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French Vintage Living Room and Foyer – Before and After

My French Vintage living room and foyer before and after tour shows how I turned this 1980’s house into a beautiful modern home with French and vintage touches.French Vintage Living Room and Foyer Before and After - So Much Better With Age

I have lived in this house for nearly two years now and I have never shown before and after photos of my living room and foyer before. Today I’m giving you the full before and after tour along with some renovation photos.

Wooden stairs leading to the upstairs in the house.

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Foyer

Throughout the entire home there were different flooring elements. The living room and dining room had hardwood and so did the stairs. The rest was 80s outdated tile. The only way to have a consistent floor pattern was to get rid of all the hardwood. It was a bit painful but these stairs were also incredibly slippery.

In the process of renovating the stairs.

I really wanted new hardwood up the stairs to match the rest of the house (I also have hardwood in the main floor office and on upstairs landing and hallway) with a carpet runner over top but that’s a huge expense for such a nondescript staircase.

I decided to add a fun carpet just on the stairs. The carpet makes it look like a runner for the fraction of the cost.

Trellis carpet in grey and white on the stairs.

This is where I decided to remove the small hallway closet and make it into a bigger laundry room of my dreams!

The laundry room ripped apart to make it bigger.
Framing in the pocket door to the laundry room.

The laundry room now has a pocket door. The door on the left is the door to the garage.

The white front door to the house.
Tiny Vintage Mudroom Makeover poster.

Flooring

Stair carpet: Shaw – Twist of Fate color #756 Atmosphere with 3/8 9 lb underlay (similar to Elite Touch but smaller pattern)

Hardwood (manufactured wood) throughout: Dansk Hardwood Monterey Wire Brushed Weathered Saddle (Oak)

French Vintage Living Room and Foyer/Dansk hardwood samples and carpet samples.

Living Room

The living room is a long narrow room that used to have the living room plus dining room and the back of the house as the kitchen. Pretty typical.

The fireplace is not centred in front of the couch. The wall where the couch goes is offset which makes it perfect for adding a TV and cabinet just left to the fireplace. So this little area in the front part of the living room is a cozy little reading nook which I love!

First, I’ve always wanted a limestone fireplace so I got the next best thing. This old fireplace had to go. You can read all about how I picked one out here.

The fireplace before renovating it.

I replaced the old gas insert with a new one too.

Replacing the fireplace mantel with all the tools.

Although it doesn’t look like much here, the new one is square not rectangular and has a beautiful herringbone brick pattern inside.

Installing the new fireplace.

It was a process to put the cast stone pieces went on the wall. The installers had to come back each day for several days.

The new stone fireplace insert.

My floor was uneven (of course) so they had to level it out with levelling mud before the wood could be installed.

Installing the hardwood flooring in the living room.

Here’s the little nook area that is perfect for reading or just chilling out.

Just this one area of the house has a vaulted ceiling. There are so many weird quirks to this house but I was happy to hang a chandelier here to show off the mini-vaulted ceiling. My contractor was not so happy, I’m sure. There was no attic space in this one area so some imagination was needed to create an electrical outlet in the ceiling.

The garbage can with a shovel and wires in the living room during renovation.

I think it was totally worth it!

The hardwood floors installed with a beaded chandelier above.

So here is a never before seen photo of my French vintage inspired living room. Just left to the fireplace is a cabinet and TV!

The TV swivels so we can see it from all angles of the living room and kitchen.

The stone fireplace with a gold mirror on it.
The living before all dark and closed in.
The living room in the process of renovation.
French vintage chairs are in the living room in front of the window.

This is the only wall that the couch can be placed as it’s a narrow long room.

Before picture of leather black couches in the living room.

I recently added some new vintage inspired artwork to this wall.

The two rectangle pieces are from a thrift store and the other three are from Anthropologie.

After with gray couches and French pillows and vintage artwork on the walls.

I added some antique French letters from the 1800s that I recently bought from French Larkspur.

Gold frames with vintage artwork on the walls.
All the pictures on the walls above the couch.

