BORED WITH BEIGE?
You're not the only one. (Phew!) Grab my FREE guide, Bring Personality to a Boring Space. It's got 7 of my best tips to help you bust out of beige and let your rad self shine at home.
If your living room has good bones – great basic furniture pieces you love – but is lacking in personality and style, I’ve got your back. There are a few things you can do to build off your solid foundation and create an awesome living room.
(However, if you’ve had the same furniture since college and need a total living room overhaul, these 5 tips just ain’t gonna do the trick. Let’s talk instead, yo.)
Ready to rock? I’ve got 5 ideas to upgrade your living room and bring personality to a boring space.
Can’t view the embedded video above? Click here. Prefer to read? Transcript is below.
Hey everyone, Lesley Myrick here, interior stylist and owner of Lesley Myrick Art + Design where we create some pretty fantastic interiors with an offbeat edge.
Today I wanna chat with you about living rooms.
Sometimes just a few little changes can be all you need to kinda reinvigorate your love for a space. So here are 5 ways you can bring a little love to your living room.
Tip #1: Add an Area Rug
The first is with a new area rug. Area rugs are like art, and if yours is too small for the space, if it’s tired looking, if it’s beige and if it’s boring, this is an awesome way to bring some personality, some color, and some interest to your living room.
Measure your room and go as big as you can with the rug, and don’t be afraid to play, especially if you have neutral furniture. A colorful, bright, patterned, fun rug can completely transform a tired living room.
Tip #2: Pimp Out Your Pillows
The second way you can upgrade your living room – once you’ve got the rug nailed down – is with accent pillows. Try to tie in some color and pattern from the rug into your pillows.
New pillows can totally change the look of a sofa. If you’ve been sitting on and seeing the same pillows for years, even this small tweak might have a huge impact on how you feel in your space.
Tip #3: Clear Clutter
The third way to upgrade your living room is actually by getting rid of stuff. Clearing the clutter. You might be surprised to know that even just a couple of things out of place can really affect how you feel about a space.
Take 10 minutes, sweep the room of anything that doesn’t belong there, find a home for it – and if you can’t, and you don’t need it, throw that crap out. That is going to totally change how you feel about your room.
Tip #4: Upgrade Your Window Treatments
Tip number 4 is to upgrade your window treatments. Window treatments are a part of decor that a lot of people overlook. They don’t realize the impact that a really nicely dressed window can have on a space.
Depending on the look you want you could do clean and simple shutters; you could do a sheer roller shade that’s gonna filter light and bring a little bit of softness. I tend to be a fan of beautiful curtain panels – color, pattern, and texture. Something that’s going to soften hard walls and hard lines and really just make the space feel cozy and complete.
Tip #5: Add a Badass Statement Accessory
And finally, the last thing you can do to breathe new life into your living room is to find some totally funky badass statement accessory.
Having that one offbeat piece – it is going to bring character and personality and it’s really gonna show your style in a space that might be feeling a little lackluster.
If your living room’s got a great foundation – you’ve got good furniture pieces you like but it’s feeling like a snooze, a rug, new pillows, curtains and window treatments, get rid of the clutter, and that one “wow” piece are completely going to transform your space.
Want more awesome design tips and inspiration to break out of a “blah” home and let your rad self shine? Get my FREE guide, “Bring Personality to a Boring Space” right here. 🤘
There’s nothing better than a satisfying “after” photo, and I’ve been dying to share this colorful kids craft room with you! You may remember the “before” photos from this space in Waco, Texas:
Yup. Snooooooozefest. But don’t worry – some funky wallpaper, chic furnishings, and gorgeous original art has totally transformed this space.
We kept the existing paint color – Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter – since it’s such a classic, pretty grey. And it was the perfect neutral backdrop to allow the bold color and pattern of the wallpaper, art, area rug, and accessories to be the star of the show.
The kids each have their own personalized workspace, complete with adorable desk lamps and industrial-chic bulletin boards to display homework, crafts, and artistic creations.
And lucky mama, who’s an entrepreneur and works primarily from home, gets this UHHMAZING workspace. The brass and white lacquer desk is beyond chic in person, and the original artwork by Lesley Grainger brings such a fun energy to the room and ties in the bright wallpaper and area rug.
And can we please take a moment to savor this incredible custom floral arrangement from Tenfold Floral? Adair and Aelish from Tenfold are flower-loving geniuses who used the moodboards for this project as inspiration to create this stunning centerpiece as a thank-you gift for my client.
I’m so grateful when clients let me play and push the envelope with color, pattern, and design. I think this colorful kids craft room is a smashing success. (And big thanks to my rockstar photographer Jeff Jones for translating this space into these gorgeous photos.)
PS. Interested in starting a design project of your own? Book your complimentary Design Discovery Call and let’s talk. ✌
As the home columnist for Wacoan magazine, I’m psyched to share my insights and ideas about interior design and home decor each month. Here’s an excerpt from my current column, “Playing With Pattern: How to Layer Patterns for a Personalized Look”. Read the full article over at Wacoan.com, and check out the article archive here.
