Client Design Board ~ California Living Room

As I've talked about recently, I am helping a friend decorate from afar. Her bedroom so far is going well. She has purchased nearly every item she needed, except for the lamps. It's pretty cool to see it all come together! Hopefully I will be able to share some "after" pictures soon.

Next we started working on her living/dining room. She was a bit undecided on what colors she wanted to go with, but offered this picture as an inspiration:

Erinn Valencich

I attempted to recreate the airy, sophisticated vibe using greens and blues for the color scheme, with bronze accents. Turns out we are going to go with deeper tones than what I chose on my design board, but I thought I would share it anyway:

The living room needs a focal point, which we can create by arranging several frames above the couch, as shown. I suggest getting cheap frames from IKEA or Michael’s, then use pages from a calendar or print out pictures online (such as here) to create a fun and affordable art wall.

Since we can’t install curtains, I thought a rug would help to bring color to the room, as well as help define the living from the dining area. More color can be brought in with pillows (the fabrics used here are all from Calico Corners, and the pillow shown is from here), and with a throw blanket. The bronze and other accessories here are ideas of items she could put on the coffee table, side table, and TV console. A tall plant would look great near her window.

The mirror shown on the board (top), is for the dining area. She does not have space to add anything more than her existing round table and chairs, so I was thinking of putting this mirror on the wall behind the table with a floating shelf underneath to create a little table to add more decorative touches. 

So there you have it. Like I said, we'll be changing the colors a bit, but she really liked the art wall idea as well as all of the decorative touches. I look forward to seeing it come together!