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Decades of renovations can hide, or even erase, a lot of a historic home’s original features. For Claudia L’mann’s 1930s apartment, the original double doors were removed and the walls were covered up back in the ’70s. “The living room was white and had unattractive woodchip wallpaper,” Claudia says.
While she liked the brightness of the room, it needed something more. “It was too cool overall, and we wanted to create an atmosphere that emphasized the charm of the old building,” Claudia explains.
And she knew exactly what she wanted to do in the living room as part of the One Room Challenge: Restore the double doors and add texture to the space.
Restore original details.
A previous owner’s renovation meant a doorless archway took the place of classic double doors leading from the living room to the bedroom. Claudia’s first step was to bring back the doors. She and her husband had them custom-made by a carpenter — classic white with jet-black hardware.
The new doors also mirror the original wainscoting details beneath the windows in the living room, making it seem like they should have been there all along. “The moldings and the double door made the biggest difference, as they gave the room back its old-building charm,” Claudia says.
Give the walls an organic feel.
Before she could get to the moldings (more on those later), Claudia first had to do some demo. Once the doors were in, she and her husband tore down the dated wallpaper. They were left with concrete walls, which they filled, primed, and plastered on three sides.
“We left one of our walls unplastered; we think it’s stylish,” Claudia says.
This project was Claudia’s inaugural attempt at plastering walls. And while she says “it went very well for the first time,” the process wasn’t entirely a breeze. “Getting the walls really smooth wasn’t as easy as the professionals always make it look,” Claudia says. But it went well enough that she even started plastering the walls in her kid’s room.
To get the final look she was after, Claudia tried another new-to-her technique on the walls: limewashing. She mixed two colors from Kalklitir — Palladio and Celadon Primo — to achieve the limewash color she was looking for. “Painting with the lime paint using the limewash technique was super easy and almost mediative,” she says.
The result is a stunning textured yet neutral look.
Pull it all together with crown molding.
The final touch to make the room a cohesive space was installing moldings. Claudia painted Decoflair cornices white, tying in the hue of the new doors and complementing the earthy tone of the walls. The vinelike design on the moldings adds depth and meshes well with the textured walls.
After redoing the walls and doors, Claudia finished the space with neutral tones, like the light wood and white bookshelf near the white brick and warm brown fireplace.
Claudia says she loves the look of the living room in all its restored glory. “The warming colors, the stucco, the double doors, the coordinated new furniture, simply everything.”
This project was completed for the Spring 2024 One Room Challenge, in partnership with Apartment Therapy. See even more of the One Room Challenge before and afters here.
This article originally published on Apartment Therapy. See it there: See How a Gorgeous Paint Treatment Totally Transforms This Living Room (What a Difference!)
Further Reading
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