This beautiful home in Osseo, MN belonged to a lovely family that wanted to create a comfortable space for their family to relax in and at the same time look put together but just didn’t know what do to with the layout of the space.
This is so common in homes these days – the main living space is where families hang out and relax but at the same time it’s also the place to entertain during gatherings so these spaces need to take on 2 roles – a comfortable family room and a put together living/sitting room. Often times I am marrying the two to create one space to serve both purposes! I love doing it!
Before
When I first met with the family and saw the home, they had one lonely sofa in the living room but wanted more. The color on the walls was tan and a bit boring which didn’t bring any life to the space.
A big thing the home owners wanted to fix was the red wall in the kitchen. This color was not a great compliment to the beautiful woodwork throughout the house or the backsplash in the kitchen.
A big thing I wanted to accomplish on the main level was to lighten the space up a bit and highlight the natural woodwork throughout.
As always, I started with my design concept for each of the spaces in which the homeowners wanted to tackle. I this case it was the main living space, the master bedroom and the basement. For this blog post we will not be revealing the Master Bedroom as that will be the next project on the list.
Once the design concepts were established and approved, it was time to start choosing the paint for the spaces so that I could get the painters moving on that – thanks Triumph Painting!
Based on the paint colors and the design concepts, we were on the hunt for the perfect sofa to fit into the space after I carefully laid out the floorplan for this tight space. We needed to find furniture that suited their needs, was durable, and most importantly fit in their space, allowing for proper walking clearance in and out of the spaces conjoined to the main living space.
Once we found the perfect sofa and loveseat, it was time to choose the textile based on the design concept. This beautiful textile was it!
Of course no space is complete without all of the décor that goes along with it. Below is an example of a few pieces I picked up to kick off the décor!
A big request of the homeowner was that there be a gallery wall on the main level to display family photos. I chose the perfect wall in the space and started looking for frames. I always start out by picking up a ton of frames that I like for the space based on the design concept and then laying it out on the floor within the measurements of the wall it’s going on.
Once I have done that I place it into the program to create a layout for the contractor to hang on the wall once we are there to implement the design.
Planning is done, paint is on the walls, furniture was ordered and is now on sight, and all of the décor has been purchased! Décor Day!
And now for the amazing reveal!
Main Living Space
In this space we completely lightened it up by choosing a paint color that was a bit closer to the ceiling color so it drew your eye up to open it up. The walls were tricky in this space because the edges were built with curves instead of 90 degree angles, making it difficult to be able to change the color of the paint from one wall to the next. I wanted the space to feel open and large so using the same color throughout helped create that.
Standing here looking into the living space from the entry, you can see the open space of this main level. The back wall in the dining room was painted a darker grey with a bluish tint to add just a bit of dimension. You can’t see it in this picture but above the table is a tray ceiling that we painted the same color as the back wall to separate the spaces and highlight the tray in the ceiling.
Those plants and pots could not have been more perfect for the space! They add so much life and interest to the space!
To the right here you can see the gallery wall down the hallway. This was the perfect spot to hang family pictures!
Here you can see the tray ceiling which we painted the darker greyish blue. Notice too that the red wall is gone!
I just LOVE the 3 feather pictures which create a wonderful focal point straight across from the loveseat and frame out the sitting space.
The space from the dining room.
The front door is just beautiful and with the paint being so much lighter now, your eyes don’t focus on the walls, rather they focus on the beautiful details of the space.
Main Living Details
I love the detail in these farmhouse inspired console and end tables! I wanted to stick with a natural wood to blend in with all of the other wood in the home. They are the perfect compliments to the space!
Another perfect compliment to the space is this beautiful ottoman which sits on turned legs and casters! Kick your feet up on this at the end of a long day! We really wanted to add a lot of texture to the space because we kept the colors very neutral so a lot of that texture happened in the throw pillows and in all of the décor.
This beautiful cream and blue rug really pulls it all together!
We had some great built-in book shelves to work with on the main level of this space! Again it was all about bringing in the texture on these shelves. You can also see here that above the stove and behind he backsplash that the red wall is gone and the tile now looks beautiful!
I love styling shelves and adding fun details to spaces. This sweet cement house (courtesy of @Carverjunkcomany) paired with a mirrored “Hello” on top of a cake plate and placed on a stack of books is just perfect! There is so much interest and texture in such a small vignette!
As if that was enough! This sits next to my all time favorite – MOSS! I love moss! Adding those cream rocks at the bottom brings in the cream happening in the rest of the space!
The amount of texture that is happening in these vases is amazing!
Along with vintage old books, I LOVE to get a few great coffee table books that go along with my design aesthetic in the space – a little old with the new ?
No space is complete without a basket for added texture!
Ahhh – more shelving to stylize! Notice the small hint of blue in the books we brought over, of course the cream and then again a cement house on a cake plate for repetition which naturally ties things together.
Above this shelving, by the window, I wanted to bring your eye up so we hung this amazing clay pot with leather straps. Because it’s not in a particularly sunny place, we added moss to the pot for a low maintenance green!
On the fireplace I wanted to keep it very simple as to not distract you from the beautiful windows and fireplace so a simple stack of books encased between 2 cream candles with a little flower arrangement does the trick!
Again here I wanted to bring your eye up as we did on the other side of the windows so where we did that by using the arrows.
Lower Level
In the lower level the main objective was to bring the bar area together with the rest of the space and to create a little space for their daughter as this was her play area.
Because this space needed to serve as 2 spaces, we created that visually on the wall. We painted the back wall a chalkboard black so they could color directly on it. This added a bit of drama to the space and draws your eye to that back area.
The walls down here were the same as they were on the main level so we wanted to spice those up a bit and bring more attention to that back area that felt a little out of place.
We created a separate space for their daughter to color, house her books and supplies, color on both the paper and the wall and showcase her beautiful drawings!
The adult space clearly spells out the objective in this area!
