To recap, we've been working on our living room. This is the first room we've redone in this new house since we moved in last December. Ours is a colonial style house with a centre hall plan and while I love the traditional layout, the house was lacking in personality and character. My plan for the living room was to create a preppy + traditional space where we could entertain guests or enjoy spending cozy nights in as a family.

I'm thrilled to invite you to open the pocket doors and come on in...

Hello boring lilac walls. I don't miss you at all. The moulding and paint contributed greatly to the transformation of this room. It was well worth the two fingers Sean almost lost along this journey ;)

The mantel was original to our 1960's house and definitely worth preserving. We sought to enhance its stately character by pairing it with classic furniture and accessories.

Does this room feel more adult than our previous home? I think so. That's the fun of a new house - you get to explore a different style. And at this stage in our lives, we're craving rooms for reading by the fire (no TV here), a room where guests can feel welcomed and somewhat pampered, and I can enjoy a cup of tea with a Spotify playlist humming in the background.


The room is 22' long which afforded us the chance to create multiple sitting areas. New built-ins frame the end window which looks out onto our back deck. I never pass up the chance to incorporate a bench seat (we had several in our old house) and this is now our daughter Chloe's favourite spot to chill out.


My choice of seating? It has to be on the new custom English roll arm sofa. To say it's soft and velvety is an understatement. This is the most luxurious piece of furniture we own and I fully expect to pass it on to Chloe when she's an adult. The sofa pairs well with the jute chenille rug I've taken temporarily from our dining room, as sadly, this isn't the rug that was designed for the space. Shipping delays played havoc with our plans so you'll have to come back and see the darker grey wool rug that will lend a masculine vibe to this room.

With this room, my approach to the design was a bit different. The tight timeline required a lot of pre-planning. Most every element, down to the pillows on the sofa, was planned out before we lifted a finger. I think that resulted in a design that was much more cohesive and coordinated. Here's my original Photoshop rendering for the front end of the space:


A few elements changed, but I'd say reality came pretty close!


The image below might be my favourite. It captures everything I love: the architecture of the room, the clean lines of the furniture, the spareness of the decorating, and the calm blue/grey/cream/camel palette that I'm drawn to these days.




That really is how this new living room feels. I'll be sharing more about the details behind this room, but for now, I hope you enjoyed seeing the final result.

Thank you to Will Fournier for capturing our room in bright, beautiful detail. (Fun fact: Will helped shoot our last home six years ago for Style At Home magazine)

A tremendous thank you to Linda at Calling It Home and Media Partner House Beautiful for giving us the needed push to get this room renovated. And a huge thanks to all of the amazing sponsors who made this project possible. I truly loved working with these brands and businesses and hope you consider bringing their quality and beautiful products into your own home.

Thank you to all of you readers who have followed along on our progress and left kind and supportive comments. We appreciate it! If you want to catch up on the past five weeks, you can see our journey here:

Now please check out the other featured designers. There are some pretty incredible rooms out there!