Living Room Makeover Ideas

You'll want to rainbow everything once you see this transformation.

Looking at this living room just makes us want to curl up with a good book.

Bye, dirty carpet and crumbly ceiling tiles. Hi, dream destination.

You can barely tell it's the same space!

A wall full of built-in bookshelves is a bookworm's dream! Bit Karie Frost didn't love about it: the white paint job, which—while nice enough—made the wear-and-tear of the decades-old wood more obvious.

This rental-friendly living room redo is peak chill spot.

After a year of living with their new build's plain white living room, Olivia and her boyfriend Tom were ready to fill their space with color and personality.

New tile, paint, and lighting help this fireplace say, "hi, fall!"

Why have a room serve only one purpose when it can have a few?

After quite a few months of casually house shopping, a 1970s house in a great location came up and this couple had to go for it; it just had too much potential.

Spoilers for “Best Room Wins.”While we’ve been in a golden age of TV for awhile now, but only in the past few seasons have we seen more variety in new home and design programming. If you want something besides another flipper taking over their hometown or another pair of questionably employed folks complaining about paint colors, there are actually other options out there.

Not to mention balanced.

温哥华克里斯蒂娜斯坦梅茨知道她的方式round a good DIY. Her site, Ich Designer, is filled with clever and sophisticated home projects and IKEA hacks that have surprisingly humble origins and price tags. We recently featured her re-done mudroom, and her latest living room makeover might be even better. Here’s a wider shot, so you can get more of a sense of the whole room. It was in good shape but definitely needed an update.

When reader Chantel Breault decided to give her living room a makeover, her chief incentive was to give it some life. The space before didn’t evoke much at all in terms of feelings or aesthetic. It was “Neutral, lacking personality, not even cozy,” and Chantel wanted to make the space feel more cohesive and classic. With solid bones, there fortunately wasn’t a huge amount to tackle with this project.

This garden-level space was the home’s entrance, office, guest room, and living room all in one, and though it was full of intriguing art, fantastic patterns, and great furniture, it needed a little something to make it as welcoming and cozy as possible. Removable wallpaper to the rescue!

This is how this living room looked when it was listed by a realtor: a cozy mix of cool aqua and warm brown tones and the ubiquitous builder-grade ceiling fan. The room was bright and inviting, but its new owners were ready for a fresh look. Alison Elefante of @rubyandpeach and @rubyandpeachphoto cleverly created a black-and-white base on which to layer colors and textures.

This Victorian home had so many enviable features—fireplace, hardwood floor, glorious windows—but it needed a bit of love, especially when it came to the fireplace and its “ugly brown tiles.” The fireplace and the room as a whole are now both modern and Victorian, thanks to thoughtful design choices and one brave DIY.

This simple white storage bench, designed by the Swedish powerhouse, IKEA, has found a new home and a totally new look in a Victorian in London. IKEA’s PLATSA storage bench—not currently available in the U.S. so the STUVA might be the best alternative—fits perfectly into this living room nook, with just a little bit of wiggle room. It looked just fine in the white space, but the room now has a completely different look—and, therefore, so does the PLATSA.

This open-plan living and dining room had tons of charm: A graceful chandelier, attractive and comfortable furniture, lush plants, and lots of natural light. Its owner, however, wanted to added a little something extra—that je ne sais quoi that would elevate the space. Reader Kari Hailey looked for ways to add architectural interest and warmth to the room, and finally found something they could do themselves, without spending a ton of money. Kari cleverly added beams!

The holidays are a season of giving, and since today is Christmas, we wanted to highlight a Before & After that perfectly captures the spirit of the season. In just a few hours, Emily Henderson and her team transformed the living and dining room of a deserving family, treating them to a brand-new space as a holiday surprise. Last month, Emily put out a call on her website for readers to nominate someone they felt really deserved a free makeover.

This living room had a fabulous picture window, but that was about all its new owners loved. After refinishing the floors, replacing the fireplace, and majorly expanding the built-in storage, they now have a living room they totally love. Sarah of Room for Tuesday has created a combination fireplace/statement wall, and it was a fantastic way to go. The green paint really centers the room and adds a major punch of color, while allowing the rest of the walls to be light-reflecting white.

Hannah Wilson and her husband own a home remodeling/design company called Blank Slate Renovations, and the home they currently live in is a 1,300-square-foot condo in Dallas, Texas. They had to remodel the whole space and they had to stick to a pretty low budget. Now finished, it’s got a minimal/modern/organic/Scandi/boho style.

Brick veneer plus DIY art makes for one fresh hangout space.

This living room project ends in a fresh start—something we could all use at some point in our life. Here is a little backstory on this project from the designer who helped a man in mourning start anew: During our first consultation, the house was in extreme disrepair. My client, a recent widower, was left to clean up the pieces of his wife who was an extreme “collector.