A “Builder Beige” Living Room Gets a Much More Interesting Color Story

ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER

HOME TYPE: House

PROJECT TYPE: Living Room

STYLE: Colorful

SKILL LEVEL: Professional

RENTAL FRIENDLY: Yes

Moving into a newer house comes with plenty of pluses, from modern appliances to knowing you won’t have to worry about extensive renovations. However, purchasing a builder-grade home also means that it can take some elbow grease to make your new space feel like you. Just ask Timala Stewart (@decuratedinteriors), who knew that her “typical builder beige” living room that she shares with her partner needed a glow-up.

“We didn’t like how sterile the space felt,” Timala says. “There was absolutely no personality. My partner and I are both creative people, and we wanted our home to reflect that.”

Here are two ways that Timala transformed her living room into a renter-friendly, “comfortably creative” space as part of the One Room Challenge.

A soothing green replaced the builder beige.

Timala and her partner switched up the living room’s bland color palette by replacing the beige with green-gray paint (Sherwin-Williams’ Evergreen Fog).

“The paint was the most impactful [change], as the shade made the space feel balanced yet artsy,” she says.

Although Timala and her partner DIY-ed painting projects in their previous homes, hiring the local painters to help tackle the project was a worthwhile investment. “Painting, especially a large space, is much more involved than it seems, between the prep work, tape off, cutting in, and paint layering,” Timala says. “We decided to spare our arms and backs and let the pros handle it.” Because they hired painters, the total for the transformation was a little over $5,000 (including new furniture).

A large sectional makes the whole room cozier.

Timala says one of the biggest difference-makers was changing her living room’s seating layout with Joybird’s Holt Modular L-Sectional. The too-small-for-the-space furniture from before made the room feel lackluster, so Timala and her partner made picks that are much more to scale.

“A larger sectional allowed for more seating, and moving the seating to the opposite wall significantly improved flow of the space and gave better viewing of the TV from anywhere,” she says.

With the help of some secondhand Facebook Marketplace finds, including a new coffee table and more statement-making curtain panels, Timala changed the living room’s design from drab to colorful and stylish.

“The living room feels so much more spacious and calm than it did before,” she says. “It’s colorful in a very subtle way … the space has a cool aesthetic and feels unique to us.”

Inspired? Submit your own project here.

This project was completed for the Fall 2024 One Room Challenge, in partnership with Apartment Therapy. See even more of the One Room Challenge before and afters here.

Further Reading

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