Desert House Living Room Progress

Normally it’s a before and after, but what about a before and during? I had a busy week working on the desert house, and I’m so excited to share the progress from the last few week. After putting together a bunch of new furniture you can see on my Instagram here, we finished skim coating, sanding, and painting the walls and they look so fresh and smooth. Honestly it’s amazing what a difference it makes! Seeing the progress makes it all worth it and I was about to give up more than once, hah!

THE PROCESS

Before we started working on the living room it had this dingy beige tile and super textured walls. So rather than dig out all of the tile we opted to paint it white with Rust-Oleum tile paint, and to skim coat the walls with joint compound for a smoother texture. I’ve always dreamed of having a bright white room that feels like a giant lightbox, so I figured we would lean into what we have and go for it! And, let’s be honest, ripping out tile does not sound fun right now when we have the whole rest of the house to work on! For the wall paint we went with Behr’s Polar Bear for a bright white tone. I love how it looks when the light hits it in the morning! The theme of the space is to use lots of materials from nature — jute, rattan, bamboo, cane — so we added this cane cabinet, jute poufs, and this bamboo slingback lounge chair (which will eventually go outside probably). For the sofa I’m thinking we will do a leather to contrast with the bright white floors, and a jute rug to go underneath.

BEFORE & AFTER

Next steps are to replace the front door, add a rug, swap out the lighting, get the sofa and add some finishing touches with decor! Can’t wait to share the next update–it’s gonna be a good one!

SHOP THE LIVING ROOM