$1k Room: Eclectic Colorful Living Room

Kristen Dwyer

December 1, 2017

Thanks for stopping by for my 3rd installment of the $1k room challenge. If you missed the first two, you can check them out here and here. I chose to share rooms that are very different styles, so that I can convince you that your dream room is literally only $1,000 away. I really have a passion for affordable design; heck, my first apartment in NYC was furnished with basically all IKEA and Target! My current upper west side apartment is still furnished affordably, but more creatively.

HOLLA! Thanks for stopping by for my 3rd installment of the $1k Room. Today’s style is an eclectic colorful living room reminiscent of a world traveler and modern bohemian.

If you missed the first two, you can check them out here and here. I chose to share rooms that are very different styles, so that I can convince you that your dream room is literally only $1,000 away. I really have a passion for affordable design; heck, my first apartment in NYC was furnished with basically all IKEA and Target! My current upper west side apartment is still furnished affordably, but more creatively. Maybe I’ll show you my apartment sometime. It’s 50% DIYs, 10% purchased from old owners –I used DIY magic to make the pieces my own, 10% affordable finds, and 30% sale items. I could devote an entire blog post telling you how to source affordable art. Hmmm. I probably will because I have a lot to say on that.

Goal: To design a living room with a limited color palette using items that are high impact yet minimal in order to create a living space that is cozy, layered, and truly affordable. A bohemian eclectic colorful living room design.

Budget: $1,000 for furniture, finishes, and wall paint

Spent: $992 (not including tax or shipping)

*The design package selected for this project was Oblique Full for $350 and was completed within 3 days*

Affordable decor. How do you feel when I say that? Do you shudder or are you excited? How you react to affordable decor says a lot about how well the market is doing in meeting your needs. I already know there aren’t as many low end options as there are high end, but all that is changing! More and more people are moving to cities versus suburbs, which means their spaces are smaller and the pockets are lighter. I’ve seen more affordable home decor options come out in the last few years and it realllly excites me. Now, there is NO reason your space cannot be incredible even if you are on budget. I promise.

I have one powerful lesson in designing affordably to share with you. I will never forget the best advice a substitute professor gave me:

A great designer designs great things, whatever the limitations.

I MEAAAAAN WOW. Shouldn’t that always be the truth? It doesn’t matter if your budget is $1,000 or $100,000, your design should still be magnificent. The context of this quote was we were asked to bring in one everyday item. We then analyzed the design. And by analyzed, I mean the professor ripped the design of each of these items absolutely to shreds. And if you’ve ever been in design school, you know being on the receiving end of a design critique is much like trench warfare. Just keep your head down until it’s over and you can go to the bathroom and cry. Seriously. At my school, I think I cried in every single bathroom on campus. I would also cry in my car in the park. Pro tip of a design school veteran is to hide your tears from people not also in design school so they don’t think you’re having some sort of prolonged mental breakdown. You don’t have to hide tears from your classmates. They get it; sobbing is just a typical Tuesday. That’s really all design school is: no sleep, a lot of money, and a lot of crying. Anyways, I digress.

The reason the professor was so angry at the design of these everyday items was that they looked CHEAP. Granted, they were cheap, but his point is that they were severely flawed because they looked like trash. He especially hated how plastic was painted silver to resemble metal. The takeaway from this is that an item can just be what it is, for what it is. If it is “cheap”, it does not have to try to resemble something expensive ie: painted plastic to look like metal.

You miss the opportunity for something to be it’s own unique design with creative solutions if you try to be a copycat.

The truth is, if you have a limited budget, embrace it. Lean into it. Source from affordable stores and things will come together quickly. There are so many more options now than there used to be. There is no reason you cannot have an incredible design and you should not stop until you have just that. How amazing is this eclectic colorful living room? It’s absolutely stunning; a bohemian’s dream.

Everyone should have a space they love.

The Eclectic Colorful Living Room Design

So, now let’s talk about this darling design. If I had to label it, I would say it is bohemian meets eclectic meets modern farmhouse. That might sound like a lot but truly, the best designs pull from many different style categories. It gives the room life, depth, and a sense of extreeeeeeme comfort. Layers on layers on layers is the name of the game. Depth and dimension are super important in building a room. In this eclectic and colorful living room, I used a loooooot of layering techniques, ya know, the way a true bohemian does. This eclectic colorful living room is all about jewel tones, pattern, and texture.

Here we have an awesome dark teal wall (Sherwin Williams ‘Rainstorm‘), rattan stools, an awesome hammered coffee table (from Target!), semi sheer curtains with a tiny graphic pattern (from Ikea!), an awesome and colorful rug, and a super comfy sofa with plenty of pillows. Pillows are probably my favorite thing to add dimension to a room. They are typically selected last, after the larger pieces have been chosen, and therefore lend themselves to be the icing on the cake.

Lesson: pillows can single-handedly tie everything together.

You have multiple pillows that will pick up on other colors and textures of the room. There is nothing more perfect. Alternately, they can also be used to bring calm through their lack of color or pattern. Pillows, as dumb as it sounds, are possibly the most important element of your design. And they are super affordable! You can even make your own without even sewing. See, this isn’t so hard, right? Pillows are especially important in this eclectic colorful living room because to have a truly bohemian vibe, there has to be lots and lots of layering. Pillows can be layered to oblivion without ever feeling heavy. I mean, it’s not like you can stack side table for layering, right?

For art, I wanted to pick up on the gold chandelier and hammered coffee table, while also adding to the richness and warmth of the color palette. Enter: gold art. I chose a mixture of rustic, abstract, and subtle graphic, even including a recognizable piece by Gustav Klimt. It’s romantic and dreamy.

In most rooms, I recommend adding plants and something vintage. We’ve talked about layers and texture before, and adding plants and vintage items will literally add life to your room. Plants also help clean the air and get rid of household allergens. You can even select plants that help you sleep or be calm. For this eclectic colorful living room, plants and a sense of history were super important! Justina Blakeney is a bohemian goddess and all of her designs feature (many) natural elements. Justina is such a good example of the bohemian spirit. She even wrote a book about it!

Adding something vintage just helps the room not feel so “new”. It adds history and an unexpected design element that will be easily recognizable. You know the saying, “they don’t make things like they used to”? It’s the truth. So add in some of these pieces. This eclectic colorful living room NEEDS a sense of history, travel, and wildness. You just can’t get that in the big box stores, so go antiquing like The Makerista! Check out Gwen (The Makerista) on Instagram. She even has a hashtag #thriftlikethemakerista and she brings you along all of her thrifting/vintage excursions if you’re looking for some antiquing inspo.

In my design for this eclectic colorful living room, we have a vintage bottle used for spirits (the alcohol, not ghosts). I included that parentheses because my first reaction was, embarrassingly, “Spirits? WHAAAAAAAT?!?”. This is what happens when you work before you coffee. I read what the bottle was called and almost didn’t use it. How can I use a bottle full of ghosts? In my defense, I had just watched the episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine when Gina had a bottle with some sort of actual spirit in it. But still, not my finest moment. It’s ok to be an idiot sometimes. But, maybe don’t tell the entire internet like I am doing.

I hope you like the design. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! As always, links are below so you can shop every item in this design.

-K

SHOP MY ECLECTIC COLORFUL LIVING ROOM DESIGN

*Because of sales, prices change. The current prices are probably not as low as they were at the time of my design. Also, obviously because of sales, some of the stuff is now sold out. In which case, I linked the same vendor, but a similar item.