3 Interior Designers Transform The Same Abandoned Victorian Living Room
We gave interior designers Noz Nozawa, Kat Bell, and Hema Persad a photo of the same abandoned Victorian living room—and then asked each of them to renovate it in their particular style. Three artists, one canvas, each bringing something different to the space. Which designer's renovation can you see yourself bringing into the 21st Century?
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00:00These three interior designers have been given a photograph of an abandoned Victorian living room.
00:06They have free reign to design it in any way they please.
00:10I'm Naz, and my design is bold, it's colorful, and sometimes it's a little fearless.
00:14My name's Kat, and my design style is unexpected, luxurious, and inquisitive.
00:19I'm Hema, and my style is global, rich, and livable.
00:23No clients, no restrictions, just blank space.
00:27My first impressions of this space are that it probably was once a very beautiful and grand room.
00:34I do really love the original features of the space.
00:38It's clearly an old Victorian living room, but it's been messed with over time.
00:43There's a lot that I don't have to stick with, and a lot of things that I will honor,
00:47because it's great, but it's not all original.
00:51Looking at this room, there is one word that comes to mind, and it is demo.
00:56I would just get rid of everything.
01:02My vision for this space is basically preserving a lot of the elements that I love about it,
01:07restoring some of that grandeur to the space that I think has been lost over time
01:11to just wear and non-original, non-heritage things,
01:15but then make it whimsical and colorful for that really cool contrast that I love in older homes.
01:20I love the idea of a game room. I love game nights.
01:22I want to design a game room that feels sexy, like game night in Casablanca.
01:28It's going to have that very lush, sultry feel to it.
01:31My vision for the space is to try and maintain a lot of its original charm and character,
01:37but have a lot of fun with the colors and the furniture that we use and bring it into this century.
01:43Looking at these floors, they look like an old parquet wood.
01:48Ordinarily, I wouldn't rip something like this out, but I don't think there's any salvaging them.
01:52I think we should start fresh.
01:54It's too far gone, so I'm going to replace it.
01:56So, I want to do something more fun, like a checkerboard.
01:58Half of the checkers are going to be wood, white oak,
02:01and then the other half of the checkers I'm going to do in walnut wood.
02:05I want to make sure that I'm adding in floors that are very complementary to each other.
02:09I want to make sure that I'm adding in floors that are very complementary to the existing features.
02:13I'm going to opt in to do a new parquet flooring that feels brighter and fresher.
02:18I think it would be really fun to play off of the geometric shapes that are seen throughout the rest of the space.
02:24I'm going to introduce a wall-to-wall carpet,
02:27and I think it's going to add that plush, sexy feeling that we're going for in this space.
02:31I do feel strongly that from an acoustical and warmth standpoint, we should have a rug.
02:36This rug from Safar, I think it's really cool,
02:38because you can see in the detail that they actually sheared between each color,
02:43more of like a ridge, so you can really texturally feel all these colors transitioning.
02:48In addition to the parquet floor, I've been dying to use this rug by Edward Fields.
02:53It's called Daisy. It's really whimsical.
02:57Also, there's an interesting history of Victorian houses and American hippies,
03:03so I think it brings a really fun summer of love thing to the space.
03:11I really love the original wall paneling, and I just think it needs a bit of a facelift,
03:17so I'm going to paint it a really beautiful shade of blue,
03:20and inside the trim, I'm going to go one shade lighter than the walls
03:25to really emphasize that detail and create some contrast.
03:29I love the original fireplace, and I want to try and keep that,
03:32but paint it in the same light blue as the walls.
03:35The only details, honestly, that I would preserve here are these beautiful big windows.
03:39We're going to rip out all this old wood paneling.
03:42It kind of feels oppressive in the space, so on the back wall where we've got windows,
03:46we're going to do this beautiful gold wallpaper by Calico.
03:50You can see there's like a little bird motif. It's very reflective.
03:53That's going to be the back room.
03:55Not only am I going to visually sort of divide the space with different wall treatments throughout,
04:00I'm actually going to physically divide it.
04:02So I've included these vintage floor-to-ceiling window panes,
04:06and I'm going to add different colors of stained glass throughout
04:09to really capture this beautiful light flowing through these big windows.
04:13I love wood paneling, but it just doesn't behave with anything.
04:18It's almost as if someone retrofitted other architectural panels from another house
04:23and put them on the walls.
04:25So we're just going to redo the paneling,
04:27and then we'll move that all the way through this entire room.
04:31And as far as finish goes, I have this idea of doing like Saroost,
04:35which is basically they put white wax inside the wood grain and then you stain the wood.
04:39That way the grain really lights up even though you've stained it a color that's darker than the wood.
04:44I want to do a Saroost denim blue stain all over the panels.
04:48I like the idea of adding some more fabric to the room to help absorb sound.
04:52So we're just going to do very simple, very tall floor-to-ceiling drapes
04:56with a ceiling-mounted brass rod.
04:58The windows are really beautiful, but currently the drapes are hiding them.
05:02They're blocking out a lot of natural light.
