EXTREME LIVING ROOM MAKEOVER! | Mid-Century Modern + Industrial Style For My Boyfriend

hey guys welcome back to my channel i'm alexandra and i'm so so excited about today's video i've been like counting down the days until i can share it with you i am making over my boyfriend noah's living room start to finish top to bottom a huge shout out to squarespace for sponsoring today's video i love working with squarespace more about them later but for now let's get started [Music] so before we jump in this video make sure you first give a huge thumbs up for noah yay noah you're an inspiration to all of us i have tons of content just like this that i upload every week to this channel every friday so make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don't miss an episode so many of you have asked for a space that feels a little bit dark and moody a space that strays away from my usual aesthetic which is very bright very airy lots of color lots of pom-poms and i thought what better opportunity to do this in my boyfriend's space so noah lives in this cute little apartment in downtown toronto it has a lot of character lots of brick and he has a ton of really great pieces already he has this awesome bookshelf he has these awesome lights this one is from ikea it's a simple silver floor light and then this one sits angled from the wall to the floor and i just think it's really cool and unique he has this couch that was handed down to him through like two different people i think so it's an older couch he's thinking of getting rid of the sofa and investing in a new one he also has this awesome tv credenza i love that it's kind of a light birch color all in all like he has some really great pieces in this space but nothing that really kind of brings it cohesively together this is such a good example of spaces that you guys maybe have who are watching these videos spaces that feel totally fine but you need those other elements to just really bring it together and make it feel styled and cozy so i'm gonna take you through the journey of making over this space i'm gonna take you through the whole process a behind-the-scenes look at like how i plan a space with someone i really hope you guys enjoy kind of seeing the whole process of this space come to life okay so so here's what i feel like this is a really good example of what i was envisioning super dark super moody but then like pops of color or we could go super bright and airy with like dark accents i feel like it's going to kind of end up being in the middle what are things that you like about your living because your apartment's really cool the bookshelf is good ooh i like the bookshelf can you tell everyone about your bookshelf so early in the pandemic before we met but when i was looking at your your instagram or something i guess i was inspired to color color organize my books on one of our first like date calls you were like look at my bookshelf oh yeah i did i did show-and-tell for my fan i did show and tell for my apartment but just to be clear you didn't you didn't follow me before we were introduced no okay because it just you made it seem like you were like looking through my instagram one of your followers yes introduced us okay sorry so i interrupt you so what the sofa is not the most comfortable i guess and i feel like the ottoman is kind of wasted space like it's used as a coffee table but doesn't really function as one i also feel like you've told me in the past that your style is more skewing like an industrial feel like you like things to be modern the like metal pendants lots of like metal details in the legs of the table and the chairs but then you also like color so that's kind of contradictory it's like you love industrial style but then you also like color you've asked for a distressed area rug like a vintage kind of distressed feeling living room rug which is not industrial i think it it's some industrial like details but not like dark dark if you could have like your dream living room can you tell me some of the elements that would be in there i feel like i can't put everything fully together i mean they would have a new sofa okay there'd be a place to put my bike because right now it's just kind of like in the middle that's actually a good challenge for me i've never like yeah i've never tackled bike storage before so i'm not going to touch the credenza i'm not going to touch the bookshelf i'm not going to touch the two lights on either side okay bike storage solution new sofa and then try and find like a happy medium between industrial feeling and also cozy and warm but no pom-poms or pink like what if there's like a tiny pom-pom on a pillow or like something that resembles a pom-pom maybe okay my work cut out for me i mean i'm sure you can figure it out well i'm not so sure and cut and scene that was great you weren't awkward at all i have been working on noah's living room for so long probably about 15 mood boards i don't normally share this process with you but i thought it would be one just cool to see behind the scenes and how much you know work goes into these makeovers but i also thought that it would be comforting for you guys to know that it is so normal to go through like a massive process when you're designing a room massive in the sense of like questioning things changing things around gone through a million different options but i wanted to share them with you starting from my very first mood board you see there is a green velvet sofa a white and black rug a print which he actually has in his bedroom that i thought we could bring into the living room a kind of scandy feeling coffee table and then this kind of like bistro feeling pendant light i liked it at first but i'm like no this isn't industrial at all and it really doesn't have a ton of color and that's what he asked for so moving on to mood board two i decided to change the art to something that was really bright to bring in that color and then i brought in a rug and a velvet sofa and then i thought i could paint his wall this navy to kind of match back to the sofa but again it just like didn't feel right and it actually felt rather like traditional feeling so then the next mood board i actually got rid of the art altogether because i felt like the art everything kind of was matching back to that piece of art and i was like i'm not really in love with that piece of art that much so instead i found this piece which is by a photographer who is based in the states and her art is incredible her photography is amazing and then i went for color in the sofa this rug with a ton of pattern i thought that this was the one and then i sat on it for like a couple days and i came back and i was like it's not right that leads us to my final mood board which i'm like thank you i finally got it right it just feels like it clicks so i want to paint it navy then i found the sofa