For all the millions of years I’ve been following lifestyle and home decor bloggers and have never had the opportunity to re-do a room. As a renter, I wasn’t sure WHEN I’d get to do a full makeover any time soon— so when my parents asked me to help them makeover their sunroom, I pinched myself a trillion times.

I’m so grateful to my parents for trusting me AND giving me the opportunity to remove the ceiling, paint the room, replace the fixtures, pull up the carpet, re-do the floors, and select the furniture…. this felt like something I’ve been wanting to do for a long long time. 

Demo-wise, the carpet and the ceiling in this Sunroom has been here ever since we moved in 20 + years ago, so it was BEYOND time for these features to go. It felt so good to rip up that nasty carpet. And it felt so SATISFYING to see what was hiding above the faux grid ceiling. We were hoping we’d find a solid arched ceiling above the faux ceiling and we were hoping to find a cement floor in pretty good condition underneath the carpet. And oh my, both came in clutch. 

We took out the feaux ceiling to discover a higher perfectly vaulted ceiling, which felt like getting the gift we actually wanted for Christmas. We ripped up the carpet to find a mostly smooth cement floor. We were hoping to just seal the cement floor and leave it as is, but no flooring company would do that, so we ended up having to pick a tile. We had discussed doing a cement swirl, but we sort of hated the options our local flooring company gave us. A cement swirl is cool, but almost entirely unpredictable when it comes to knowing how it will really look after it’s finished. We didn’t want any mystery with the floor.

Deisgn-wise, a lot of thought had to be put into this room as it’s multi-functional. During most of the year, it’s a quiet room of rest my parents can use to look out at their garden. It’s also a Television room. Sometimes it’s a workout bike room. And only every now and then is it a guest room. That’s a lot of functions for one room. 

Design Hiccups: 

• If you were following along on instagram you’ll know that Picking a paint color and trim color was challenging because we couldn’t get paint testers because a certain plant that enables paint stores to create samples was destroyed during the freezes in Texas earlier this year. CRAZY RIGHT?! Y’all, never in a million years would I have tried to pick two paint colors SO blindly and entirely based on the swatch. But that’s what we did. It was terrifying. While I LOVE how it turned out, I hope we never have to do that ever again.

• There was a lot of debate about practical things like lighting, adding a fan, or where to put the tv. Because there was a lot of debate over these things, there was also a lot of compromise. Instead of a fun chandelier, we opted for a fan because sun rooms get hot in Texas. For lighting we installed a pendant light on one side of the room and a floor lamp with three hanging pendants on the other side. The fan also has a light.

Design Wins: 

• The rug from Walmart was not only affordable, but really perfect for this room. Walmart had a ton of great options. This rug has a handful of colors hiding in it, which made adding pops of color to the room much easier. It really helped bond the black accents and the gray couch together. Without it, I’m not sure it would all fit.

• The room feels bright and cohesive.

• World market was really a life saver when it came to the more outdoorsy looking accent chairs, the pendant light, the floor lamp, the TV console, the bar cart, and the curtain rods.

• I thought the macrame curtains would feel too young, but they really bring the bungalow vibes this room needs. I LOVE THEM.

I loved putting this design together and helping my parents make design decisions to make this room possible. They are really happy with how it turned out and they can’t wait for Brett and I to move out so they can start using this room without us always being in it. 

Do you like how this room was renovated? Is there anything different you would have done if you were decorating it? 

Let me know if you need any links to the furniture we bought for this room! And look out for my behind the scenes post on what it was like to design for my parents!