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Decking Halls and Making Rooms Bright: Our Holiday Makeover with Lowe’s

by on Dec 2, 2015

The holidays are officially here and what better way to kick them off than a good ol’ fashioned room makeover.  

A few weeks ago, Bruno and I traveled to Overland Park, Kansas to make over a Curbly reader’s home, courtesy of Lowe’s. We spent two days with the Dickson family in their sweet, stylish home (Hi, Amber and Lucas!), transforming their living room for the holidays.   

To begin, I should say the space had countless beautiful features: lofted ceilings, a natural stone fireplace, and an enviable collection of mid-century furniture. The Dickson’s have great tastes.

In addition to decking out the room for the holidays, we had a few goals in mind as we worked in the space. Amber and Lucas wanted to define the sitting area and make the fireplace a focal point. They also wanted to re-do the blue accent wall at the far end of the room. These were achievable goals for a 36-hour rendezvous, and it was an exciting flurry of a project. Here’s a peek at how it unfolded…

The room’s transformation included MANY boxes from Lowe’s, and a great team of volunteers.

 

Bye-bye blue accent wall!
Organizing a million pounds of Chrsitmas decor.
How can you not smile whilst trimming a tree?
It’s impossible not to smile whilst trimming a tree.

Here’s a look at the room before:

Lowe's Holiday Makeover: Before

Lowe's Holiday Makeover: Before

And, here’s a look at the room after we got our hands on it:

Lowe's Holiday Makeover After

We defined the sitting area with a gorgeous gray wool rug that played off the wall color, and grounded and mellowed the entire room. The rug instantly made the space feel larger and made the seating area easy to define. 

New rug from Lowe's
That gorgeous gray rug is the perfect place for Milo and Levi to lounge.

We moved the sofa and replaced one accent chair with a 9-ft. Christmas tree – holla’ to the holidays! Once the season is over, a chair will easily replace the tree and the sitting area will still feel cohesive. We added a sofa table and a surfboard coffee table, and positioned everything toward the fireplace; because when you have a natural stone fireplace like that, you should look at it all the time.  

Pre-lit Christmas tree

The week before we arrived, Lucas surprised Amber with an orange womb chair for their 10th wedding anniversary. Little did he know it would be a very happy surprise for us too, and it certainly set the tone for the room. 

Womb chair with orange color palette
That chair! Oh, that chair!
Can you spot our DIY paint-washed wood trees in there?

 

Initially, our plan was to deck the room in mixed metals. Coppers, silvers, golds, and bronzes are having their moment, and they’re easy to come by in Christmas fixings. Once we met that cozy, orange chair we knew it would be a statement piece, and we decided to play up the copper element and add some oranges here and there.

We spray painted about a dozen glass ornaments orange, and we stenciled the accent wall with a herringbone print in a copper metallic paint. Oh, that accent wall. I could dedicate an ode to it and write a sonnet for it, and a haiku too. Because combined with those tulip chairs, and that DIY ladder (made from copper pipe fittings and a dowel by our super-handy Lowe’s volunteer, Nick) it was all very, very good.

Nick made the DIY blanket ladder faster than I have ever seen a human complete a DIY project in all my days. 
Accent wall with stencil and DIY blanket ladder
The copper accent wall inspired all sorts of poetry.

Copper accent wall
You shimmer like a penny
And shine like a jewel

In addition to re-configuring the space, we brought some subtle Christmas cheer to the living room. Given the fact that we were decorating the room well before the holidays, we wanted the decorations to fit the room and look pretty and light, not overwhelming. The mixed-metal palette worked like a charm for this intention. With the exception of some traditional garlands woven in here and there, the room stayed very neutral and airy.

Have a look!

Mantel with DIY branch hanging
Stockings hung from white-washed brush we found in the yard.
DIY blanket ladder
A close-up of the dynamic copper duo – the Herringbone accent wall and the blanket ladder. 
We dressed this tiered candleabra up with ornaments and glittered starbursts.

The darling Dicksons!

Here are the DIYs we followed for the makeover:

 

  • Forest of Colored Trees (We watered down our acrylic paint for this DIY so the wood grain came through.)
  • Copper + Wood Ladder (We recommend making sure your copper fittings match the size of your wooden dowels in the store; plumbing and wood measurements are calculated differently, so a 1-1/4″ dowel will not fit a 1-1/4″ copper fitting, etc.)

Product List

 

This makeover was sponsored by Lowe’s. All words and opinions are mine alone. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Curbly.

 

       

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4 Comments

  1. What an absolute delight this experience was!

    Thanks, Bruno and Alicia, for sharing your talent, sense of humor, and all-around charming-ness with our family.

  2. Amber: Right back at you! We loved the opportunity to meet your family and work with your beautiful home! XO

    Deb: Thank you! It’s a beautiful, peaceful room.

  3. It turned out absolutely beautiful! Nice work, guys! It was a pleasure to meet and work alongside all of you. Thank you all for the opportunity!