When I moved to Los Angeles back in 2019 I had so many plans for my new home. It took months to find a cute little ranch with chic modern fixtures, huge windows and a plush backyard but I was so happy when I finally did. The house had a great open concept living room, kitchen and dining room and so much natural light.
I knew I wanted a space that was beautiful, functional, and comfortable but I wasn’t really sure how to approach the whole undertaking of designing an entire home, so I kept procrastinating and pushing everything back. Fast forward almost a full year later, in the midst of a global panorama and I still hadn’t gotten around to designing. I knew I needed help to kick things into gear so I enlisted the services of Ashley Danielle Hunte, founder of the interior design firm Style Meets Strategy (@stylemeetsstrategy | www.stylemeetsstrategy.com). Ashley was able to virtually guide me through the entire home makeover process from furniture selection, to room set up and picking out all of the right décor. Once all the pieces arrived me and my roommates got to work clearing out all the existing furniture and setting up all of the new pieces. I was surprised by how easy it was to assemble all of the furniture. They came with clear easy to follow instructions which made the process so much less stressful.
We decided to start in the living room which is really the heart of my home where I entertain guests (pre pan pizza of course), relax and hang out with my roommates.
Living Room (Before)
One of the first things that I discussed with Ashley was the color scheme. Initially I thought I would go mostly black and white with a few splashes of color because there’s lots of built-in black elements in my home and I wanted the overall design to complement that. However, after many discussions with Ashley and my team and several hours on Pinterest we finally settled on a style called California Modern which is warmer with a slight boho feel and involves natural woods, and more of a neutral color palette with whites, tans, browns and pops of black.
I wanted to start with a relatively simple project that would make a huge impact on the look of the overall space, so we began by designing a gallery wall with stunning black and white prints and beautiful black frames from Desenio.com. I wanted something bold, editorial and eye-catching and it was a fun smaller project to start with. Check out this video to see how we did it.
Before After
After the gallery wall was complete, we set our sights on the other sections of the living room. I worked with Article an amazing online furniture brand for most of my living room furniture selection. Article has beautiful, high quality mid-century modern furniture that is well designed and works well in pretty much any space in your home. They also offer contactless delivery to ensure that everyone stays safe during these times. Plus, they ship almost anywhere in the US and Canada for a flat rate fee of $49 and offer free shipping on orders above $999.
I am SUPER indecisive, so the idea of trying to find all the pieces I wanted for the living room seemed daunting at first but once I was able to pinpoint the style and colors I wanted, it was so much easier to find pieces on Article.com that fit in with the aesthetic I was going for. I worked with Ashley to get the living room and dining room properly measured so she could create scaled mockups of the space with all of my selections. This helped to ensure that the furniture we picked looked great in the space, physically fit in the room and were complimentary not only with each other but also worked with my plans for the dining room since it’s one big open concept.
We started out by focusing on the larger furniture pieces including the sofa, credenza and side chairs then moved on to smaller pieces like the side tables, rug and lamps. I knew that because I entertain a lot it was important that I have lots of comfortable seating. So, I went on Article.com and took a look at their selection of white sofas and sectionals. I finally settled on the Beta Modular Sectional in Quartz White. The thing that I love about this sectional is that it’s super comfortable and it’s modular so the pieces can be moved around in different configurations to meet your needs.
Next, I focused on storage. Like I mentioned earlier, I can be pretty indecisive at times, so I knew I either wanted to replace the tan wooden cabinet underneath the gallery wall or the mid-century modern entertainment center which looked too small underneath the large television. So I swapped out the wooden cabinet for the Oscuro Cabinet 73.
I love the idea of playing around with different textures and fabrics especially when working with a more neutral color palette, so I was so excited when I came across the Gabriola Ivory Bouclé Lounge Chair . It’s super soft and very modern. I also found the matching Gabriola Ivory Bouclé Pillow Set which I used as throw pillows for the sofa. To add to the cozy feeling of the room we added the Hira Natural Rug in ivory which really helped warm up the space and added to the overall natural vibe I was going for. We also brought in the Ren Pouf and matching Ren Pillows in two sizes: small and large. The beautifully woven and super comfortable pieces from the Ren collection helped introduce more black into the room decor and really upped both the chicness and coziness of the room. I used the larger pillow as a throw on the boucle chair, and the smaller pillows were used as additional throws on the sofa.
Mood Board
I found two unique side tables that I really love, the Tana Stool which is made from teak wood and actually built from workshop cutoffs to reduce waste and the Narro Brass Side Table which has a nickel-plated brass top and a chic Italian marble base.
I finished off my Article selections with the Lanna Ivory Sheepskin Throw which I draped over the sofa, the Stilt White Floor Lamp and the Koepel Lamp in Brass which has an interesting retro mushroom shape and really complements the brass on the Narro side table. I placed this on the Oscuro cabinet which created a beautiful contrast against the black in the gallery wall and the cabinet itself. I wanted a really interesting statement center table to bring out the natural wood in the room and complement the beautiful wooden floors so I was so excited when I found the Marlow Coffee Table a simple but chic round, solid oak table from McGee + Co.
Mood Board
While on the McGee + Co. site, I also found and fell in love with the Gala Floor Mirror which is purchased in Antique Brass.
Once everything was set up, I sent pictures and video of the room to Danielle and we worked together to find décor that really warmed up the space and made it feel like home. We used a lot of dried flowers and pampas grass to introduce more boho elements to the space and found black, white and brass accessories to complement the furniture and bring the whole room together.
I LOVE how the living room turned out. Check out this video to see the whole process from start to finish: (embed living room makeover video)