Before & After: Andrea’s Blank Slate Living Room

Tara BellucciNews and Culture Director
Tara BellucciNews and Culture Director
Tara is Apartment Therapy's News & Culture Director. When not scrolling through Instagram double-tapping pet pics and astrology memes, you'll find her thrift shopping around Boston, kayaking on the Charles, and trying not to buy more plants.
updated May 4, 2019
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Living room with brown leather sofa, glass coffee table, yellow armchair, and ceiling fan, featuring three large windows.
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(Image credit: Samara Vise)

Name: Andrea
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Room: Living Room
Size: about 150 square feet
Own or Rent: Own

We’re on a road trip across the United States to tell people about Complete + Happy Home, and while we’re at it, we’re saving the country, one room at a time! First up, Boston—where we meet Andrea, her cat Sterling, and a blank slate living room that needs help going beyond the basics.

tan sofa on pink chair

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(Image credit: Samara Vise)
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Before: Andrea’s living room facing the front of the house with the entry on the left. (Image credit: Samara Vise)
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“I love antiques and a classic look, but I’m trying to update by mixing in some fresher more modern items,” says Andrea. She bought her Dorchester condo less than a year ago, and she called us in to help her put the finishing touches in the living room.

With the help of Maxwell, the original Apartment Therapist and Christiane Lemieux, founder of DwellStudio and creative director for Wayfair, Andrea now has a comfortable living room where she can easily entertain guests or just relax with Sterling the cat.

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(Image credit: Samara Vise)

Andrea started a Pinterest board of things she liked from Wayfair.com, and from there, we helped narrow down what to bring in. The main objectives were to give her a rug and curtains to help soften the space and dampen sound, improve the functionality of the space by the bay window, and add some flexible seating so that she could comfortably entertain.

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(Image credit: Samara Vise)
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(Image credit: Samara Vise)

Andrea loved some of the pieces she already had, such as the Chesterfield sofa, the gray herringbone chair (an Etsy find!), her mother’s gold mirror, and her coffee table, so we worked those into the final room.

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(Image credit: Samara Vise)

Using a desk in the bay window is multifunctional: it can be a workspace when she needs it, it can act as console for stacking books, adding lamps or just hiding stuff in the drawers, or it can be the focal point for entertaining when it’s set up as a bar, which is what we did here. We tucked a garden stool underneath so it can be pulled out for flexible seating or an extra cocktail table.

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Sources:

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That’s it for Boston! Stay tuned for our next makeover—Washington, DC!

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before & after
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