Before & After: 8 Living Room Makeover Projects From Our Archives

updated Oct 15, 2022
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

If you are anything like me, you often look at your living room and wonder when you are going to get around to making those updates you keep talking about. If that’s the case, let this roundup of Apartment Therapy’s makeover projects inspire you to take up the cause, even if it’s a little bit at a time.

1. Ferren and her husband started with the goal of brightening their space and spent the next year gradually replacing items with pieces that were more to their taste.

2. Jamie and his wife also made their changes over time, budgeting and getting creative in order to transform their boring and beige living room into a more modern one that suits their personality and needs.

3. A fresh coat of navy blue paint on the walls became the impetus for Jenna to replace some of their older pieces of furniture. She then took advantage of extra space to create a home office area.

4. Decorator Nicole Lanteri helped a family rethink their room’s layout and the size of their furniture. With the appropriate furniture and rearranging of key pieces, Nicole was able to make their living room into three distinct areas —conversation space, work space and toy space.

5. Sometimes going white, like in Shaun’s living room, is a great way to start with a fresh canvas and instantly give it a bright, clean and modern look. It also makes the room look much more spacious!

6. Charlotte went the other way, from white walls to green. She livened up this room with color and items that suited her tastes and style, and it came together to create a cheerful and fun vibe.

7. Tasha’s living room transformation was a labor of love, as she and her husband did the grueling work of ripping up carpet, putting in wood floors, painting— and get this, updated their badly sealed stone fireplace into a modern concrete one for $100!

8. Sometimes a sectional can work for a room and sometimes it can restrict its flow. Decorator Samantha Penner replaced this family’s sectional with a couch and two armchairs to create a more open space. By focusing on their love of traditional and modern pieces and blending the two styles, Samantha was able to create a space that is both tasteful and comfortable.

Re-edited from a post originally published 8.11.14-NT