As a teen, zebra print was my jam. I had lime green bedroom walls with a zebra-print bedspread, zebra area rug and zebra accent pillows. (Clearly, when I love something, I go all in.) I had a friend in college who drove a vintage purple Volkswagen Beetle with zebra upholstery, and I almost died of jealousy.
As an adult, I still adore zebra print, but my love for pattern has expanded into other organic-inspired designs like leopard, ikat and batik. These busy patterns are not as intimidating as you might think. As Jenna Lyons, former president and creative director of J. Crew, famously quipped, “As far as I’m concerned, leopard is a neutral.”
In interior design, patterns get a bad rap as being hard to work with and overwhelming. While it’s true that it’s easier to mix and match solid colors, it’s a total snooze to live a life without pattern. And once you know the basics, it’s really not that hard to decorate with a mix of patterns…
READ MORE…
Your home should make you feel totally amazing. Is something missing? I’ve got your back. Book a complimentary call with Lesley and let’s talk about how you can have a home you love. 👇
I’m kind of obsessed with accent pillows.
You have NO IDEA of the self-control I display by not having a home full of pillows! (Although my husband would argue with you that we do, in fact, have a home full of pillows.) I think they’re just the best way to finish off a sofa, accent chair, or bed.
I’m totally drawn to pillows that have something special to them, whether it be a gorgeous embroidered design, a graphic print, cute trim detailing, or fun corner tassels.
While it was near impossible to narrow it down, I’ve rounded up 10 of the best accent pillows that will bring a major “wow factor” to your space:
1. Performance Pillow | 2. Embellished Birds Pillow | 3. Helidor Pillow | 4. Lacecap Decorative Pillow | 5. Velda Ocean Basketweave Pillow | 6. Mar Swirl Pillow | 7. Velino Pillow | 8. Les Touches Embroidered Pillow | 9. Circulate Pillow | 10. Amolonga Zig Zag Pillow
Here’s a tip: don’t be afraid to play with patterns on your pillows, especially if you have a plain sofa. Layering a couple of beautifully textured or patterned pillows can totally transform a boring piece of furniture into something chic and special.
“Lesley’s Picks: 10 Best” are roundups of my favorite home furnishings. Check out the complete “10 Best” archives here, and find more furniture, home decor, and lighting I love on Pinterest.
Some weeks, you spend more waking hours in your office than at home. Shouldn’t your office totally rock and be a space that supports and inspires your awesome work? I love designing offices because I’m a nerd who is obsessed with office supplies, plus I believe that a “corporate” space doesn’t have to suck.
Let’s go behind the scenes of one of Lesley Myrick Art + Design’s commercial interior design projects and take a tour of this chic and badass Realtor’s office in Waco, Texas. I’ve shared the progress and the after photos previously but dive a little deeper in today’s video:
Can’t view the embedded video above? Click here. Prefer to read? Transcript is below.
Hey everyone, Lesley Myrick here.
I’m an interior stylist and owner of Lesley Myrick Art + Design where we create interiors with an offbeat edge.
So at Lesley Myrick Art + Design we mainly do residential design projects.
I love doing people’s houses. It’s been my goal since I was five years old to “make people’s houses pretty.”
But every once in a while…
a commercial project comes our way and they’re usually so much fun there’s no way I can say no.
We recently wrapped a project with a Realtor’s office here in Waco, Texas, and I want to walk you through the whole design from start to finish.
So you can see the space was a pretty big corporate snooze-fest. Bad ceilings, ugly carpet – the saving grace was the phenomenal walls of windows that this office had.
This Realtor loves turquoise and white,
and feminine, and brass, and just this fresh, pretty vibe and it was so much fun to get to translate her wishes into this space.
So, here’s a look at the Pinterest board where we started pulling together our ideas and selections. And here’s the moodboard to give you an idea of how all those pieces were going to work together in the space.
Doing these moodboards is one of my favorite things for clients because it really starts to give them a sense of proportion. How colors are going to fit together; the scale of furniture pieces; how all these sort of random items are actually going to flow in a room.
And what I love the most is..
seeing the moodboard and then – aaah! The final space.
Even though this is what I do, it is still so cool to me to see when my vision comes to life and looks how I planned it.
I think this office is so chic, and if I were a client of hers I would be so impressed working in this Realtor’s office. It’s fresh, it’s pretty, it’s professional, it’s sleek, it shows she has style and pizzazz – and that’s exactly what we were going for.
Plus – there’s a bar. You can’t argue with having a bar in an office.
This is just one of many design projects that we’ve been working on.
I love what I do and I’d love to do it for you too.
If you’ve been needing an expert eye to guide you through a design project or if you’re just feeling stuck, I would love to talk to you.
You can book your complimentary Design Discovery Call where we’ll get to know each other and start the process of making something awesome together. ✌