Project Reveal: Modern Renovation in Pacific Palisades
When a young couple with three small children purchased a dated 1970s home in the Highlands in Pacific Palisades, CA, they wanted my help selecting new flooring. But, after discovering mold in multiple areas of the house, major work needed to be done.
Soon, our conversation moved beyond the flooring to discussing more significant renovations before moving in. After much discussion, they decided to update the home and make it feel more fresh and modern. Today, I’m revealing their family room results…
Design Goals
This family has 3 young kids, so we wanted to ensure the design included high-quality, durable materials. The fireplace also needed some major help, and we needed to find a beautiful and modern replacement for the wood paneling. Overall, the family room design goal was to create a space where they could enjoy themselves and feature photos and mementos that reflected their family.
The dated family room before the renovation.
A Family Room Revealed
What once was a very outdated space has been transformed into a refreshing, modern, and family-friendly room that exceeded my client’s expectations. The fireplace completely transformed when we removed the wood paneling and the mantel.
We replaced it with a white quartz slab on the face of the fireplace and hearth and used dark grey quartz on top of the hearth. We decided not to replace the mantel so that we could mount a TV at the proper height for comfortable watching.
We replaced the dated tile floors with engineered French Oak wood flooring that is beautiful to look at and sturdy enough to withstand three small boys. This made a massive difference in the home by adding so much warmth to the space. We also decided to paint all the walls and millwork in Benjamin Moore’s Super White to help brighten the room.
Beautiful Built-Ins and Furnishings
The built-in bookshelves were a bit of a puzzle. While the right side of the fireplace wasn’t bad (except for the color), it was a bizarre design and made no sense since we weren’t going to place a giant TV into one of the niches (thank goodness!). So we removed the entire right side and built a smaller cabinet with shelving to mirror the existing shelves.
Then, after a new coat of paint, voila! The beautiful new built-ins are the perfect addition to this updated family room. An ideal space to show off little treasures and family photos, plus hide toys and audio-visual equipment.
For the furnishings, the couple had inherited a huge sectional sofa in pristine condition and the perfect size for the family of five to snuggle up and watch TV. We used a gray chenille performance fabric from Kravet Smart to reupholster the sofa and added vintage mud cloth pillows found at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.
We had a custom oversized ottoman coffee table with a floating white oak table using Thibaut’s Dune performance fabric from the Elements collection in Charcoal. This piece is perfect for families because of its soft sides to protect the little ones, a comfortable place to put your feet up, and an excellent tabletop for placing drinks.
To finish the family-friendly space, we used a large area rug from Jaipur that is both kid and pet friendly, handcrafted from recycled material, and can be used indoors and outdoors.
The improvements we made to the flooring and existing built-ins gave us a great foundation to work from and helped set the tone for the rest of the house, which I will share with you soon.
What's Next?
If you would like to learn what it’s like to work with an interior designer,click here to download my guide.
And if you are feeling overwhelmed with a project in your home or just don’t know quite what to do with a space and don’t feel like you can do it alone, I would love for you to reach out and schedule a Discovery Call with me. Together we can create a gorgeous space in your home!
Until next time,
Julie