Complete living room update in a light and fun traditional home

Complete living room update in a light and fun traditional home

• 1.05.2026

I’m very excited to finally reveal my friend’s newer traditional home living room makeover. We worked almost all year on this last year and did several major updates, including wallpaper, new window, treatments, fireplace surface update, and a large enough rug. Wahoo!

Light and Airy Builder Basic Home Living Room Refresh

I love this friend so much and when she wasn’t happy with her living room, I desperately wanted to help! Here’s the before that we started with last winter. 

They love family photos and have small gallery walls of them throughout the house, but the frames felt a little small and thin for this room and there wasn’t much over the fireplace. She likes light colors, but with all the furniture and rug being light, it was feeling a little washed out.

She made a few changes like adding some sconces above the fireplace, which added interest, but it still had a few farmhouse touches that didn’t really go with the Serena and Lily calm, clean, light vibe she wanted. (We did her dining room as well which you can see here, and her kids' upstairs bath.)

She wanted to try wallpaper and we found this lovely charming light pattern from A-Street Prints. As soon as we put it on the walls, we realized how dark the walls had been with the grey paint! 

They added crown molding at the top to make the room feel a little more formal. It’s the front living room off the main entry so that feels good! They also put some peel and stick tile on the fireplace because the black was overwhelming.

For a while it looked like this till we did some more styling.

Said styling... tall magnolia blossoms, a marble tray, heavy and large/presence-full travertine lamps...

A larger rug was so important in here. This is a 9'x12' and it’s 100% wool from Loloi. They have an incredible selection nowadays of modern and more traditionally inspired rugs, and I always go for natural fibers whenever possible.

And then possibly the biggest change in my opinion was the window treatments! The house came with very functional shades, but I personally believe more formal rooms always need curtains as well, and we wanted to do something more natural so chose this bamboo shade in a top-down style because this room faces the street and they wanted the option of privacy with light coming through the top. The curtains are pleated Belgian linen, and wide enough to cover the entire window when closed. Adding the height and fullness there was an instant change to this room!! (Both are from Neutral Curtains and they gave me a discount code for you: my code Suzannah26 gets you 26% off!) 

I kept telling my friend not to hang out on the window wall until we got the curtains up to see! The curtains take the place of art! Again here's the intermediate styling, before the matching chairs and swapping the couch location...

We ended up adding more art on the fireplace wall instead of the window wall. Plus of course, plates!! Hanging plates is a great way to add some interest and break up the rectangles of traditional art. They are so fun and playful. These are the ones she chose.

Here it is with and without the tall branches on the coffee table... which do you prefer?!

We did these natural seagrass end tables, which are grounding and solid, but still light and vaguely coastal. Another new styling piece: these mirrored frames. 

We looked for MONTHS for a pair of armchairs of the right size and a non-neutral, but still light, color. These (Amazon or Wayfair) are a very reasonable price for this size and stature and the soft blue is a great texture. My friend prefers the couch opposite the window so she can easily access the window to use the shades and curtains, and these chairs (they swivel!) are so much better here. Plus they block less light! She's so happy she went for them. They're the Martha Stewart London swivel armchair in blue and I've seen them look great in both living rooms and nurseries.

The throw pillows are from Jillien Harbor, a small business that's also on Amazon, and they are great quality! I love the thicker fabric and piping. So many cute prints, and affordable. 

This room feels so much lighter and more elegant, but still very fun for their family!

Linking all the sources I can below.