Front entrance make-over
Before: Living room partition wall made the space cramped

Partition wall separating entryway from living room
After: Removing this wall from the entry way and living room opens everything up

No foyer entryway into living room
Shiplap – Oh I love a fresh shiplap wall 🙂
Yep, there are still lots of finishing touches to add but overall, I’m loving how much more open and bright the space feels now that the sunlight can spread through the entire room. The couch divides the entrance way from the living-room space and overall, it just makes the room feel so much more inviting. It’s more functional now too because people aren’t tripping all over each other when they come in. Here is another picture to show how the shiplap turned out.
Shiplap wall in entryway
Living room make-over
Ok, enough about the entryway… moving on to the living-room area. Remember the part about this room having no character? Well I found an awesome solution from Shadesofblueinteriors.com. She did a beautiful job in her living room with her built-in cabinets and barn-board wall. Check it out here. When I saw this, I knew it would work perfectly in our little bungalow as well. Here is a picture of the wall before we added the barn-board. It was the wall behind that oh so lovely couch from 1982 🙂
Living room before built-in bookshelves and barnboard wall
Built-in Bookshelves – I love them!

IKEA bookshelves and wall before barn-board
Barn-board Wall – a perfect focal wall for this living room makeover

Preparing the barn-board feature wall
DIY Bench Cushion
Finally, I made a DIY no sew bench cushion for the center bench. It’s super easy, only requires some MDF, high density foam, glue, a staple gun and whatever fabric you like. I love using fabric from sheet sets I find on sale, because they’re affordable, you get tons of fabric and there are lots of great farmhouse patterns out there right now. Check out my step-by-step tutorial and try making your own.
DIY no-sew bench cushion

Living room & entryway make-over
Sources:
- Wall colour: Fagiolo – Sico Evolution, Eggshell
- Trim colour: Simply White – Benjamin Moore, Eggshell
- Bookshelves & bench: IKEA Billy bookcases & IKEA Besta TV bench
- Coffee table: DIY
- Curtains: DIY
- Couch: Urban Barn – Sofia Sofa – Orca Flannel
- Bench cushion: DIY
- Chunky knit blanket: DIY
- Light fixture: Home Depot
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