Living Room Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Kelley Astore Interiors

Fabulous Find Underneath Wall to Wall Carpeting

Today we are back in Great Falls, Virginia, working with a client to remodel their living room. When I saw the space, I instantly felt that the wall-to-wall carpeting was outdated and needed to go. Wall-to-Wall carpeting can sometimes work, but in most cases, it makes the room seem smaller. Not to mention that wall-to-wall carpeting traps a lot of dust, which is no good for anyone with allergies. The other issue with wall-to-wall carpeting is that it makes it more difficult to split the room up into sections, whereas using rugs allows the floor to be divided up.

All this to say that the wall-to-wall carpeting needed to go. Keep reading to find out how this first step led to the transformation of this living room floor.

Tearing Up The Carpeting

My lovely contractors and I got to work tearing up the old carpet. It had been installed in sections, so we began removing each carpet piece, the padding, and the tack strips. And guess what we found?! The most beautiful hardwood floors that I knew would look stunning with a bit of TLC. The wood was in great condition and just needed a little restoration and detail work. I was relieved to see this because when removing the carpet you don’t always know what you’re going to find underneath. Oftentimes, it reveals damaged or molding floorboards. We were all so delighted to find the beautiful woodwork.

Preparing the Design

As soon as my client and I saw the beautiful wood floor, we knew it was going to stay. But I knew some detail work would take this from a nice living room to a stunning living room. The living room is two steps down from a landing that features black marble. There are pillars around this landing that stand on black bases. When set up with furniture, the room had two beautiful black cabinets and a lovely modern black coffee table. I wanted to incorporate this black accent color into the floors for continuity in the design, so I planned on giving the floors a black-painted border. With all that in mind, we could begin the restoration process.

Restoring the Wood

We were happy with the color of the wood and didn’t want to stain it again, so the first step to the restoration process was buffing the floors to prepare them for a wood finish. Buffing is basically where you remove the very thin top layer of wood finish previously laid down, thereby also removing any built-up dust or grime. This process is similar to very fine sanding. My contractors used an industrial floor buffer for the main floor and hand-buffed the stairs. After that, we measured a 4-inch border around the edges of the room, taking our time and being very precise – it wouldn’t work unless it was neat.

Once the wood was prepped, we laid down a water-based satin wood finish to give the wood that glossy sheen. A water-based satin finish is a great choice for a living space because it is scuff-resistant and easy to clean. The wood is looking really beautiful already!

Finishing Touches

After the wood was restored, the only job left was to paint the black border around the room. Using tape for precision, we took our time with this step ensuring that it was perfect. Once the wood finish and the paint were dry, the floor transformation was complete. We moved all the furniture back into the room, and what an incredible difference the floors have made! The surprise of the beautiful wooden floors below the original carpeting gave way to such a magnificent finished design. The wooden floors make the entire room feel so much warmer. I absolutely love how the black border turned out and more importantly, my client loved it too. All that is missing from this beautiful living room is a nice area rug for the sofas.

Interested in renovating?

If you have outdated wall-to-wall carpeting, it’s time to consider renovating. Changing the floors goes to show that sometimes you don’t need a million changes to transform a room. Oftentimes one key change can make the biggest difference. However, working on floors is always a laborious task because you often need to be on your hands and knees to complete the work. Let me and my team of highly skilled contractors and craftsmen help you! Visit our services page to book your free consultation today.

Dimension and Texture: Installing a Beadboard Pane Ceiling

Installing a Beadboard Ceiling

Interior design is all about the dimensions and texture of a space. Often, it’s the finer details that make the biggest difference to a design. My job is to find where these details can be added to create those dimensions. I am currently working with a client in Reston, Virginia to remodel their living room. It is a beautiful space with loads of potential. One of the most striking aspects of the room is its shape: specifically the cathedral ceilings that reach 20 feet high. I wanted to highlight these beautiful high ceilings without distracting from the living room’s other key features, like the fireplace.

With that in mind, my client and I agreed on installing a beadboard ceiling: the perfect way to add that extra dimension and texture!

What is beadboard?

Beadboard or beadboard paneling refers to lining up equal-sized planks of wood vertically or horizontally to cover a surface. It is frequently used on walls, covering the bottom half or even the full length. It adds that extra texture for the eye to land on, but it remains subtle. Depending on how you install and style beadboard paneling, it can be elegant, natural, rustic, classy, or all of the above.

We decided to install the paneling to run horizontally. This will help the room appear a bit wider than it actually is. Keep reading to find out how we installed the beadboard ceiling and how it ended up!

Prepping

Like any design project, the first step was to prep the space and the materials. Because the ceilings are 20 feet high and the panels are so long, we knew that simple ladders would not be enough to install the beadboard. We opted for scaffolding instead. However, that meant that the very first step for our team was to completely remove all the furniture from the living room and into the garage to make space for the scaffolding. Once we cleared the room, we set up our scaffolding and got to work preparing the materials.

