years ago and to me, they now represent “the green” on the golf course. Hey, I tried lol.

PRODUCT RESOURCES:

• Art over the fireplace – Pier1.com
• Two Sofa's – Ashley
• Garden Stool – Cost Plus
• Lamps – Ashley
• Chair – Ashley
• Tables – Ashley
• Art over the sofa – Cost Plus
• Mirror – Amazon.com
• Horse on Coffee Table – Pier1.com
• Vases on Fireplace – Pier1.com
• Birchwood Fireplace Logs – Amazon.com
• Faux Green Berry Branch (fireplace + table) – Pier1.com
• The basket on Coffee Table – Pier1.com
• Custom Window Treatments – Elaine Thomas Interiors
• Rug – Ashley

There's one thing I did that I usually NEVER do, and that's purchased multiple pieces from the same set, put together by the furniture company designers.  This time I did because I love how the rustic chic tables work with the transitional sofas.  We didn't buy the chair or lamps in this package but they did come from the same website.

We are currently having new pillows custom made to replace the patterned ones that came with it, you will see them in my upcoming vlogs if you follow me on my personal social media outlets,  but I may not update this post with new pics.

I hope you enjoyed our living room tour before and after as much as we do. What changes do you like most about this room? Let us know in the comment section below.

More Resources for You:

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Xo,