$12 Living Room Refresh

I grew up watching my parents change the living room layout at least once per season. To me, it was refreshing to enjoy the same space from a new perspective. Fast forward several years and here I was, itching to switch it up after a year into homeownership. I think it took me this long because we had the optimal layout given the location of the fireplace and windows.

Eventually that itch got the best of me and I had to do something. We swapped the TV and the sofa, which didn’t sit right until we centered the TV on the window. I didn’t even think of this as a possibility when we first moved in, but it worked out despite the bottom half of the window being covered by the TV. Added privacy from the neighbors, right? Then we took the risk of pulling the sofa forward to create a mini hallway from the entryway to the dining room. It worked. The living space feels much cozier with the shorter distance to the TV, while the whole room feels bigger due to the hallway we created.

Anyway, I’m telling this story to explain how the $12 colorblock wall came to be. After rearranging the furniture, the previous TV wall needed a refresh. The asymmetric gallery wall no longer worked because there was nothing for it to surround.

Here is the first and failed attempt:

First, my husband hated it. Second, the more I looked at it, I just didn’t get it. There are a lot of good round colorblocks out there but I just couldn’t get it to work with all of our archways. So we decided to try covering the whole wall with an abstract pattern:

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The middle photo involved painting over the edges of the tape with the same white paint to seal the tape. It helps keep the lines sharper.

Paint from Behr:

Mink Haze (top)
Pasha Brown (bottom)
Fennel Seed (right)

All I needed was three paint samples to complete this wall.

The Final Product

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