Remember when I wrote this post, “Lighten Up: Living with Dark Leather Furniture?” At the time I was working on this living room for a bachelor. He had recently moved into this townhouse and was expecting friends over for the Labor Day weekend. He called me the week before the holiday leaving me just days (three to be exact) to get this space and two others whipped into shape.

Below is how it looked on my first visit. The cranberry accent wall was a suggestion by his realtor and he wanted to keep it. There was no other color in the room, just a sea of dark leather furniture. The room felt extremely heavy to say the least. Just imagine how dark it would have been without the three windows behind the sofa.
Using the accent wall as the color direction, I brought in a palette of plums and added hunter green to man-up the look. The original reveal included this hide rug which I absolutely loved!!
My client wasn’t a fan of the hide rug, so we switched it out to the one you see below for a look that leaned more towards traditional. How about those drapery panels! Amazing how simple panels can really soften up a space. They made all the difference in the world.

Here’s a another before shot of the living room. This is the angle you see coming up the stairs from the front door. We needed to add height to that side of the room in an effort to balance out the monstrous TV over the fireplace.

The addition of the etageres gave us the needed height and took the focal point away from the television. We used his existing artwork which added another dimension of color and I purchased all new accessories for the display. I bought a few books from the Goodwill when I realized all he had were medical journals. Snore. Next time I have this problem I will simply wrap existing books with white or Kraft paper for a uniform look.

At this angle you can see yet more leather upholstery. I found a new use for the loveseat portion of this sectional, I’ll show it to you in the next post. I replaced the loveseat with two handsome wing chairs and an accent stool.

Introducing fabric chairs allowed me to bring another texture into the space aside from the leather. They offer the same amount of seating, but take up less visual space. There’s even room for a plant now. This tree will thrive in the sunlight and provides a natural element to the space.

It’s amazing what a few smart, stylish furnishings and accessories can do to a space even if you are crunched for time. This room’s transformation was completed in less than one week. Talk about instant gratification! Does your space need a quick change? I’d love to work with you to make it happen. Click here to get started.

Stay tuned later this week to see the other two spaces I tackled in the same home.