Cozy Living Room Makeover

A few years ago, Emma started a series of room makeovers honoring single parents. I loved this idea, and was inspired to join in. Whitney is one of my close friends. We’re actually starting a Girl Scout troop together and our children are besties, and have a shared history and bond of being adopted from China.

She and her daughter are chosen family to us, so of course I thought of her for this project honoring single parents. I reached out to Whitney and asked if she would be interested in a room refresh.

She was so excited. We made plans to start right away … then Covid happened, and we put our plans on hold. The story of all our lives for this past year and a half, right? Well, we recently decided to knock it out after all these months and dove back in! I’m so excited to share Whitney’s living room makeover with you today!

Whitney is a single mom, working from and homeschooling (you read that right!) her 5-year-old daughter. We knew we wanted to create a space that was functional for their life at home, cozy, easy to maintain and inspiring for Whitney’s daughter’s favorite activity—making art!

Here’s the room we created together. I took a lot of input from Whitney including furniture and color scheme selection, and then surprised her on all the small details like decor and finishing touches.

When we first started shopping for furniture, Whitney told me she was loving the Article Sven sofa, loveseat and ottoman. As you can see here, the combination of the sofa and ottoman looks and functions just like a sectional, but with more versatility!

Article was kind enough to gift these items to Whitney. We love their contactless delivery and fast shipping for in-stock items. We’ve had a lot of experience with their leather sofas (you can read my review in this blog post) over the years, and I knew they would be a good fit for a kid- and pet-friendly home design.

All items linked here: Sofa / Loveseat / Ottoman / Floor Lamp / Table Lamp / Rug / Wood Frames / White Frames / Diffuser / Pillows / Candles / Faux Plants / Wooden Tray / Corn Husk Pumpkin / Similar Cable Knit Pumpkin

We painted Whitney’s fireplace Jungle Camouflage by Behr (the same color I painted my front door at home recently). It’s a great neutral shade of green that works well within a variety of color schemes.

The best part about our project was seeing Whitney and Tessa’s pure joy and excitement for their new space. After we finished up, they continued the project by adding some more organization in the adjacent room, moving art around and adding stick-on tile to the fireplace.

It’s going to be so cozy for fall and Christmas. xo, Elsie

Want to see other room makeovers from this series?