which is a royal blue so i love how it's gonna stand out against that navy wall it's like a bit different but color blocking two colors then you have the industrial elements of the frame around that art piece and the lights that noah already has which are very industrial feeling and then i got him a rug like vintage distressed feel but it has tons of color in it so that really brings like the life and color into this space finally got it i'm so happy and just proof that sometimes you have to do like 15 different mood boards to get it right that's the moral of the story it's time for me to order these products start to prep for this makeover i can't wait until makeover day i'm so nervous i was gonna say i'm excited i am but i'm also really nervous because like what if he hates it well on that note see you guys on makeover day so it is day one of noah's makeover i am so excited i have so much to do today i'm here alone i really want this to be a surprise for noah like all my makeovers so he's staying at my house for a couple days the main thing i'm going to tackle is painting which is why i have my painting overalls on i also wanted to shout out my friend danny berger she has this awesome merch line where she sells these shirts that are made to like get messy the idea is that even if they get paint on them or whatever you're diying with it'll look cool and it'll be a piece of art itself which i think is very clever but the first thing that's gonna happen today is noah's old sofa is going to get removed now i wanted to chat about this a bit because noah and i went back and forth on whether or not we wanted to get him a new sofa because his sofa was in like pretty good condition it was handed down to him through different roommates so it's definitely a sofa that's been loved a lot but there was nothing wrong with it and we both said we don't want to just get rid of a sofa to have it go in the landfill so i did some research and i found this awesome awesome company called furniture bank they serve toronto and the gta basically what they do is they send in a couple people to come take your furniture it is not a free service so you have to pay but this service is under 200 which to have a sofa removed from like your condo or like noah he lives on the top floor of a building so there's many flights of stairs the best part about this service is that the furniture goes to families experiencing poverty or displacement so by hiring furniture bank we knew that this sofa was going to someone who really needs it which is which is awesome so i'm going to link them down below thank you to furniture bank for coming to pick up noah's sofa so let's get painting i've decided to go with hail navy same color i used in james's office nook i love how rich it is and i think it's gonna look so good color blocked against the velvet sofa from article that is arriving today actually the color underneath is somewhat similar but it's much more gray where this is like definitely blue there's one thing i've learned today it's to get yourself a painter's pole that elongates the handle of your cage i'm kind of embarrassed that i didn't use one of these sooner i did three coats on this wall i probably didn't need to do three coats but i cannot stress enough how much using a pole on my paint roller made a difference like this was not only enjoyable to do but it was just so easy and i think it made for like a way cleaner job than without the extender also i just took a lunch break and sent noah um a tick tock he replied by saying i like it but why are you on tick tock and i was like no no ma'am no ma'am excuse me i'm taking a lunch break i have this other side of the wall to do it's like that wall so i'm gonna do that and then i think i'm gonna lay out the rug and get the sofa unpacked look at the wall it's so beautiful i'm so happy with it i love it noah asked for color i feel like rugs are such a great way to bring in that color and pattern to a room and already with the blue wall and this rug it feels so much warmer in here oh yeah now i'm going to attempt to bring this sofa up here and unbox it myself i'm like staring at the box it's massive okay that's one way of getting it done i wanted to give a huge shout out to article for donating this sofa a sofa is something that you should definitely invest in i know that's not possible for everyone but if you are saving up for a sofa spend your money on article furniture it's so beautiful it's so durable they're delivery people and their customer service is always like impeccable and you get free shipping over orders that are 999 dollars which is awesome that is the end of day one of noah's makeover i got so much done and i'm just so thrilled with how it's all coming together i put his lights back in just to see how they look and they look amazing so i will see you guys bright and early tomorrow we're gonna finish off the space and we're gonna reveal it to noah so before we head into day two of this makeover i wanted to take a quick pause and talk to you about this week's sponsor squarespace so if you guys don't know squarespace is the one stop shop for all of your small business needs it's where you can create a website for your brand create a storefront or a blog everything is in one place i quite literally run a lot of my business using squarespace so i have my virtual makeover packages all of that is done through the website so i send people their virtual design packages i set up meetings it's all done in one place and it's so easy for me to navigate as a small business owner i have a press section where i've put all of the articles i've been included in i have my ted talk up there brands that i've worked with to me it's it's like a portfolio in many ways there's no coding needed no html super user friendly for someone like me who is a small business but has a million things that they have to do if you are interested in starting a website a blog a shop all of the above make sure you head to squarespace.com and use my code in the description box and it'll be right on screen for 10 off your first website or domain thank you again to squarespace for sponsoring this episode and let's head into day two of noah's makeover i don't know what this means but let's let's head into it okay guys it is day two of noah's living room makeover so last night you guys saw that i put the rug in the sofa a couple of the light snow already had in here so the first thing i'm gonna do is tackle hanging up his bike i'm not sure if you guys saw his bike in the before shots but trust me when i say it was in the most annoying place ever it was like in the middle of the kitchen hallway and i just tripped over it all the time a really great way to solve bike storage in a small space is to maximize wall space you can find so many awesome bike racks or hooks on etsy so i found this one for noah it's an industrial style