Much better.

But...doesn't that woman look kinda like she's been photoshopped into this picture?

Awesome makeover! Stepping out of matchy-matchy is hard for me to do. *sigh*

Also, yes, @emmabemma, I thought the same thing!

Where are the wires from the TV???? Are they in the wall?? That seems so complicated!!!

@ZHahira, it is actually not that complicated. There is empty space between studs, so as long as you have an opening, you can run the wires down the wall in between the studs.

Her leg appears to have no shadow - I thought the same exact thing about the photoshopping!

emmabemma,

That was exactly my first thought! The lighting looks off.

I think the entire shot may have been virtually staged.

But if so, the result looks great and Shanta can buy the pieces as her budget permits but stay on track to the intended end-result.

So applause!

I like the before better.

I'M JUST KIDDING. I love what you did with it! The curtains are great!

I think she looks photoshopped too. It's really distracting. Also, I'm not a fan of the turquoise with orange combination, THAT seems matchy matchy and rather predictable. I do like the rug and the artwork.

i thought she was photoshopped in too. maybe it was the lighting from the doorway?

She totally looks photoshopped! This is a huge improvement, but as with most designs I would love to have seen the walls painted. It would have made a bigger impact and been less expensive than the rug.

I'm calling Photoshop on the whole thing. Several things in there look off. (reflections on TV exactly the same in both positions, plus the flowers, coffee table reflection, window sofa and end tables look odd to me... but I've been wrong about this before.)

Anyway, Photoshop or no, it still looks great! Love the colors :)

I think the eggshell that's already on the walls works quite nice with all the patterns and textures going on. If the walls were painted it would make the room look smaller.
And yes, that lady is totally 2 dimensional.

Photoshopped! Me too as well.

Photoshop or not, it's inspiring to see how a few simple changes (drapes, rug, changing the throw pillows) pull the whole space together and liven it up. Nice job.

I find it strange that you can see the turquoise shades casting a shadow on the coffee table, but no where else in the room. Those curtains would surely cast some blue tint into the room.

@LauraInCancun - good call on the tv reflection. you're so right.

This is fun - like finding the differences in the Highlights magazines!

Anyone know the source for the tables? Particularly the side tables on each side of the loveseat?

I agree that it looks photoshopped, but I LOVE what they did with the room. It isn't even close to what I imagined before I scrolled down to see it. Beautiful and vibrant!

yeah totally fake!

I love what the Real Simple team did as well. The room breathers better. Or something.

The lamp is fun, along with the color combos, but still looks too photoshopped. It's distracting.

great job! very my style. love decorating with neutrals and then pops of deep vibrant green, blue, and red. great curtains. nice mix of wood tones.

Great do-over. I have the exact same tv console table!

I was hoping they would address the matching couch/loveseat situation, but only because of my current situation. We have an existing couch (from our old apartment) but really want a loveseat for additional seating in our new (bigger) house. We won't be able to find a matching loveseat at this point, and I'm afraid it will look all mismatched like a college dorm (in a bad way).

Any suggestions on getting non-matching couches and loveseats to "go" even if they don't match?

No, not fake. The link above shows the room with our Photoshopped woman. She might be - the room is not. And a very good job they did.

http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/decorating/room-makeovers-00000000058770/page8.html#10

without*

Much better! ...and thank goodness that uplight in the corner is gone!! Those things give good light, but they are an eye-sore.

another subtle change that I love is that they chose "airier" furniture. The open side tables and coffee table don't drag the eyes down like they did in the previous picture.

love it, photoshopped or not its a great transformation.

I have playd around with Photoshop redecorating many times. It just helps to see everything put together.

Highlights magazines were the funnest ever. Now, as an adult, I can spend my morning coffee-time picking out the oddities in the picture. So fun :) My first thought was: it doesn't look real. Then I thought...well, its from Real Simple, so maybe they had professional lighting and staging while the rest of us use a plain 'ol digital camera to photograph our homes, with plain 'ol natural light.

I think it looks nice, but I think for other people who have matching furniture:

I think curtains, art, throws, pillows, and lighting could have been added WITHOUT replacing furniture (saving money and environmental impact). I would just move her 2nd end table to flank the love seat, and put the table lamps on those. Those aren't the same, but the same height. And I presume she bought those because she likes dark wood and the essence of the tract home model. Also, moving the TV to the wall is great, looks better and is safer (won't tip onto a child). I say all this because the new furniture isn't *amazing*, just different. Like she went to Target and picked up some stuff to finish the room. One could achieve a similar look, I think, just by moving what she has around a little and adding color and details.

In the end, I think this is an ad for Real Simple disguised as a post.

It's probably just the lighting, but I see what you guys are saying! Funny. And, looks better. :)

@everythingistaken: We had a couch for several years w/ no loveseat. We had some pillows on the floor so my husband and I would often sit on the floor while playing with our toddler when people came to visit. We tried buying 2 nice matching chairs, but I felt they took up too much room after having all that extra space. Maybe that will work for you. I also searched Craigslist high and low for an over-sized chair & ottoman, since that would look intentional rather than a mismatched loveseat. After years of trying to buy previously loved yet stylish furniture, we gave up and opted for a new set. Its a bit matchy, but I love it.

@jubilee1818
You can see some turquoise on the rug, though.

@jubilee1818
And on the cushions...

Another option for hiding wires if you don't want to drill holes in your wall is something like this and then paint it the same color as the wall, http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=wire+hider&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=8667384493404267451&sa=X&ei=EM58Tt6nHarV0QHcpvT3Dw&ved=0CEkQ8wIwAA. We did this and it looks really clean.

