If you live in a rented villa accommodation like I do, giving your living room a fresh new look doesn’t have to mean knocking out walls or selling a liver to fund the project.

My living room in the Arabian Ranches, Dubai, is a nice size with a decent amount of natural light, but was looking a little worn, dated, bland and boring! I had just moved in and nothing seemed to fit into place or look right. With a baby and a new home, I was completely ready for a fresh start and new look, but had to be very careful with what I could spend.

I partnered with the lovely Sanja of Estilo Home Styling, an up and coming local interior stylist, who I met at an event and discovered was looking to build her portfolio, so we decided to collaborate here at Home Club ME. Sanja kindly offered to help me streamline my ideas, add in a few of her own, as well as try and get me some pretty awesome bargains within my tight budget of below 10,000aed for the entire makeover.

I found it hard to express my personal interior style, as I often find myself being attracted to things that are in stark contrast to one another, I guess you could call my taste ‘eclectic’. What I did know is that I wanted 3 separate spaces that all served a purpose – a play area for my toddler a dining nook, and an area to chill and watch TV. My husband Adam was more than happy to let me run with whatever I wanted, so long as it did not involve garish colours or lots of patterns. Some of my favourite features of the makeover include the gorgeous Macramé wall hanging by Shaggy Hands. I found a sturdy, long branch in our local park and knew that I wanted to create something for the home with it. Shaggy hands took my brief and made this beauty for 400AED, money well spent!

I was also super happy with Kai’s play corner and our custom-made shelf for 450AED, created by a woman who I can only describe as a superhero for carpentry, you can find her on Instagram @mammageppetto. She came to my rescue when every other place said they couldn’t make what I wanted. The picture below, may look a little off, because one of our cats jumped up on the shelf, just before the shoot and knocked over a gorgeous flute vase filled with Eucalyptus .

Our best bargain finds (in my opinion) were the gorgeous black and white pillows priced between 19AED-40AED each (reduced in the sale) from Pan Emirates and my gorgeous black and white prints (of Frida Kahlo, a bird and hands) for a total of 138.34AED from Etsy.com.

Below you can see the makeover unfold via a lovely little Video by Goldfish Photography & Studio.

Stupidly, I completely forgot to take some before images of the living room space, but the video above has captured the living room look before the makeover. In the meantime, below are the “After” photos by Creatives Enchante. Enjoy!

A Note from The Interior Stylist

The initial brief from our client was a mixture of bohemian and eclectic styles, but she also had a very distinctive personal style that we wanted to include in the overall design. It was important that the objects in the space were able to communicate with one another, respond and balance one another. The interior design budgeting process was a major shaping factor for the inspiration and creation of this space.

Sanja Leith from Estilo Home Styling

Difficulties

The difficulties we experienced during the project was the limited budget. Saying that, for us it was a challenge to hunt for more DIY, sourcing more affordable items and looking into less expensive alternatives. One other challenge was to create three areas with different functions within one open living space.

Favourite parts and overall thoughts

During the process of this project, the client had the opportunity to rediscover and define her own unique style. The combination of our ideas, along with Rio’s vision, lead to the accomplishment of a beautifully executed space, where her family can enjoy spending time together.

Our favourite part of the space is Kai’s little play corner as we could add playful elements that Kai loves, but still maintain the creative balance and functionality. We enjoyed a DIY project, turning Kai’s play kitchen into something a little more stylish to fit in with the overall theme of the make-over.

Thanks for joining me on my living room makeover tour! And a big thank you to Sanja at Estilo Home Styling for helping me turn a vision into reality. You can find out more about Estilo Home Styling over on their Home Club ME vendor listing.

Disclaimer: This makeover was conducted in 2017 and some prices mentioned, may now differ.