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Before & After: Contemporary Spring Great Room

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, on purchases made after following an affiliate link. See my full disclosure here.

May 15, 2013 By Jackie

Coral and turquoise are wildly popular colors this spring.  So, imagine my excitement when a client asked me to mix them together?!  My client, Natalie, wanted to freshen up her great room with her new color crushes; coral and turquoise.  My custom mood board service was perfect for giving Natalie the guidance she needed.

Natalie told me she loves color, but when I saw her before pictures I didn’t believe her.  Her room was very neutral.  The dark leather furniture with the dark rug made the room feel very heavy.  Natalie just needed help injecting the pops of color she craved.

nataliebefore

Working with the existing wall color (instead of repainting a two-story room) and the dark leather furniture, I created a plan to breathe life into the room with bright, spring colors.  Along with tackling the great room, I through in a few suggestions for the adjacent dining room.  This is the mood board I created for Natalie:

contemporaryspringgreatroom

Natalie wins the award for fastest-shopping client!  Within hours of sending her the completed mood board she wrote me this:

Wow!!!  I. LOVE. IT.

I have ordered the rug already and just took a drive to home goods, taipan and the overstock warehouse. Then I headed to world market and SCORE. The quincy chair comes in the exact coral color I love so I got 2 and the chloe chairs in teal :-)
They also had these awesome coral bar stools on clearance.
I’m a happy camper.
I love your diy ideas and plan to do them all.
I am thrilled to get busy on my room and your mood board has really taken the painful part of trying to find things away. You have a real gift. I appreciate the work you have put into this as I’m sure your fee barely compensates your time.
I promise to send after pictures soon.

I love the enthusiasm!  Natalie showed she was definitely ready to add some color to her space.  And, today I am excited to share the after pictures with you.

It can be tricky to create a room with two bright, bold colors without the room seeming juvenile.  In this space the neutral walls and dark furniture help balance out the bright colors.  Natalie put it best in the intro of her blog post:

The fabulous designer, Jackie Hernandez, caught my attention from a different blog, with her use of color in home decorating. She seemed to saturate a room with color without making the room appear trendy or child like.

What a lovely testimonial.  I love using color and helping others inject it into their homes!  The trick is finding good balance.  In this room, I tried to use both accent colors equally, each appearing several times throughout the room.

The room after the makeover is amazing.  The bright accent colors lightened up the room.  The turquoise rug helped brighten the seating area and makes the leather sectional look less heavy.  Natalie made the DIY stretched fabric art to fill the large wall space above the chaise.

contermporaryspringafter1

I am sure your recognize the rug.  I have the smaller version in my kitchen.  I discovered it when creating Natalie’s mood board.

turquoisearearug

Natalie made a few tweaks on her own, but stuck with the general plan from the mood board.  She swapped the chair colors, opting for the coral in the great room and the teal in the dining room.  Natalie found the metal accent table on clearance at Target.  It is perfect between the two coral chairs.

metalaccenttable

In the dining room, Natalie liked my suggestion for white leather chairs, but found a less expensive version with higher backs.  She added the recommended table runner down the center of the table to bring some color and pattern into the dining room.

turquoisetablerunner

I recommended a white glass coffee table to replace the ottoman, but Natalie preferred to keep the ottoman since it is heavily used as a foot rest.  Instead she purchased the matching white glass end table for next to the chaise.

chaiseafter

The before mantle was hardly a ledge and left no room for decoration.  I recommended a DIY chunky wood mantel, but Natalie’s husband went to rock star level with his amazing DIY mantel.  He made the concrete mantel for Natalie’s birthday gift.

concretemantel

To finish off the space, Natalie added several of the accessories I recommended, mixing them with pieces she already had.

coraltriangularvases

tealvase

I will leave you with one last shot of the completed room.

contermporaryspringafter2

I just want to go hang out at Natalie’s house in a coral chair with a glass of pink lemonade!!!  Seriously, Natalie’s personality is so fun and happy.  I love her zest for life and her love of color.  It was a treat to help create this room.  See even more pictures and details of this room over on Natalie’s family blog.

Okay, you already know how much I love the rug, so I will pick another favorite.  My favorite thing in this room is the pair of coral accent chairs.  Most people steer clear of bold colors for large furniture pieces, but accent chairs are the perfect place to have fun.  What’s you favorite part of this room?

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Comments

  1. Michelle says

    May 15, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    Great looking rooms! I just have to say that the “P” for Pinterest is very distracting on each photo. :( Otherwise, keep up the good work!

    • Jackie says

      May 15, 2013 at 4:58 pm

      Thanks Michelle. I will see what we can do about making the Pinterest image smaller. It will only display when you hover over the image. If you keep your cursor over to the side when you are scrolling, you won’t see it.

      • Jess says

        May 16, 2013 at 12:04 am

        Hi Jackie, the P unfortunately stays on all pics even when my cursor is nowhere near them?
        BTW I LOVE your blog, long time reader :)

        • Jackie says

          May 16, 2013 at 9:38 am

          Jess,

          I am so sorry. The point of the hover pin it button is to be as unobtrusive as possible. I am sad to hear for some people it has become quite invasive. It appears to only be happening on certain browsers. I just want to assure you we are looking into and will get it cleared up ASAP. Thank so much for letting me know.

          • Jess says

            May 16, 2013 at 6:01 pm

            It’s all good, don’t apologise! Just thought i would let you know :)
            I too have my own teal house coming together but mine is teal & grey/yellow. I love your styling! It has inspired me so much!

  2. [email protected] says

    May 15, 2013 at 6:59 pm

    Great post. I love seeing before and afters. And real world implementations…sometimes its hard for me to picture what things will look like in a room so its great that you were able to include them

  3. Michelle says

    May 15, 2013 at 10:06 pm

    I LOVE the all the color in this space. Amazing job.

  4. Gwen says

    May 16, 2013 at 1:49 am

    I too want to thank your client for sharing. It helps us see what your services help us do with what we have and what we’d like to go. Your client’s room didn’t look bad before–just more summery now! I can envision minor changes of pillows, throws, paint dipped initials like you have done to keep the basic pop of color but keep it changing with the seasons! Thank you so much for this new to me way of seeing how to use a design service!

  5. jessvii says

    May 16, 2013 at 8:48 am

    I have a few favorite parts of this room. I love the coral chairs most – such a great way to add some pep to the living room! But I also like the way all the colors come together. It is a happy, cheery and fresh color palette. I also love how the new living room rug perks everything up.

    Also, who knew there was an Overstock warehouse? I didn’t until I read this post. Although the nearest one to me appears to be quite far, it’s good to know that it exists.

  6. Jessica says

    May 17, 2013 at 12:46 pm

    LOVE the pops of color! I too am craving more color in my home, but do not know where to begin! Where did you find the aqua and white table runner? LOVE it!! :)

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I believe you are the best person to decorate your home. You just need a dash of courage and a dose of decorating know-how. That's why I created School of Decorating.

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