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.

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.

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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 The rest was 80s outdated tile.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.

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I think it was totally worth it!

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.

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

• Gold frame top left 
• Middle frame
• Gold and navy blue frame top right

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

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.

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.

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.

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:

• Wall color – Simply White OC-117 by Benjamin Moore (Regal matte)
• 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)
• Green floral artwork called Mesmerize – Minted
• Deconstructed French Napoleonic chair – Restoration Hardware 
• Deconstructed English Roll Arm chair – Restoration Hardware
• Beaded chandelier – sourcing a link (I bought mine at Antique Farmhouse but not always in stock)
• Gold mirror – I made for my book! Tutorial will be listed in it (publishing June 2018)
• Rectangle gold hanging frame – Anthropologie
• Royal Theatre Frame – Anthropologie (two frames in this link)
• French antique letters for frames – French Larkspur
• Large French market basket – Dreamy Whites
• Cameron roll-arm slipcovered sectional – Pottery Barn with Performance Basketweave light grey slipcover
• Tufted ottoman – bought at Home Sense years ago
• Media cabinet – Restoration Hardware (similar to this one, they don’t sell the one I have anymore)
• Jute chenille herringbone rug – West Elm
• Beaded chandelier in foyer – Mia faceted-crystal – Pottery Barn
• Kids’ table and chair set – French Empire round table with Madeline play chairs – RH Baby & Child

Click in Case You Missed:

Kitchen Renovation

French Vintage Dining Room – Before and After

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