Owning your own home means, for many folks, a myriad of DIY, improvement, and remodeling projects on your to-do list. This living room overhaul is an inspirational example of one woman's journey in making her first home her own.
Katherine Fugit is a contributing writer for Keep Smiling, a blog that offers encouragement "and other advice from first-time home buyers." Looking at her personal blog, Me Machine, will give you a fantastic idea of her enviable eye for great design. If that wasn't enough, this before and after of her living room, complete with new built-in shelving, will seal the deal on her amazing aesthetic.
The site is full of Katherine's adventures remodeling her home, with this being one of the most drastic changes. The removal of the window unit and furnace, the addition of the full wall of built-in shelves, and well-appointed furniture are beautifully executed! I am personally very impressed with the gumption necessary to take on a project of this magnitude!
Well, done, Katherine! Take a look at the full post on Keep Smiling.
Images: Keep Smiling
Alexis' Modern Glass House 
Before & After: A Bathroom Goes From Pinky Peach to Sleek and Chic
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Tom Black Espadrille
20 Scrumptious Brunch Recipes 
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (49)
Awesome! It looks like a totally different room. This was such a great idea!
STUNNING!
Fantastic job.
Looks great! And getting rid of that hideous air-conditioner installation -- priceless!
Awesome! This achieves the thing I love most about before-and-afters, which is when an "after" looks like it's always been there.
Kudos, well done!
Very inspiring!
LOVE LOVE LOVE the shelving, but all the painted over woodwork makes my want to cry :(
Sorry 'thewombat' - I disagree! Painting over the woodwork is the best! It really helps the room open up and not feel so "border-y".
Oh, man- I covet those windows...
So pretty, wish I had those windows in my house!
Now that's a job very well executed. I love the after.
Gorgeous! I do sigh over the painted woodwork, though.... perhaps because ours (rental) is and I wish it wasn't.
Asolutely gorgeous! My first thought was that a TV would go where the square in the middle of the windows is, but I'm glad you didn't go that route.
I love the painted woodwork, too. White woodwork always looks the best to me.
I agree with thewombat, and have spent the last couple years removing paint - to reveal mahogany trim in my house. O
This is beautiful! What a transformation- but I have to agree with those of you who say it was a shame to paint that woodwork. I'm not one who automatically thinks you can't paint wood- but the trim looked like it was in good condition and matched the wood on the stairs.
Maybe the wood looks better from a distance than it did up close? I hope.
Also- I love that green sofa!
I think painting the woodwork was a good decision. When it contrasted, it took up a lot of visual room on the wall. Now the trim blends nicely, and the shelves become the main attraction.
Love it! I've always wanted that sort of built-in shelving.
That... is absolutely brilliant.
Respectful of the bones and style of the home, fresh and new and looks like it belongs. LOVE.
LOVE!! Great job.
love this.
Fabulous!
So so pretty!
The project looks great, but I can't believe they painted the wood trim on the window!
i love your couch..... but whyyyy did you paint the wood trim on the window? I am scandalizeddddd. That wood trim is gorgeous! The white is uber-generic. You couldn't have just as easily stained the shelving unit? It's great, don't get me wrong, way more genius than I have the ability to muster, but that white trim actually causes me physical pain.
I would turn the sofas the other way, but apart from that, I love it!
i love this! the sofa is super cute!
I would apartment-swap and immediately clear off that shelf and indulge in window-seat reading heaven, especially if y'all get rain where you live. Beautifully done!
+1 for the :( crew. Love the shelving though.
Amazing!
Definitely a good choice to paint the wood work - keeping the wood would have made it impossible to get the harmony in the room - it would have been to many colors (as is often the case with unpainted wood). I think it was a great decision.
I love the shelves, which I had enough room around my windows to do something like this.
I do NOT agree it was a shame to paint the woodwork. I really dislike the taste of the era in which this house was built with regard to that dark, stained woodwork. I can't imagine my wainscoted kitchen in its original dark, dark state.
I hope she didn't paint the banister (in the before pic, but not after). Those are a bear to strip.
Gorgeous! The white is so much better, too.
Charlotte: "I really dislike the taste of the era in which this house was built with regard to that dark, stained woodwork." That's exactly why I disagree with you. I wouldn't buy an industrial loft and try to turn it into a Victorian. Many of us LOVE the original woodwork. We looked at a TON of old houses before we bought ours, and sooo many of them had been "restored" to look like some suburban new build. Sorry, but I really thing that shelving would have been STUNNING stained to match the woodwork.
I love the style of the completed room. The build in's look like they were original to the house!
Yeah, I'd have voted to build shelving to match the woodwork unpainted; but having said that, you did a remarkable job!
OH my, this is stunning. I wish I lived here.
Love the shelves but I'm firmly in the "why did you paint the woodwork?!" camp. The natural wood, especially around the window, would have provided a great focal point and contract to the white shelving.
Fantastic, nice job.
love the shelving and the juxtaposition of the modern sofa with the vintage sofa.
I LOVE this makeover! I'm sometimes in the "oh the poor woodwork" camp, but I think the white paint makes them look much more elegant here. Great job!
I would love this in my own house - but only if it weren't white! I am in the sad-about-painted-wood camp. I can just imagine the built-in shelves in that same rich wood color. I even miss the purple walls a little (though a rich pale green would have been better). Lol.
But clearly that is not the owner's aesthetic. I have to say one thing though - are those all back issues of National Geographic up top? Do the owners actually collect/read them? Or are they just for decoration?
The shelving looks fantastic. I do love the painted woodwork. In some cases, I am all for keeping the wood simply stained, but in this case it definitely helps modernize the space and make it very clean.
Another set of beautiful historic stained wood windows falls victim to the paint fad. Good job on the built-in however. Judging by the patched baseboard, and the flooring running in a different direction there, I suspect there may have originally been a small build in there between the two side windows.
That looks like an air conditioner in the first pic, where is it placed in the after pic?
It does look nice, but what I was most inspired by is how lovely that lavendar paint looked against the stained window trim!
I love that the window was restored because that AC unit was horrendous!
Beautiful! Also... maybe she painted the trim because she likes white trim more than the original color of the wood trim. *Shrug* just a thought.
Whoa! These folks live a block away from me. This is insane seeing the project here. Brilliant.