A Blank Living Room’s Cozy Makeover Has the Coolest DIY Shelving
In every room makeover, there are usually two or three major game-changers that take the room from “meh” or “good” to great. This could be paint, trim, a great rug, or dramatic curtains. In Imani Keal’s (@imaniathome) living room, the heroes are the media cabinet and the wallpaper.
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The living room before, like the rest of Imani’s two-bedroom apartment, was a beige blank slate.
A custom-built media cabinet stretches along one wall.
Imani had always envisioned “intricate media unit with long-coat storage, a space for my TV, and integrated lighting,” for her living room, as she details on her blog, and she eyed IKEA and The Container Store options before ultimately landing on building something from scratch (using plans and cutting guides from Pine and Poplar) out of red oak plywood.
She ran into a slight hiccup because the walls in her over 100-year-old apartment aren’t completely straight, so she had to use trim to account for a gap between the bottom of the bookshelf and the top of the base cabinets. Another incredibly hard part was installing the doors and getting them to fit (and therefore open and close properly). Imani stained it all with a dramatic dark brown (Minwax’s Jacobean) stain.
“It’s my first woodworking project, and I’m so proud of it,” she says. And a bit of practical advice from Imani: Woodworking projects in a small apartment are going to get messy.
“I get asked all the time how I can cut plywood in my apartment without things being covered in sawdust, and the reality is that my house is covered in sawdust at times,” she says. (A removable sofa cover, a Shop-Vac, and a quarterly professional cleaning are her DIY BFFs.)
The wallpaper adds even more boldness.
The other star of the show is the Otto Studio wallpaper, which extends all the way down the hallway of the apartment. As Imani previously told Apartment Therapy, it was a bit of a challenge to choose something that would make a statement in the entryway and hallway and serve as a backdrop in the living room without overwhelming.
The room is filled with functional furniture.
Another challenge is that Imani’s entryway is, essentially, in her living room. She added coat hooks to the walls, and an IKEA STÄLL shoe cabinet painted green to make it functional for coming in and out. The living room also contains an IKEA sofa, new Rejuvenation sconces, a vintage rug, and the famed IKEA donut lamp.
To see more of Imani’s apartment, check out her hallway transformation, her bedroom makeover and kitchen reno.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.