A sweet friend-I’ve-not-met-yet named Mary sent me an email this morning. She said they sort of “spontaneously bought a house this week”. They had looked at it a couple of months ago, but it wasn’t until this week that they noticed that the price had dropped a good bit since then, so they made an offer and were were shocked when the seller accepted it after only one counter. I love it when that happens! 😀
Mary said she wasn’t a fan of all the “dark wood and paint”, but that she was excited about their sweet new house. She asked if I’d play around with a photo of the living room in Photoshop to give her an idea of what it would look like lightened up. I Here’s the photo she sent me…
…and here’s the photo I used as inspiration:
I don’t know if this kind of thing would work, but if that drywalled area above each bookshelf is hollow, I would tooootally do something like this to lengthen those babies up to the ceiling!
I did a second photo drawing just in case Mary was more drawn to blue rugs and brown leather sofas. 😉
Excuse the bright white, gray-outlined crown molding. I just did that so you could really see the difference between the wall, cabinetry and ceiling colors. I would paint the crown the same color as the cabinetry- some kind of warm white. I’d go lighter on the walls too. Any light neutral shade Mary loves would do the trick. Last but not least, I’d paint the backs of the bookshelves a charcoal gray color.
The doors above the TV don’t actually have to be doors. They were just in the inspiration photo I dragged over. Mary could hang a mirror or photography or artwork up there. Removing the brass insert around the firebox would be a easy way to update that arched opening too.
I’m excited to see what she’ll do and hopefully she’ll let me share the “after” photos with you here too!
PS- If you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and would like to learn how to put together one of these mock-ups, Kevin and I teach a class called “Room Makeover” over at ShootFlyShoot.com . It’s for beginners (you don’t have to know how to use Photoshop- we’ll teach you) and it’s 40% off this week! 🙂
That would be sooo lovely! God ideas.
Hi Layla! I was drawn to this room because there is a similarly dark room in my house. It is unfortunately in the middle of the house, flanked by the living room which gets some light (there is a covered porch on that side of the house) and a Florida room type porch on the other side of the house. It has no windows of its own. I am strongly drawn to paint the dark brick fireplace white but since that is kind of a permanent move, I have been nervous to do so until I saw this photo! I am hoping all the white will help make this room more appealing as I currently can’t afford skylights which would probably cure the problem.
That makes a huge difference! Hope she will share an after photo!
Question on the class…I have Elements 13. Will that work? I hope so because I’m really interested in it! Thanks!
Cecilia
You have such great skills!
Any idea of the source for the two wood chairs featured in your after photo?
Just paint the fireplace door, including the brass, a flat black. A $3 can of spray paint that is ok with heat, will do the trick!
Cecelia, I have elements 14 and it works perfectly with this class. I would think your 13 would work too. I was releived I didn’t need the super expensive full photophop to make room transformations. I grabbed my version on sale at Costco for $40.
I have taken a few of their classes (including the room makeover one), and they are great! I also learned from them that you can get the full version of Photoshop (Photoshop CC and Lightroom too, actually) for just $9.99/month. I use Photoshop every day for photo editing and digital scrapbooking, so it was worth it to me. Just wanted to throw that out there since I used to think full Photoshop was outrageously expensive, too (which it was when it was like $600). 🙂
ok, first off; could you have the beige chair/sofa from the “red rug room” in the “blue pattern rug room”? That rug is lovely! Or do you “need” the contrast from the dark brown chair to make other elements of the “blue pattern rug room” pop?
And would you leave the window treatments? Or is there a way to soften/lighten them up?
I noticed you didn’t put any lamps in your lightened up versions? 🙁 I love seeing what you select. You have awesome taste! I’m wondering what you’d go with; brushed nikel? clear glass?
I LOVE when you do a presto-changeo! Thank you!!!!
Hugs!!!!!
Oh, absolutely Maryjane! I think either rug would look beautiful with either sofa! 😀
I would *totally* leave the window treatments. I’d just skooch them up a bit more during the day.
I didn’t put any lamps or decor because I really just wanted to show Mary what the room would look like with a lighter paint color on the walls, trim and ceiling. I’m not sure what I’d select…I guess whatever I already had or whatever jumped out and said “take me home” at HomeGoods- LOL! 😀
I have som PB-inspire lamps…one that it is a woven banana leaf look (from Wal-Mart!) and a plaster-looking urn one from Lowe’s. Also a couple of floor lamps. I also like the PB “rope” one that Layla has…that is sort of my style in a nutshell!
fun! If those bulk heads DO need to stay, I wonder if she could possibly apply a false door to them- similar to the inspiration photo, but without glass- to give the appearance of the built ins going all the way up. This Muskoka photos is one of my faves. Looking forward to hopefully seeing what Mary does- and congrats on the new home!!
That’s what I thought too! And if not false doors, maybe they could be trimmed out with picture frame trim molding, just to give some style there.
Thank you! It’s an exciting new start for our family.
Instead of removing brass altogether, we spray painted ours with black high heat paint. I love the dark blinds!
Pretty brilliant! Can this photo shop class possibly work on an iPad? Please email me, if so. [email protected]
Thanks!
What a difference! Nice idea to mix natural brick with the white in fireplace area.
Ohhh my WHAT a transformation!!! Beautiful…I too hope she shares?
As always, beautiful Layla !
Sincerely,
Lisa
Thank you, Lisa! 😀