Three Apartment Makeovers

I write for Glidden over at MyColortopia, and a while back I was discussing a few ideas with them that I had for projects. I was already answering advice column questions and recommending paint colors, and I wanted to take it a step further and actually help someone with a makeover. I had no idea that my little idea would lead to me flying to New York and spending three crazy long days painting three different apartments while being filmed! Remember this sneak peek of what I was up to last month? Well, the videos are ready and I can finally share them with you.

I had a very small budget for each of the makeovers, a five-minute phone conversation with each of the renters beforehand, and only three photos to go off of before choosing paint colors and accessories for each of them. First up is Lisa. She loved hot pink, so I was excited about helping her find a good shade of it for her entryway. She went with Very Berry, and I brought in some red-orange to liven it up a little further with a ceramic lamp and a bar stool. I also gave her a black and white hook to bring in all of the black and white accents, but it didn’t make it into the video.

Here’s Lisa’s makeover.

So fun, right? I love that she picked such a vibrant color, and the entryway was the perfect place to do something so bold. Her black and white art looked great against the new color, and I love the hits of orange in the space. Lisa loved it too, and I think it really suited her!

The next video features Cassandra. She wanted to repaint her bedroom because she was tired of the yellow that had been on the walls since she moved in. She had red curtains (that she’d made herself), vintage dressers, and brown, white, and teal bedding with an overscale graphic pattern. She mentioned that she liked gray in our phone conversation, so I selected three shades for her to choose from and she went with Dolphin Gray. I also chose a giant multi-colored wall art piece, a small glass lamp, and a pillow with subtle red dots.

Here’s how her makeover turned out.

I don’t think she realized that the gray she chose had some purple in it, but I thought it looked great! She hated that art though, yo. She was a good sport about it and she tried to live with it, but I knew she wasn’t going to keep it. Even though the scale of it was perfect, and it tied all of the colors in the room together, it just wasn’t her taste (I thought she’d go for it, based on her bedding and fabric choices, but no). I also grabbed that fantastic yellow lamp from her living room, and she has since moved it back. She wrote all about her side of the story on her blog.

The last video features Eliza. Her living room walls and trim were all the same shade of white. Eliza hates clutter and wanted to keep an open, airy feeling, but she was having a really hard time choosing a color for the room. I helped her select Sea Spray, a blue/green/gray hue. I gave her a new nesting coffee table (I fought hard to get that in the room, by the way), a beautiful new pillow on the couch, and an adjustable floor lamp.

This is Eliza’s makeover.

I don’t normally do accent walls, but it works in her apartment because we did the two long walls opposite each other and the architecture had recessed areas that lent themselves to the look. The white wall of windows feels like a wall of molding now, and the other white wall had a large doorway in it and a bookshelf. I did want to hang larger art over the sofa (Eliza had a great collection of art, just sitting in boxes), but we didn’t have the proper hardware. Still, I think the new color added so much to the space, and the blue is gorgeous and changes depending on the light.

My short New York trip was a whirlwind, but it was a great experience. The Newfangled video crew, Apartment Therapy team, Glidden people, and renters were all fantastic to work with, and I’m proud of the work we did! I hope Lisa, Cassandra, and Eliza will enjoy their rooms, and I hope you all enjoyed following along.