Hooray Forest Hills! That's right near me! I thought I was the only Queens-based AT reader :) Love the color scheme by the way.

it looks like they put it together to show how it could look...nice!! TV wires are missing...so is the tv just hanging on the wall or is there an internal wiring i missed in the prev pic

You can also see the reflection of the turquoise curtains on the wood floor at the bottom of the picture.

Look at the sofa cushions - looks like someone's sitting on them. Also - looks to me like the 'reflection' on the TV could be a picture - I've used my TV to run slide shows of my favorite pictures from a flash drive.

And finally, the room itself; I've been liking turquoise lately so I like the changes - perhaps the space is rented and changing the wall color isn't allowed - because, yeah - I'd have painted at least one wall. But overall, very nice.

Oh come on! First you show us an empty room, with a few pieces of matching furniture plopped in. No color, no rugs, no curtains, no decorative objects of any kind. Then, voila, you add all those items to the room, change a few pieces of furniture and claim that they make all the difference! Bad argument.

The woman looks superimposed! Could be the lighting behind her though...

I love the After; the color and the lighter woods really make a difference. My only quibble is with the title: you can't really say "goodbye to matchy matchy" when you've replaced two similar end tables with two identical end tables under identical lamps. End of rant.

photo shop detectives; in the photos at the REAL SIMPLE link provided by benjisaa2, the woman appears in the thumbnail for the "before" photo but not in the large version of the "before" image.....she then reappears in the "after" photo....check it out;

http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/decorating/room-makeovers-00000000058770/page8.html#10

Photoshopped, maybe. But I do love how this shows you can take what looks like a BLAH dingy sofa and loveseat and totally make them work and look new and fresh. Very inspiring!

I love the transformation! I think the rug really ties it all together too, and centers the room. Also makes it cozier which is my focus on a dreary day like today :-)

Rebekah C. I am in Sunnyside!!

I don't know. It's an improvement, sure, but like everything Real Simple does, it still looks oppressively sterile.

If she's P'shopt, why are the cushions sinking down where she's sitting? I think it's just the contrast of all the elements that's become a bit of an optical illusion.

Notice how the floor is lighter in the second version, too. The way they lit the shoot probably contributes to the brighter end result.

I don't think the TV position or the console it was on in the 1st pic was at all problematic.

It's really the "finishing touch" accessories (draperies, rugs, lighting, and wall art) that really make the most difference. Had they kept the original side table, coffee table and tv stand, and added the accessories and got a similar result. That said, I actually really like all the changes.

Oh, as for the second photo, they probably double shot the photo, once with lighting to capture the room at it's best, the second with lighting that is best suited for the person. It's like what the do when the shoot jewelry ads.

Photoshopped light source behind the shelves. Nice model though.

The model in the photo: she does look photoshopped in, and I thought that before I even clicked on the comments. The lighting and shadows around her (and on her) are very flat looking.

I like the TV, which was probably installed with the wires running through the wall and into the credenza (the cost of that is worth the clean look).

FYI: You can have your TV installed almost anyplace with its wires run seamlessly into the electronics. It's nothing unusual. Have you not seen the ubiquitous tv on the fireplace? ;P

lOOKS great even with the photoshopped woman.

I love it! Amazing what you can dow itha lmost all accessories

They probably had to use flash to counteract backlight, I'm not entirely on the Photoshop bandwagon.

BUT in any case, MUCH better this time, though I'm not a huge fan of turquoise in a living room. I like that the woods don't match, but still go well together.

I like the before better. There was a more calm feeling.

I love this transformation. And those drapes...stunning!

yes. photoshop was the first word I associated with this picture. LOL

Fake. I can tell from the pixels, and having seen quite a few 'shops in my time. (JOKING, see: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-looks-shopped)

Its very nice, but I agree with the person who wished they had kept the origional tables! Not that they were the most awesome tables ever or anything, but they weren't BAD and I thought this was supposed to show what you could do with what you already had. The only things that have stayed the same are the couches and the tv.

@thorndale
Well, there were 4 tables in the before, and 5 new tables in the after... presumably someone would sell their "before" tables to offset the cost of new furniture, which in a real-life situation could be craigslisted anyway? Also, the "problem" was addressing the matchiness (or at least the AT post thinks so, I dunno what Real Simple's goal was aside from a general makeover), which was in the sofas (retained, since those are *really* expensive), and all the tables (probably more easily disposed of and since there were 4 of them, easier to get more variety in by replacing).

Why is the table in the middle of the living room? I don't understand why they couldn't keep tsome of the original tables either, and yes, she does look photoshopped in~which is kind of weird. I also think that someone has been guilty of photoshopping some other things in the picture Having got my b*tchiness out of the way (sorry ;)), I do love what they've done with it. I really like the colour combo (even if it is 'predictable' as some others have stated. I like the idea of the layering of the rugs, it's a really great way to change the look of a room. Overall, I think it is a fantastic room (photoshopped or not) and I would love to wake up to that room, lounge there, and come home to it at the end of a long day~that's the true test.

Oh come on! First you show us an empty room, with a few pieces of matching furniture plopped in. No color, no rugs, no curtains, no decorative objects of any kind. Then, voila, you add all those items to the room, change a few pieces of furniture and claim that they make all the difference! Bad argument.

To be fair, mei-ling, some people really do have the sort of stark, over-matched interiors of the Before picture. Hell, we've seen them on AT before, usually in Good Questions posts ("How can I give my apartment more life?" etc).

Photoshopped woman aside, the revised interior is a nice vehicle for giving people ideas - the layered rugs, the matching lamps, the arrangement of art etc.

Real Simple do seem to be rather overfond of the photoshopping, especially considering that they're not very good at it. Have a look at the Before dining room in picture 7 in the slideshow.

Actually, have a look at the whole slideshow. The home in New Jersey with some sort of giant mutant bedzilla is hilarious. Run before it devours us all!

Where can I can that rug??