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Not every project is a complete redo.
Most of my clients have at least one piece of furniture that they want to incorporate into their new, updated space.
You can use antiques, or other well-loved pieces of furniture in an updated, modern room. But, how do you do that and not have the piece look totally out of place?
We did it perfectly with this living room, if I don’t say so myself.
Here’s how we made the homeowners traditional pieces fit perfectly into their new, updated living room.
In this, Part 1, I’m sharing how we chose what would stay and what would go in this updated, traditional room.

Whenever I start a project I ask what stays and what goes.

These homeowners were off to a great start with a coat of blue paint.
The blue walls felt fresh and bright, but the rest of the room didn’t.
The light blue paint gave us a starting point though, with a color palette.
The wall color stayed.

The homeowners also had some beautiful antique pieces.
They had a Queen Anne secretary, a Queen Anne armoire, a traditional grandfather clock, along with some other antique side tables.
But, they wanted a fresh, updated room.
Not every piece could stay in the room. The room was too small for so many large pieces of any wood furniture.
We chose the large armoire for the far wall. The scale worked well on that wall along with the sconces.
We chose to keep the grandfather clock for the window wall because it worked with the height.
We also chose a drop leaf table for one wall and 2 side tables.
Sprinkling the wood evenly throughout the room created balance. It also made it feel like we chose the wood for that room.
The armoire and grandfather clock stayed.

It’s true. We could have really modernized these pieces by painting them or swapping out the hardware. That wasn’t an option. Our clients wanted to keep them as is. So we did.

The next thing to decide upon was the area rug.
Because we chose to keep the dark wood pieces the traditional rug had to go.
It was much too dark with all the wood.
It was also too traditional. If we were going to update the room, and keep the antique pieces, we needed a fresh, updated rug.
The area rug went away.

The last choice for what would stay and what would go was the sconces.
The existing sconces had to go.
First of all, they were nickel and we knew the gold hardware on the wood pieces was staying.
Second of all, they were the wrong style.
Third of all, they were too small and too high.
In order to save money, we decided to use the existing electrical boxes.
In order to do that we needed sconces that had the electrical hook up at the top, but were much longer. That way the scale would be more appropriate and the sconces would take up the proper amount of wall.
The existing sconces did not stay.

Once we decided what to keep and what to let go, we needed to decide what to add.

Check back next Tuesday to see what we added and how this blue living room turned out!

Or, you can always go over to the Portfolio page to see the AFTER pics of the In With the Old, In With the New Living Room.

https://www.detailsfullserviceinteriors.com/in-with-the-old-in-with-the-new

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