Berwyn Bungalow: Living Room reveal
I am super excited to have this as my first blog post! I originally was going to use our extreme bathroom renovation to kick things off, but thought it would be better to start off at the front of the house and work our way through.
Before we get to the big reveal details, let me give a little history on our house. It’s a cute little three bed one bath bungalow that was built in 1914. We had been looking for months and came across a listing for a foreclosure. While we weren’t fans of the exterior vinyl siding and color, we decided to come take a look. We walked in and fell in love with all of the character the interior had. The house had all of the original woodwork, although it was covered in a thick drippy coat of white paint, thanks to the foreclosing bank. The windows were still the original windows with counterweights, and by a miracle, the built-in in the dining room had escaped the bank's white paint fanaticism! The walk through was a quick one and we put an offer in that day. A month later the house was ours. Now we can get to the good stuff!
Like I said above, we were in LOVE with all of the original woodwork that had survived the owners before us. But every square inch of the place needed to be painted. Just so you can see what we were working with, here are some of the before pictures from the entryway and living room.
As you can see, everything was painted a wonderful shade of purple. It reminded me of Barney! While purple is a lovely color, it didn’t work with my vision and had to go! I wanted the living room to feel as big and bright as possible, but had to make sure we pulled out the house’s historical charm while balancing our more modern aesthetic. I also wanted people to have a dramatic experience when they walked into our home. So, are you ready to see what became of the Barney purple living room? How did I get that dramatic experience? Well take a look!
Photo| Margaret Rajic Photography
Photo| Margaret Rajic Photography, Styling| Liz Perry Interiors
Photo| Margaret Rajic Photography, Styling| Liz Perry Interiors
In order to tick all the boxes that I needed to, I decided playing with layered shades of black and white was the best option. Since whites tend to be one of the hardest colors to pick, that’s where I started. The reason whites are so hard to work with is because they all have some type of subtle undertone, and depending on the type of light you have, the color can change. For example, East facing light is a cooler light and pulls out cool tones and West facing light is a warmer light and pulls out warm tones. The back of our house faces East and the front faces West, making for a balancing act to get the right white. I ended up sampling 4 different colors from Farrow & Ball for the walls - Wimborne White, Pointing, Wevet, and Strong White. After living with the colors for a few days I decided on Wevet. Wimborne White and Pointing were to yellow in the front of the house, and Strong White was to gray in the back of the house. Wevet, with its slight gray undertone was the perfect balance . The final ceiling choice was All White, which is their brightest white and helps play up the gray undertones in Wevet.
Farrow & Ball Wevet No. 273
Farrow & Ball Railings No. 31
For the dark tone I didn’t want it to be a stark black, just a shade of black. I’ve always loved Railings, another Farrow & Ball color, and knew that this was going to be my color. After our first look at the house I told my husband I was going to paint all of the woodwork Railings. He thought I’d lost my mind! I know it would make all of the original woodwork pop, and actually make the living room feel bigger and brighter. I also used it to create a moody dramatic feel when you walk it. A previous owner long ago closed in the original porch and created a double entryway. So you first walk into a fourteen foot vaulted ceiling entry way that is wrapped in Wevet with a Railing floor. Then, when you walk through what was the original front door you step into a room that is wrapped in Railings (that’s the room in the above photo). This was another visual trick to make the living room feel bigger and brighter.
For our space, this was the sweet spot of pulling out the original features we love, but also making the space fit our more modern aesthetic. Our prints and frames stand out against the Wevet but it’s not too cool that it clashes with the warm walnut furniture. I have to give a shout out to my hubby because he built all of the wood pieces in our living room. He grew up helping his dad in his woodshop and picked up a lot of skills that I take advantage of! He’s the technical guy that makes all the ideas swimming around in my head happen. I hope you all enjoyed the first blip into our Bungalow renovations! If there are any questions about how I made certain choices or where anything came from, feel free to comment!