When I first moved in, I originally had my favorite English roll-arm couch in the living room but I bought this sectional for the basement playroom. When the sofa arrived, it would not fit down the stairs! So I had to swap the couches. I was so sad but honestly this couch is more practical with the kids. It’s a great sectional from Pottery Barn and I bought a washable slipcover that can be dried in the dryer as well! I’ll leave the source below.

A sectional couch in the living room.

So this is where the most dramatic demolition took place in the house. These two walls came down in the kitchen and where the kitchen island was formed.

The dining room before picture.
Taking out the wall in the dining room to open the space up.
A partial demolition in the dining room.
The walls ripped down to the studs.

You can see that now it’s a completely open space and the dining room has moved over to the other side of the kitchen and new French doors were installed that lead out to the back patio.

A view from the living room to the kitchen.

I hope you enjoyed this tour today! I have to get to work on my kids’ rooms now so I can show you those dramatic before and after photos.

I’ve listed the sources below but let me know if there’s something you spot that I didn’t list.

Sources:

Click in Case You Missed:

Kitchen Renovation

My Big, Beautiful Kitchen Renovation

French Vintage Dining Room – Before and After

French Vintage Dining Room Before & After
French Vintage Living Room & Foyer - Before & After - So Much Better With Age

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22 Comments

  1. Jamie…..Thank you…you’ve clearly done a lot of work. But, I must say, I don’t understand putting the television in your living room. When friends come to see you, they want to talk…..this should be relegated to a separate sitting room. You ave a lovely enviable home…….j

    1. HI Jay,
      Thank you! I have a small house so this is the only place to put the TV unfortunately. The kids’ play room is downstairs but only half of it is finished, the other half is storage which I need to be a blogger (also houses camping gear, Christmas decor and ski equipment). I’m hoping one day soon I can move to a larger home but with prices in our area around $2 million it’s quite pricey!
      Hugs, Jamie

  2. HI jAMIE
    LOVE YOUR LIVING ROOM THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE TV IN THE LIVING ROOM THAT IS WHY THER IS AN OFF AND ON SWITCH ON TVS WE USUALLY END UP AT THE KITCHEN TABL E(CLOSER TO THE DESSERTS). I HAVE BEEN IN MY HOUSE FOR 45 YRS AND ADAPTED TO THE SPACE WHICH IS NOW LARGER NOW THE NEST IS EMPTY. SAVE YOUR MONEY ON A NEW HOUSE. CAN NOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT UPDATE

  3. Well you accomplished quite a lot, looks wonderful.You can always set with a friend in that alcove, so you can visit and still watch over your children. Thank you for sharing.

  4. Love the transformation! French vintage looks so pretty and calm to me. Love all the furniture and decor you picked out. It’s crazy how the living room area is transformed once you change out the fireplace.

  5. I LOVE the changes you’ve made. It’s so fun to see the before, during, and after pictures. Thanks so much. I loved the new fire box that looks like brick inside. Thanks.

  6. You’ve done a lot of work on your house! It’s beautiful! Thanks for sharing. I noticed your rug from west elm – I’ve been eyeing the same one for our office but am concerned about the rolling office chairs. Do you think they would roll easily on the rug? It’s so hard to know such things until you order them! Thanks in advance!

    1. Hi Lynn, thank you so much! I love that rug but I have an ottoman with little casters on it and it doesn’t move easily across the rug. Unless you put down one of those plastic things for your chair to roll over. They’re not the prettiest but I think it’s hard to have an office chair over a rug.
      Hugs, Jamie

  7. I love everything about your home! I really love the floors. It wouldn take me to the resource page though.

    1. Hi Terry,
      I’m sorry the source for the hardwood floors didn’t work. I just found a new link and updated it everywhere on my blog. Here is the link:https://www.danskhardwood.com/monterey/ The color I chose is called Weathered Saddle. I love these floors so much! They never seem to get dirty. I’d buy them again!
      Hugs, Jamie

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