Before and After: A TV Wall Shakes Its “Just-Moved Emptiness” with a Small-Budget, Big-Impact Redo

If you’ve ever moved into a new home at one time or another, you know exactly the look that DIYer Maria Dolores Slaberri calls “just-moved-emptiness.” The vibe — blank, impersonal — isn’t just relegated to new homes, either. Sometimes, spaces that you’ve lived in for a while can start to take on that blah style.

Maria, a designer who blogs at Lola Can Make It, was facing just this look in her home’s music and TV room. The wall against which the TV was set was a plain gray — a perfectly nice color, but not particularly exciting. As for the TV? It was parked on a black stand that didn’t make much of a statement, either. And that was it — there was no other color, decor, or storage to the little space.

Maria wanted to give the area some more character and charm, and wanted to make it a little more functional, too (guitars that were stored in the room were on the floor were “about to be kicked out,” Maria says).

To get her husband on board, Maria decided to use a little tech wizardry. Using Adobe Photoshop (see her handiwork above!), Maria created a mapped-out plan of what she wanted the wall to look like, including the new furniture, color, and artwork. “That was much easier than just suggesting painting a wall green!” Maria says. Once he bought in, the rest came easily.

Maria started by taping off her accent wall before painting it a soft green-gray (Benjamin Moore’s Intrigue). Confining the color to just this one section of the room helped make it feel like its own zone.

Once the wall was painted, Maria brought in her fresh picks. The mid-century-inspired TV stand came new from Amazon, as did the new floating wood shelves and the guitar hangers (all the better to get those guitars off the floor). For the art, Maria turned to consignment shops. Those pieces are some of her favorite parts of the room. “I love that moody Beethoven looking at us surrounded by instruments and discs,” she says.

The space now looks completely different — and much more personal than the old “just-moved” one that was there before. “It was a minimal investment, with a huge reward,” Maria says. And really, what can be better than that?

Inspired? Submit your own project here.