Courtney Warren is a Texas-based interior designer whose work has been featured in Real Simple, Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Apartment Therapy, and Today.com. She is a frequent consultant on Fox 4 TV’s Good Day program in Dallas, was ranked in the top 3 percent of interior designers in the US by Houzz.com, and starred in the Dallas episode of TLC’sFour Houses. She delights in helping overwhelmed clients create beautiful spaces—and will never turn down a warm chocolate chip cookie or Diet Dr Pepper.

I'm Courtney Waren

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Living Room Remodel

Design Tips, Home Tour

November 3, 2015

I am pretty sure we were at risk for an airborne illness the first time we stepped in this home and breathed the dust from the curtains. If someone needed a 1970’s prom dress, she could have worn one of the ruffled draperies home and had still made dresses for 7 of her friends. There was a lot of curtain going on, and it was all old. Not to mention it was blocking one of the best features of the house- the windows and the light. I love these old windows and couldn’t wait to get the curtains down.

Once we removed the paneling, we found layers and layers of wall, wallpaper, cheesecloth, then shiplap underneath. We also removed the fireplace facade to find a YEEHAW-inspired tiled fireplace. I love exposed brick, so we took it down one more layer to find the existing brick fireplace. I found a vintage altar from a old church, and that became our existing fireplace mantle.

The change in the room is startling! We didn’t change that much beyond cosmetics, but the result is a light, airy room that is beautiful and functional. Adding the barn doors was a great addition because we love for our two-year-old to play with heavy wood planks hanging from the wall.

Highlights in decor:

I believe in putting large items around large tvs on a big wall. So when I found these awnings in someone’s trash pile, you better believe I pulled over to the side of the road and pulled them out. Well, actually, they were stuck under some branches, and I couldn’t get them out. There were some teenage boys walking by, and I paid them $10 to help me load them.
I love the lighting from Fixer Upper! So, 2 of the light fixtures were Joanna Gaines inspired! Thanks, Fixer Upper and Jojo!

I have always wanted piano keys to hang on my wall, so when our church got a new piano and restored it, I dug (asked my husband to dig) in the trash and got them out. There is a trash theme going on here that I never realized.

I love the look of animal skin rugs, but they are a strange shape and don’t cover all the floor like a normal size rug. I have seen layering on this type of rug, and I like the look of having a bit of the pattern underneath peeking through.

We have a lot of neutral colors, lots of gray and white. I wanted a pop of color and sassiness but needed small chairs for the far side of the room. These turquoise chairs were just what I was looking for!

Do you want to see more living rooms I have designed with different decorating styles? Go here or here….

This is another one I love, and not just because she has the same curtains I do.

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