madebykaate
- Apr 3, 2021
- 3 min read

Living room transformation

I moved in with my boyfriend in May of 2020, amiss a global pandemic. That alone brough many challenges. Spending so much time at home, we quickly came to find bits and pieces of the house that needing a little more attention. Although his house was nice, there were definitely some rooms needing a bit of a *feminine touch*.

First up: the living room

Let me set the scene of what the before was like: Lots of mismatched hand-me-down furniture, all kinds of colours/patterns, and boy stuff... lots of boy stuff. I only wish I had a pictures of the real before, but unfortunately it slipped my mind before we started redecorating.

For the sake of this transition, this is the before.

October 2020

Now I'm not saying the space was bad, but I saw room for improvements.

The couches:

Ryan got these couches when he first moved in. They were hand-me-downs from his parents. You may not be able to tell from this picture, but they did not match. The love seat and couch were from different sets, and were off by a shade or two. In addition to the colour, there was also a bit of wear to the leather.

The lamps:

You would think based from the size of the lamps, that they would provide decent light, right? Wrong. The lamp to the left of the record player was used most frequently. We plugged it into a smart plug and had it set to go on as soon as the sun set, and shut off at 11pm every single day. It gave off decent light, but definitely not enough to fill the room. In addition to the lack of light, they were also not the cutest.

The coffee table:

To preface, I loved this coffee table. It was nice and solid, and held a sentimental place in Ryan's heart. It was passed down to him from his grandparents, one of which has now passed on. This coffee table now lives in our garage, and we will one day find a nice home for it one day. Though the table was nice, it was two sizes too big for our space.

The record player:

This too was a hand-me-down from Ryan's grandpa. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it was sentimental so we kept it out... until we realized it was broken. The cost to fix it was double the cost of a new machine, so guess which way we went. The beloved record player now lives in a nice tote downstairs to save for the day we get around to fixing it.

The rug:

3 words.. WAY TOO SMALL. This was a $15 rug we found at IKEA one day and it was a good place holder till we found something we loved.

The floors:

Weren't awful, weren't great. This could have stayed, but because we were re-doing our kitchen floor, we decided to carry it out throughout the entire main floor.

Not pictured:

- The tv stand

- Odd decor

So where did we begin?

For starters, we were able to sell the couches. I had a sectional/sofa pull-out bed from when I lived with my parents. That alone made a big difference. We also found a floor lamp from IKEA, and a new side table.

November 2020

I brought in my old coffee table, and then it was Christmas. We took a pause on the living room refresh for the month of December and decorated for Christmas.

December 2020

Christmas decorations went down on December 26th, and the real renovations began. See my next post for the kitchen reno (talk about a glow-up).

With the kitchen reno came new floors throughout. We went with a light grey laminate from Costco. That alone took the space to the next level.

January 2021

Next came the fun part. The finishing touches. This was a little difficult as we were in the middle of a complete lockdown, but thankfully IKEA had click&collect. We bought a chair for the corner, and another side table.

This is our cat, Scotty, enjoying the new chair

Thankfully, a week later our province lifted restrictions and we were finally able to go shopping. Ryan, his mom, and I went to IKEA and Homesense one Sunday morning and scored big. We found our rug, a side lamp, and a bunch of other small decor pieces.

Ryan and a friend put on the baseboards and then our living room was complete. I will do my best to link anything I can down below. If you have any questions feel free to comment down below, or send me a DM on instagram @kmorinn

February 2021