Lofty Living Room

Amy hired me to help her with her new L.A. loft. She recently got married and she and her new husband are really excited about their new space. I would be excited about this one, too...

12-foot ceilings, gorgeous arched windows...


Exposed brick,

And a new kitchen...

They found a beautiful apartment for sure. And now Amy just wants some pretty fabrics and furnishing to make it feel homey.

Amy and I chose these rooms for inspiration -


It seems that Amy is drawn to rooms that are a little bit traditional with a streak of modern. The rooms are both masculine and feminine. The spaces have neutral backdrops with splashes of bright color.

We decided on using Quadrille's Contessa fabric for our color inspiration. Lots of neutrals (black, cream, sage and oatmeal) with those bright punches of turquoise and orange.

image via Style Court

We decided to use a few yards of the fabric as wallpaper on the large back wall.


Amy's mom owns a fabric store, so we were able to get a really good deal on a few yards of this normally expensive fabric. Sometimes I see this pattern come up on eBay, too.

Not a lot of people know about using fabric for wallpaper. It is such a great alternative (especially for renters) to expensive and semi-permanent wallpaper. There are so many pattern choices with fabric, and it is completely removable . All you do to install it is carefully wet the fabric with liquid starch (usually available in the laundry aisle of your grocery store). Smooth the starched fabric on the wall and spray with more starch. It takes some working and reworking, but it is worth it. The best part is that the fabric usually is unharmed by the process. Just a good washing after peeling it off from the walls and your fabric is as good as new. {If any of you want more detailed instructions, send me an email or just google "fabric as wallpaper"}

Amy is only going to cover a portion of her wall and will frame out the fabric with some moulding painted a nice shade of orange. Her hubbie's pride and joy (the flatscreen) will hang centered on the fabric panel, flanked by these vintage brass sconces, circa 1930. We got a really good deal on these (less than $15 ea) but they both need to be rewired).


We're happy with simple cream linen shades with grosgrain trim for the sconces.


For under the TV, this MCM buffet will really look great. I like the black color and Amy says the finish is just about perfect. It just needs a little cleaning.




As a wedding present, Amy received this beautiful sofa from Room & Board. I love the Oyster color and think it will compliment the Contessa fabric beautifully.Amy will make a long boudoir pillow for the sofa out of the extra Contessa fabric


and suppliment with one of these pillow covers on sale for $15 (thanks to Katy for the tip!)


And one these favorites from Twinkle Living.

This $100 Asian-styled Craig's List find will be painted a glossy white.


Amy loves all the diamond rugs she is seeing in design magazines. This rug from Dash&Albert (another personal fave) is a great substitute for the expensive Stark Rugs version, don't you think?


These $50 chairs will sit across from the sofa, in front of the TV.

They are getting painted and recovered in this fun and inexpensive print from Michael Miller fabrics.


And this gorgeous vintage Baker table will go between the chairs. Love this find - $45 on CL.


Amy and her mom are making all the drapes for her living room, since privacy (especially at night) is a must. Store bought or custom drapes were out of the budget (one of the drawbacks of 12-foot ceilings!), so we bought many, many yards of this gauzy batiste linen that was only $3 a yard. The natural color looks great in the room and adds a lot of depth that plain white might not.


To give the drapes a little punch of color and to add to the custom look, we're adding this velvet trim to the bottom and leading edges.
Along the same lines as these curtains.


Since the sofa is facing the TV wall, when you walk into the apartment and pass the kitchen area, the first thing you will see is the back of the sofa. To fix that (and to add some more flat surfaces to the room), we bought this lovely parsons console table off Craig's list for $10. Amy will paint it black.

These black Home Goods lamps will sit on top of the console table.


Under the Parsons table will sit one of these gorg X benches from Ballard. To save on cost, we ordered the bench in the cheapest, most basic fabric Ballard offers - white twill cotton. And to dress it up, Amy is going to tape off and paint the welting/piping turquoise with fabric paint and a fine-tipped paint brush. Talk about bang for your buck, right?
We decided on two floor lamps for the area next to the bergere chairs. This antique turned walnut floor lamp.



And this vintage beauty that we'll paint black.



I love that it is a lamp and a side table.


This orange bench from Pottery Barn will find a home pushed against the long window wall. I love that the polished nickel legs add a touch of modern and that the bench provides extra seating in a pinch.


Since there isn't a lot of wall space, Amy isn't worrying too much about art. She does have one long wall near her entry. I suggested making one of the famous Nathan paintings from the Top Design season finale. He simply painted a large canvas creamy white and then used a handul of other paint colors to drip down the side of the canvas. It looked like a super easy project on tv and Amy is excited to try this herself. We'll use similar colors to Nathan's painting below, but substitute orange for the yellow. I think the painting hanging in her entry will be a nice preview of the living room just around the corner.


And that's it for Amy's loft living room. To get a sense of how it will all look together, here's an early rendering I drew and scanned in for Amy (sorry for the poor image quality).

And here are most of the room elements together. What do you think?