This week’s episode is a Styling and Colour Rescue at home! Find out how to transform a room with just one trip to the big box home decor store!
And of course, some hot styling tips you can apply in your home too.
There’s a lot that can happen with one (or more) shopping trips. Especially when you drag me along to create moodboards in real life with pillows, lamps and decor–right inside the store.
That’s because there’s so much power in creating “a look and a feel” for your rooms. And when you have the right accessories, a design plan, plus some styling expertise (aka ME) you can transform ANY room from blah to beautiful. #DecoratingFairy🪄
Let’s meet Meghan (and her husband, smirking in the back left of this photo) 😉
She’s the daughter of one of my sister’s friends and we decided to help bring some colour and style to her new home while I was in Calgary recently.
I traveled to Calgary with my sister Anita back in July to stay at her friend Meghan’s home. And, when we arrived, we had planned to style her living room.
But soon after, it turned into something a lot more epic. And we decided to style several other rooms in her home too!
Transforming a home with styling and colour
Her upstairs bonus room had so much potential to be fabulous so this is the room got decorated before we even got to tweaking the accessories in the living room.
See the fun, Modern Family style interview video here.
Here’s the before:
Shopping in a big box everything store like Homegoods or Homesense is a huge timesaver. Without this store, it would have taken a few weeks to achieve what we were able to accomplish in four days.
Since we didn’t need an area rug for this room, as soon as I found the collection of art we brought them to the pillow department!
Here’s the super fun after! The standing lamp in this corner came from another room in the house.
The best tip for lamp light is to start by adding lamps to each corner of the room.
After
While lately I’m in love with layering art around and behind a TV, we did not hang any art around this one since we had the gallery wall above the sofa and the two pieces across, the eye needs a place to rest.
Also the oversize television filled up the wall on it’s own.
Wallpaper your walls with inexpensive wall art galleries
Here’s the wall that needed some interest, colour and styling ASAP.
And so many people are way too significant about off-the-shelf artwork. So I want to re-frame it for you.
Call it wallpaper.
If you have a collection of art, then by all means fill your walls with meaningful art.
But if that is not your situation, there’s a danger of your walls being mostly empty forever. And that’s just sad given how transformative it is when your walls have something beautiful to look at – and pull the space together!
Meghans husband’s request was he just wanted the art and photos they ALREADY had to actually go up on the walls. So we worked with some pieces they had in addition to a few new ones. But they had lived here for four years since building this home and still had very little decor up on the walls.
I get it. The new build process is NOT easy. Many of us lose steam before it’s over and just want to get our things inside. Who’s got more time or money to decorate?
But that’s why I’m always saying… don’t forget to save money for decorating. Because that’s what makes it truly FEEL like home.
Here’s the after:
The photo above shows the old end tables, at the last minute we found the right ones (below). The large, overscale lamps really make this space come together as well.
Here’s a HOT TIP about lamps: In general, the larger scale they are, the more expensive they look.
Watch me transform this home in a new Colour Rescue episode
Head over to Youtube to watch my latest Colour Rescue episode and find out how much this room cost. It’s a good one. You’re going to adore this couple!
Stop waiting for your house to be pretty!
It doesn’t make sense to wait when you find out how inexpensive wallpapering your walls WITH ART can be!
Stay tuned for more styling tips while I visit more homes and transform them with styling.
Related posts:
How to Hang a Gallery Photo Wall
14 Inexpensive Ways to Get the Look of Real Art
Can you Layer Lamps in front of your Artwork?
What a transformation! I keep thinking about what you said on instagram to stop waiting for that perfect art. That is my problem! I overthink the art and still have bare walls all over because I can’t find what I love!
Same!
So well done!! Big store artwork is 1000 times better than barren walls, and I love your idea of thinking of it as wallpaper. The pops of color, florals, lamps, and soft accessories have brought much needed life to these rooms.
Amazing! I loved just watching this–you make it look so easy–which is the sign of a true expert! Please do more videos like this, even longer ones–and your color rescue videos. I have loved your blog for years, but I am also really enjoying your videos, too! I’d love to see a video doing a “deep dive” into your thought and selection processes when you go into the Home Sense store. I get so overwhelmed when I go into those stores (everything is so beautiful!)
Thanks, Decorating Fairy! You are helping to beautify North America, one room at a time!
Love it! The family was great, funny and then grateful. Hubby was controlled opposition at first :). The litttle girl and the dog were precious. Fun episode. It looked so complete a the end. Boat propeller…. Who knew?
Yes but he came around fast! Yay!
I loved the video–this could totally be a TV show!
Where can I see this video?
It is under the phrase above “Watch me transform this home in a new Colour Rescue episode”.
Oh my goodness this was so good! Better than any decorating show on TV by far! You did an amazing job Maria. This really showcased your talent. Kudos as well to the photographer, videographer, producer and editing because the visuals were outstanding; lots of work involved to produce that video. The light-hearted tone was spot on. What a beautiful home and great family. Well done all!
It was a lot of work, haha. My sister Anita whose idea it was to do the Modern Family style interview spent probably about 3 days with my editor getting it to look like this. Sigh. If I could just style every day of my life, I would be so happy! Thanks for your sweet comment!
WOW! What a transformation!! And while it wasn’t super cheap it was a huge bang for not a ton of money. Totally change the house.Maria I hope you will do more of these it was very informative and made it seem doable.
Beautiful transformation! Please show us more of these-it really is an example of real life. The couple was adorable. I loved it when she said she was too tired to argue, hahaha! been there! Trust the process-trust Maria!!
Loved, esp the husband asking, “Who IS this Maria?” LOL!
If you ever come to Memphis, come stay with me and go shopping! I’ll feed you too. I am continually in awe of your talent. Gorgeous makeovers! ♥
My FAVORITE was the MIRROR in the dining room that REFLECTED and “mirrored” the WINDOW across from it. More light. More balance.
Love this transformation, especially the styling on the built-in bookcases and how the colors relate to the tables and chairs. I do think the artwork above the sectional in the bonus room needs to be adjusted. The arched artwork is the heaviest object visually and needs to be lower to feel grounded and not floating. All the art/mirrors need to be lower and closer together to look more cohesive. On the bottom row I would put the small rectangle meadow on the left, the steer in the middle, and the arched art on the right, lower edges lined up. Then above on the left the airplane art and the round mirror.
Ahhh…loved it! The only thing I’d change is the pictures in the bonus room. They looked like they were jumping up into the sky–needed to be moved down to relate better to the sofa. Otherwise–what a great place now for these lovely people!
So hard to trust someone new and unknown to spend a bunch of your money! I’m glad they did, though; the work you did was very, very good
Thanks Maria for showing us your process for decorating a room. These types are videos are very helpful when you are your own decorator:) My gallery wall came together so much quicker after watching your videos and reading your blogs. Thanks again.
OMG, I would die and go to heaven to be able to go to Home Goods with you and style any room. This was too fun. Bravo!
Cindy
This is so good. I agree with a prior post asking you to do more of these videos that take us through how you chose what you did. Please