Mel Carpenter
This moment has been about three months in the making for us, so we couldn’t be more excited to finally share our farmhouse living room makeover reveal with you guys today! For a long time, we’d been dying to somehow integrate a beautiful black/charcoal-and-white buffalo check into our home’s design but had no idea how or where we’d do it. That $25 antique store gem that’s so near and dear to my heart was the perfect piece to reupholster in a beautiful black/charcoal-and-white buffalo check fabric. This revelation meant that not only would we get to keep a timeless treasure with great bones and make it beautiful again (that wingback shape, those cabriole legs, oh my! ), but that I’d get to spend some time at the place Chris so lovingly calls my design “zen zone”… Calico Corners. We would find the perfect buffalo check fabric at Calico that felt uniquely us, have them reupholster the chair, and in turn, create the centerpiece of our “new” living room space.
And so we were off to visit our Calico store in Scottsdale and find that one buffalo check fabric that would bring this project to life. While there, we ran down our vision, budget and chair measurements with two extremely knowledgeable and unbelievably encouraging and enthusiastic design associates. We pored over tons of different black and charcoal-and-white buffalo check fabric options at every price point, pattern size and material. The pattern of “Elwood Thunder“, the fabric we chose, was perfectly placed across the chair to highlight all of its classic details, a little bit of extra fluff was added to the cushion to return the seat to its former glory, and the floral pillow (in Ralph Lauren’s “Ashfield Floral”) in that coordinating carbon and cream colorway is even more fun with the buffalo check than I thought it would be. As I talked about in our previous post about this project, several generations of women in my family have looked to Calico Corners to reupholster beloved furniture pieces and create home decor treasures with their own unique style stamp. In this day and age, I’ve become so accustomed to hunting for pre-fabbed pieces online and in the nearest big box store that I’m used to having to shape my design dreams around someone else’s idea of what’s beautiful.
When I step inside Calico, it’s a blank canvas filled with endless possibilities that don’t have to fit within someone else’s design vision. So we’re sharing all of the details about how we turned this space around and gave it that black-and-white Scandinavian farmhouse feel by keeping some of the old, bringing in some new and making it as budget-friendly (and headache-free) as humanly possible.
Our old $25 blush velvet chair was reupholstered by Calico Corners in their beautiful buffalo check fabric called “Elwood Thunder”. That gorgeous coordinating throw pillow is also a Calico creation and is covered in another fabric from their selection that I’ve fallen in love with called “Ashfield Floral” by Ralph Lauren. The old, dark charcoal chalkboard paint got the boot and we decided to replace it with a lighter, brighter and slightly Scandinavian-cool wallpaper that would perfectly complement our buffalo check chair and make a statement on that wall. Wallpaper is new territory for us, and we love going this route for an accent wall because it’s a budget-friendly way to make a big impact.
We already had those white pom pillows from Target, but I opened them up and replaced the poly filling with down inserts for a more luxe feel. I then had our seamstress add a zipper to the bottom so we can easily remove the inserts and wash those white pillow covers when they inevitably get dirty. I didn’t think I could love a lamp so much, but this budget-friendly, beaded seafoam wonder totally stole my heart the moment I laid eyes on it. In some of the photos you may notice that we also tried this pretty double gourd lamp from Target, but ultimately the beaded seafoam wonder inched it out for the win.
These adorable Jenny Lind-style side tables were on sale for $145 at Wayfair recently and it seriously surprised me when they arrived and were so well made. They were incredibly easy to assemble all by myself, and those turned posts (or what we call spindles) are perfect for bringing that Scandinavian farmhouse vibe into this space.
You didn’t think we’d let this black-and-white farmhouse project pass us by without adding a little bit of Chip and Jo into the mix, did you? This was such a fun space to reimagine and we absolutely love that it was all inspired by one treasured old armchair and the perfect buffalo check fabric from Calico Corners.
It lights up that creative space in your brain and opens your eyes to new ideas and fresh possibilities, which is exactly what was required to finally tackle this living room makeover. This farmhouse living room makeover post was created in partnership with Calico Corners who provided products and services we love.