bike hanger i've hung it up on the wall and i'm hanging up noah's bike here and it fits perfectly oh god no no and this is just like such an awesome solution and i feel like it adds to the vibe of this space the idea is noah will take his bike down and then when he brings it up he just like lifts it up on the hook way more elegantly than i just did but look at this guys it looks so cool so now that the bike rack is up it's time to get a new pendant light in here and i'm really excited about it because noah unfortunately had a boob light in his living room can we just take a moment of silence for boob lights wait a moment of silence is a good thing right let's take a moment to just we don't like boob lights is the point when you're picking a pendant light you can go you know so many different routes you can pick a really big one i actually think that a pendant light can never be too big in a space i recently saw this photo on instagram where this light was like massive in this dining nook i'll pop it up here if i can find it but for this living room i went with something medium sized because i wanted to get it on a budget so this pendant lights from ikea it cost 20 and i just gave it a quick coat of black spray paint that's going to tie in really nicely with a couple of their black accents i have going in here you can kind of see some of the basket underneath and so it makes the light feel really textured and i love that it looks kind of like worn in and definitely like i didn't just give it a quick coat of spray paint yay that looks so good [Music] so the next thing that's going up is this insanely beautiful piece of photography by theresa bear this picture is from minted i looked up teresa's work because i was so intrigued by it and she does lots of shoots that mix like plants with people her art is really cool i'm gonna link this piece down below and theresa as well so you can see more of her art if you want and if you live in a small space just like with lighting don't be afraid to go with big pieces of art they fill up a wall and i feel like they're just more impactful than like a small piece of art bigger is better it looks so good i got it framed in a champagne silver frame and it goes so well with the two lights on either side of it i'm like getting so excited to show noah yay oh yeah this is the last piece of furniture going in here it's also from article i fell in love with it when i saw it it's just such a visually interesting piece and it's really big which is great because before we were eating food off noah's ottoman it was just not a good time even though he has a dining table but who doesn't eat dinner in front of the tv am i right so now it is time to add tons of texture to this sofa do you guys remember noah's sad sad cushions on his sofa that's vicious i just put them in a new cushion cover and that's a hack if you guys have ugly sofa cushions don't get rid of them just buy a new cover put it over the old cushion and suddenly you have a new pillow which is awesome so generally my rule of thumb is to go with two solid cushions and then maybe two pattern cushions or two different kind of textured cushions but the more texture the better look at this cushion i'm obsessed this is linked down below and then i got velvet cushion covers as well so you'll notice that i didn't do an oatmeal cushion on the right side so i've kind of evened it out with this throw blanket from indigo on the other side alexandra yes i can't stop yeah and now for the finishing touches a tray to corral books and a candle a cute side table that noah already had with these beautiful dried olive branches and one last plant on the other side of the sofa and finally i'm going to swap out this plant that looks like it needs a little tlc i don't know how noah didn't inherit the gene of taking care of plants because his mom is literally a gardener and his sister has like thriving plant babies in her apartment like this is just sad let's go take care of you you poor thing i'm replacing it with this one cute if anyone knows what this plant is called please let me know in the comments down below i found it at a store nearby noah's house and i love it i'm so thrilled with how this space turned out and i'm so excited to reveal it to noah i've never really made over a significant other's face before and it just feels special so he's gonna arrive any minute so we'll bring him in and reveal the space you have to close your eyes okay so but i'm gonna trip no just close your eyes do not open i swear to god do not open there's the stair here yeah you got notes just stop here okay why do i feel so nervous are you are you excited yeah thank you for trusting me you're welcome i'm excited i want you to picture what it looked like before so you had your hand-me-down ikea sofa all gray the wall was also gray it all blended together and bike where i'm standing bike that i always tripped over and was like on the can of three i want you to open your eyes okay okay okay one two three wow wow that looks so good on the bikes here it fits perfectly looks so much better doesn't it yeah so i painted the wall navy i'm gonna try the sofa so much better [Music] kept your side table but out of the cute plant [Applause] [Music] color in the rug [Music] added this light which i feel like adds like texture [Music] looks so good you like it yeah yay no do not kiss on camera thank you gg but you like it yay i'm so glad it's so good i am so thrilled with how this space turned out i am filming this video about a week after i made over the space and it feels different like it just feels like a place you want to hang out he was actually reading the paper on the weekend on the blue couch and i was like one since when have you read the paper like a physical paper but two this vibe looks looks about right it looks like you should be sitting on this blue velvet sofa reading a paper a huge shout out again to squarespace for sponsoring this video make sure you head to squarespace.com sign up for their free trial and then use my code to get 10 off your first website or domain make sure you guys give this video a thumbs up subscribe you don't want to miss any more videos like this coming your way and as always i will see you next week bye you

Channel: Alexandra Gater

Views: 238,394

Rating: 4.9466424 out of 5

Keywords: renter friendly, renter hacks, rental upgrade, diy, renter friendly diy, renter diy, alexandra gater, the home primp, how to, living room ideas, kitchen ideas, rental friendly, hacks, bathroom ideas, bedroom ideas, buget decor, decor, living room makeover, mid century modern living room, industrial style living room ideas, boyfriend makeover, alexandra gater boyfriend, budget living room makeover, dark academia, dark academia living room, living room

Id: V18-0nAhX7c

Length: 23min 37sec (1417 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021