Budget Living Room Makeover

I have three sisters. One lives in Utah, somewhat close to me. My baby sister lives in Montreal. And Carli, the third sister lives in England. Well, she’s moving with her family to Salt Lake City TODAY! She bought a house in the Avenues of Salt Lake (if you remember, we’re redoing her kitchen). I figured, since she’ll arrive without any furniture, I might as well surprise her with a budget living room makeover!

When my family moved to Florida a year and a half ago, we didn’t have a sofa for 2 months! It was so terrible not having a place to sit at the end of a long day. I know it’s hard for her to leave England, so I thought I’d try to soften the blow just a tiny bit and try to make her new house feel a little like home.

budget living room makeover

Let’s start with the video time-lapse so you get an overview on what I did. Then, I’ll dive in with more details below:

If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. P.s. I’m trying to build that page up, so if you’d subscribe, I’d really appreciate that!

sofa

My plan started a few weeks ago. First things first, I needed an affordable sofa. I took to Amazon and found some great options! These all are under $600, prime eligible- which means that they ship in 2 days for free!

light gray l shaped sectional / sky blue traditional sofa / mid century dark gray modern futon / sky blue channel tufted futon / beige futon with foot stool / bonded leather Chesterfield / navy traditional velvet sofa / tufted light gray mid century sofa / blue modern sectional /

This led me to Sofamania, they sell on Amazon, but also have their own site with gorgeous, affordable options! They offer free shipping on their site too which is great because they have some seriously beautiful sofas on there. Here’s my favorites-

blue Chesterfield sofa $499 (no longer available) / gray Hollywood nailhead trim sofa $479 / green boudoir velvet sofa $499 / beige tuxedo sofa $499 (no longer available) /

I ended up going with this Chesterfield linen sofa from Sofamania for $350! Such a good deal and perfect fo the look my sister is going for! This sofa did require assembly upon delivery. I easily put it together by myself in less than 30 minutes. Make sure to watch the video above for a time-lapse of how I assembled it.

before

Now that I had my sofa, I headed over to my sister Carli’s house to start setting everything up! The living room is the perfect blank slate. Right next to it is the torn up kitchen. I still wanted her to have a sanctuary even if a renovation is going on!

the process

I started by laying down the living room rug. This used to be in my kitchen. I used it in my last home too! Yay for reusing what I already have (aka the best budget friendly trick ever)!

floral pillow / pink pillow / faux peony / Anne of Green Gables / Reese Witherspoon pink book / Cath Kidston Make book / pink tray

Here’s the accessories I pulled for my sister’s house. I 100% shopped my house and grabbed items in the pink and blue color family. The blue Cath Kidston book I found at a thrift store for my sister a few months ago fo $1. She was so excited- she’s a big Cath Kidston fan! If you need coffee table books when you’re tight on money, make sure to go thrifting first!

Next, I hung the art. I hung it 10″ above the height of the sofa. I was waiting on the delivery of the sofa and was impatient, so I quickly got it up. Again, I shopped my house and found this from our Florida patio. It’s no longer available, but the colors are so good! I used command strips to hang it so I didn’t damage the plaster walls.

Since this is a surprise, I wanted my sister to be able to easily remove anything she didn’t love without any damage :).

While waiting on the sofa delivery, I put in the end table and added accessories. This cute end table was a thrift store $20 find that I just redid. Restoring old furniture is such a good trick fo getting a lot of bang for your buck in a budget makeover!

after

sofa / chair / ottoman / rug

Here it is! All complete! For it being a one day makeover, I sure am proud of how cozy it feels in here!

I love this little ottoman moment right here with the books and flowers! That urn was a thrift store $2 find and I love the colors in here.

I have a few DIY’s that I made for this room like that blue ottoman that I made from a bucket! And the rainbow pot. I’ll have tutorials for those soon!

Here’s a close-up of the rainbow pot and the end table accessories. Such a happy moment!

I’ll talk more about the chair and ottoman in the DIY post, but don’t they look beautiful?! I especially love the stripes on the chair. To be honest, I had hopes that the ottoman and sofa would match better, and wish I’d gone with a blue coffee table option. But that’s the down side of ordering everything online.

The good news is that the ottoman is so versatile, it can be moved to the foot of a bed or entry and work beautifully.

My sister arrives today and I can’t wait to hear how she likes it! I hope the living room is the perfect cozy space and that it can be adapted to meet their needs as they settle in. Welcome home Carli!