A 115-Year-Old Living Room Gets a Warm, Renter-Friendly Makeover
If you’re new to painting, don’t be discouraged if it takes a couple tries to achieve the exact color scheme you’re after. Sample pots of paint and stick-on swatches from places like Samplize are your friend, but even still, some DIYers paint rooms two or three times before having their “aha”’” moment with the right paint color.
In Jackie Cantwell’s (@itsjackiecantwell) 110-year-old East Williamsburg apartment, she painted the entire ceiling twice in the living room, but it was worth it. “Before, it was just too gaping with all white,” she explains.
The living room has a neutral but warm color palette.
Jackie describes her landlord in her current place as old-school, “so I couldn’t go as wild as in my last two apartments,” she says. Still, though, she could paint, and she chose neutral tones to soften up the place.
“In this room, I painted the ceiling and some of the trim this really subtle gray that some people might not even notice,” she says. (It’s Benjamin Moore’s Calm.) “I promise you, it really softened the room and warmed it up.”
She actually painted the ceiling an ochre color first, but she hated it. “Yes, I painted the entire ceiling TWICE,” she says. And she painted the center of the fireplace Benjamin Moore’s Misty Lilac.
The room blends vintage finds with custom and store-bought pieces.
Speaking of the fireplace, it’s nonfunctional, so Jackie chose to put a table in front of it to maximize the space; she calls it “the café section of [her] living room.” The table is a handmade vintage piece, and so are the cesca chairs, the accent tables in the room, and the hutch that stores her glassware.
The bench is from Urban Outfitters, the leather sofa is from West Elm, the record cabinet is from Design Within Reach, and the rug is from Cold Picnic. The pink sofa, black armchair, and corner shelving are all custom pieces. (Jackie says adding storage to the living room was one of the biggest challenges.)
There are renter-friendly upgrades to the lighting.
Jackie covered the existing light fixture in the living room with a Tulip flush-mount kit, and she layered in a Bon Bon lampshade, a vintage IKEA pendant she painted yellow, a 1970s stained glass wall lamp, a vintage IKEA sconce, and a red pleated lamp from HAY.
Fabric details soften the space.
Her curtains (for the window and the doorframe) are from Lulu and Georgia, and Jackie also sewed the circle pillows and green bench cushion in the living room.
To see Jackie’s old apartments and how her furniture has traveled around with her from place to place, check out her previous railroad apartment in Bushwick and a second iteration of the 400-square-foot space.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.