As usual, my team and I measured and cut the boards on site. Thankfully, my client’s garage was large enough for us to prepare the panels. You can see in this photo that it took two people to cut these boards because they were so long! We also had to cut special beadboard panels to fit around the lights in the ceiling. This would’ve been difficult to do if we weren’t able to do it on site.

The last step we took to prepare for the installation was removing the existing molding around the top of the brick fireplace. Once that was done, we were ready to begin installing the ceiling!

The installation

A project like this requires many hands-on board to ensure that it is done efficiently and more importantly, safely. We were essentially hanging up long heavy wooden planks from 20 feet high. Needless to say, safety was a priority. For this reason, I made sure that a few people on my team were there throughout the installation to help prop the boards up as they were secured into place.

For ease, we decided to use a nail gun to fix the beadboard panels. We started with the outside edge of the wall and moved inwards and upwards to the center. Once one side was done, we repeated the same process on the other side. This was a tedious and laborious task, but my team of contractors are amazing and were able to get the job done very efficiently!

Future plans

I absolutely love how the beadboard ceiling installation turned out. But the design is far from finished. The ceiling boards now need to be caulked and painted, but we won’t be able to do that until we tackle the rest of the room. We are planning to install two built-in bookcases on either side of the fireplace and redo the mantle. The blue tape in the image is where a TV will eventually go up. After that, some fresh coats of paint will bring the design together and my clients will be able to enjoy their new living room.

If you want to stay updated on how the rest of this renovation goes, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Pinterest! If you’re interested in renovating your home, visit our services page to book your free consultation today!

Bespoke Upholstery for 2021: Living Room Remodel

Your living room is one of the most important rooms in your house. It’s where you unwind, spend valuable time with your family, and welcome guests to relax. The way your living room looks can make or break an entire house design. When working with clients on living room remodels, we always recommend they use bespoke upholstery. Bespoke Upholstery comes with many benefits, from sustainability, creative control, and individuality. Today we’ll be taking you through a living room remodel that used bespoke upholstery to bring the design together.

The Remodel

We started with a pretty blank room. It had a beautiful piano and a wall hanging sitting on the floor. The room had beautiful large windows and the walls were painted in a neutral color with bare wooden floors. The client wanted to continue with a neutral palette, and have gray be the main color. The first step was to install beige-toned carpeting to separate the space from the rest of the floor plan, and to create a more welcoming, cozy, and comfortable living room.

We agreed that bespoke upholstery was the best way to go: it gave us the most control over the design and ensured that the furniture and drapery would be of the highest and longest-lasting quality. Rather than going with a sofa set, we decided to use four armchairs to create a sitting area around a small round table. Armchairs are often cozier than sofas, and using four of them to create a sitting area helped to section the room off. We upholstered the armchairs in a textured gray fabric from Kravet. We made sure to use a textured fabric and add a decorative stud trimming to the armchairs to add dimension and details for the eye.

To match the armchairs, we used heavy gray linen from Kravet for the custom drapery. This room was on the smaller side and didn’t have exceptionally high ceilings, so we made sure to hang the drapes as high as possible and to have them reach all the way down to the floor to create an illusion of taller ceilings and a larger room. The piano stayed in the same general location by one of the windows, so we added black cabinetry on the opposite side to balance out the black of the piano. Two lamps with white shades and gray bases were added on top of the cabinets to provide soft lighting in the evenings. We then added in a small round table that had a grey top with black legs to tie the gray and black together.

The client wanted an ottoman, so we upholstered one in a textured orange fabric from Romo. The final step was to tie the entire design together with details and decor. Every armchair needs a cushion, so we had four throw cushions custom made using a gray and orange patterned fabric from Romo. These cushions were crucial in tying the design together. They had a few tones of gray, dark, and light, which tied the black piano/cabinets together with the gray armchairs and drapes. They also have just a few strips of white and orange running through them that matched perfectly with the ottoman and lamps. We hung some matching wall art of nature and used orange flowers and leaves to decorate the piano and cabinets, completing the nature theme. Lastly, we added a few smaller details such as coasters, a house plant for the coffee table, and a few books.

Overall this was a super successful design, and I’m delighted knowing that my client gets to enjoy this living room with their family for many years to come. Design is making a composition of items that are different but still match and complement each other. Going with bespoke upholstery and custom-made cushions and drapes allowed us to have full creative control. If you are looking to remodel, we highly suggest choosing bespoke upholstery for 2021.

Looking to remodel?

Among interior designers in Northern Virginia, we are nearly unique because virtually all of our cabinets, upholstery, and window treatments are completely custom-designed by Kelley and produced to her precise specifications by craftsmen here in the area. You can be assured that our designs will be expertly tailored for your living environment, and you will not find these elements of your design appearing anywhere but in your home. Head to our services page to get started today!

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