Before and After: A Plain Attic Space Becomes a Cute and Cozy Entertainment Center

It’s a rewarding feeling when long-term visions for a home come to life. After all, ideas for transforming a space can sometimes form as early as the first walk-through.

For instance, homeowner and blogger Emily Welch’s vision for her attic space was a long time coming: “Ever since I saw this space, I knew I wanted to put in bookshelves,” Emily (@emilywelchstyle) says.

Emily thought built-in shelves would add more character to the 1950s home, especially in this room where the angled roofline would make them feel even more bespoke. As it was, the space was functional enough, but rather plain. Emily and her husband were using this upstairs room as an office space, but Emily wanted “a more casual comfy spot to watch movies and hang out.”

Step one in transforming the space was creating the built-ins. Emily’s father-in-law and her husband, Brandon, built them using a Pinterest photo as inspiration. “They cut all the wood up in the attic with a circular saw and assembled,” Emily recalls.

Then it was time to paint the shelving. “I used one coat of primer on the shelves, then the paint color,” Emily explains. The first color she tried on the shelving was leaning a little too pink, so she painted again with Sherwin-Williams’s Simplify Beige.

“It’s a great neutral, but comes off a little blush because of the color under it that I painted first!” Emily says.

Emily embraced the pink undertones in her furniture selection for the room and chose a fluffy pink modular sectional from Joybird. All of the pieces together create a crash zone larger than a queen bed, and it’s one Emily and Brandon’s favorite parts of the new space — a perfect spot for hanging with friends.

“I love how cozy it feels up there now!” Emily says.

Emily also added a media console, rattan pendant light, and circular rug from Joybird, a mirror from World Market, accent pillows from H&M, and a knit throw blanket from Target to the cozy lounge space, and she filled in the shelves with thrifted books and fun vases.

She says if she could change one thing about her revamped space, it would be adding trim to the front of the built-ins (and she just might do it in a project down the line), but her next project will be adding a window AC unit to the room so that movie and TV nights can extend into the summer. And with comfy surroundings like this, who wouldn’t want to crash in this space 365 days a year?

Happy binge-watching, Emily and Brandon!

Inspired? Submit your own project here.