Before & After Transitional Living Room Makeover

Transitional Living Room Makeover — If you’re familiar with the classic suburban home, then you’ll love seeing the before and afters of this modern, yet welcoming living room makeover…

after photo of the finished living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

Let me introduce you to my mother-in-law’s new living room! She’s been talking about giving this underutilized room in her home a makeover ever since I met her. And I’m really excited to finally see it come to life.

She and I worked on this transitional living room design at the end of last year. It’s come a long way from the before photos! Don’t you think?

Her preferred design style is a mix of classic and modern. And we accomplished just that with a new transitional living room.

We updated the wall color and decor, brought in new furniture from Article, added a tile fireplace design from The Tile Shop and installed a statement chandelier from Mitzi to name a few…

photo of the new modern artwork in the living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

What Is Transitional Style?

Transitional interior design is the merging of contemporary and traditional style. It’s perfect for someone who doesn’t want to go too modern.

You start with a clean and neutral palette (like with the walls) and straight lines (with furniture). However, you then create a classic look with texture, mixed materials, patterns and accent decor.

In doing so, a transitional room still evokes light and airiness whereas a traditional room feels warm and heavy.

photo of the before and after living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

photo of the living room being painted to brighten up the space by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

Transitional Style | Start With A Neutral Palette To Brighten Up A Room

One of my biggest goals was to brighten the space and scale down the size of the furniture so that the room felt bigger.

The new Behr Simply White wall color alone modernized the room tremendously, even without the new furniture elements.

Simply White has warm tones so it wasn’t too stark. The paint color also blended nicely with her window treatment and shutters without needing to repaint them.

photo of living room fireplace before the makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

detailed photo of the living room fireplace and mantle after the makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

How To Update A Fireplace

To update the fireplace, we created clean lines by removing the old molding. We then replaced it with painted wood for a DIY shiplap and a new statement tile.

We both instantly loved the Legno Wheaton Tile from The Tile Shop. It matched perfectly with her current foyer tile colors.

Rather than just doing a small trim around the fireplace like the previous version, we took it all the way up to the mantle for a clean divide.

photo of the new couches and decor in the living room makeup by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

photo of the chandelier that replaced the old fan in the living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

photo of the modern colors and tones in the new living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

Needless to say, the new furniture made a huge impact on the overall feel of her transitional living room.

The original living room had a very neutral color palette, which is not uncommon for traditional and contemporary rooms. But it was originally still very brown and heavy.

I wanted the room to feel like it had added color without being too loud. So I sprinkled navy, goldenrod, terracotta, and blush peach tones throughout.

photo of the renovated fireplace and mantle in the living room by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

photo of the new modern mid-century couch in the living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

The navy spin chairs and tan leather sofa from Article are as comfy as they are beautiful. This living room was rarely used before the makeover. So selecting cozy pieces was key to make the space was more functional and welcoming.

It can be intimidating buying furniture online when you haven’t been able to touch and feel it. Article is one of the few stores that has free shipping (on orders over $999) and a 30-day guarantee to return your items. If spending any less, shipping is otherwise $49 shipping.

Plus, returns only cost you a $49 return shipping fee. So you’re not out a huge chunk of money if you don’t fall in love with it.

We’ve owned countless pieces from Article and have never been unhappy with the quality of any of them. So I felt confident in what we chose for her living room.

The room now seats just as many people as it did before, but looks twice as big because of the scaled-down designs of the new furniture.

photo of the new rug in the living room makeover

Adding An Extra Illusion of Height To A Living Room

My mother-in-law’s rug choice pulls in and brings in all of the room colors together. While the long length of the new curtains really draws your eye up.

A few other adjustments we made to make the room appear larger was moving the curtain rods up about 12-inches. This is an easy (and inexpensive fix) amongst interior designers!

The curtain rods were originally mounted right at the top of the windows before. But since this room has 14-foot ceilings, it could easily enjoy the extra breathing room.

photo of the new curtains in the living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

photo of how to add height to your living room by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

photo of the geometric mirror to turn a living room modern by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

We also replaced the previous round mirror with a taller geometric gold mirror to play up the height and bring in additional modern straight lines.

The contemporary style mirror also complements the geometric fireplace tile really well and ties in the gold Mitzi Alyssa chandelier that replaced the old fan.

photo of the new lighting in the living room makeover by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

The Finishing Touches To Transitional Living Room

To pull everything together, I added some greenery stems. The additional side tables and coffee table allowed for more tabletop decor. So again, I specifically chose pieces that brought in more warmth and color.

I’d say we nailed it on the mix of traditional and modern while still keeping with the current flow of the rest of her home!

You can see more of our house renovation posts here —

photo of how to make a modern living room still look warm and welcoming by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth

Transitional Living Room Sources

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12 Comments

  1. I was hoping that you would mention where you bought your curtains. Thanks for sharing, it looks great!