05:05The best thing to do is just remove them completely and continue the paint detailing.
05:10This is a space that isn't necessarily a bedroom.
05:13I don't think you need privacy here.
05:15So I really love how it lets all of the natural light flood in as well.
05:19I don't like this fireplace, although I know it's probably historically preserved
05:23and people out there are clutching their pearls.
05:25But we're going to visually expand the fireplace to take up more of the wall
05:30and create this like central gaming area.
05:32And I'm going to use this beautiful Zalish tile.
05:34It's from Morocco. It's meant to be imperfect.
05:36And then off to the left, we're going to put a built-in
05:39with this beautiful khaki green paint by Farrow & Ball.
05:43And it's going to be where we house all our board games
05:46and anything else that sort of belongs in a game room.
05:49With regard to the fireplace, I feel very strongly that it should be bigger.
05:54But I'm going to go with a very traditional breccia capraia or Calacatta Viola marble.
05:59But I will say I love a mantel because I personally celebrate Christmas,
06:04which is a holiday requiring stockings for Santa.
06:07So I do want to retain the shelf, that mantel shelf,
06:11rather than running the marble all the way up the wall.
06:13On the right-hand side in the original space,
06:15we've got this sort of tiny, nondescript wood door.
06:18It's meant to be a hidden door.
06:19I think a room like this deserves a grand entrance.
06:22So I'm going to expand the door to make it a double door.
06:25And we're going to carry the wallpaper from the back all the way around to the right.
06:33For the ceiling, I would love to continue the blue to the soffits.
06:37There's currently these drop panels.
06:39I want to remove those. They feel overbearing in my opinion.
06:43And I think it would be really cool if we did a mirrored tile treatment inside each of the soffits
06:49to help reflect the natural light that's coming into the space
06:52and also introduce a new, more modern material into the room.
06:56The ceiling in our original room has like a funny sort of tray ceiling.
07:01I'm not really sure what's going on there, but I don't like it.
07:04So I'm going to get rid of it.
07:05And I'm going to build out a coffered ceiling.
07:08But we're going to create sort of this grid design that's going to mirror the fireplace and mirror the floor.
07:14In between each of these squares, I'm going to use my favorite wallpaper.
07:18So we're going to get a gold glow.
07:20I am going to flatten the ceiling.
07:22And the reason why is I want to do something really major mural-wise.
07:26It's actually like a super hyper colorful version of something that I've done
07:30in collaboration with decorative artist Caroline Lizarraga
07:33on a similarly sized Victorian living room in San Francisco in real life.
07:37But it's kind of like a watercolor looking sort of like splashes of rainbow.
07:42I love the idea of a finish like that because there's a lot of negative space,
07:46a lot of quiet white ceiling, and then gorgeous splashes of color like all over the place
07:52that just sort of make the whole room feel whimsical and improvisational.
07:57And I love that in a hosting space.
08:00One of the funny challenges about having a large room is that sometimes it's a little bit too large.
08:05There are totally times where I have clients with homes this size and rooms this size
08:10where they're like, how do I even decorate this thing?
08:13With a room of this size, there's a lot of different ways to approach it.
08:16For this space specifically, I want to try and create a focal point in the center with the furniture.
08:22I'm obsessed with this vintage sofa by Claudio Solloci.
08:25It's from the 1960s.
08:27I'm going to reupholster the sofa in this really beautiful soft cream leather by Maharam.
08:33Next to the sofa, I want to bring in this beautiful bamboo and brass side table by Gabriella Crespi.
08:39As I think about furniture, I need to zone this room, right?
08:42This is a long, long, very large room.
08:45And I want there to be beautiful spaces for hosting, but also spaces for sort of like quiet contemplation
08:50or maybe just two people.
08:51So we'll do an accent chair kind of over here.
08:53Then I love that big swoopy sectional.
08:55I love a sectional sofa in a space that doesn't have a TV
08:58because what it connotes is everyone is together, having a shared experience, talking to each other.
09:03We'll do a coffee table.
09:04This Marcine Roussac table, it's like resin with actual botanical flowers suspended forever in the resin.
09:11We're going to put side tables all over the place so people can kind of like custom tailor
09:15It's a game room, almost like a mini casino.
09:17So in our back area, I'm calling this the high roller room.
09:21We need a big table with these beautiful Kelly Wurstler chairs.
09:24Everything, again, has that sort of checker motif.
09:26Then moving forward in front of the partitions, it's going to get louder and a little more boisterous, less serious.
09:32So we've got our central area for taboo or whatever loud game we want to play.
09:37We're going to have a little bit of a lounge area.
09:40This is a pink velvet fabric from Tebow.
09:42And then this is a green mohair.
09:44And I think together they kind of echo all of our tones in the carpet and on our wall tile.
09:50And then we've got a central table for drinks or whatever else we want to rest in the middle while we're playing.
09:56Off to the left, we've got a smaller sort of lounge area.
10:00We're going to have a little bit of a lounge area.
10:03For drinks or whatever else we want to rest in the middle while we're playing.
10:06Off to the left, we've got a smaller sort of card table.
10:10And then off to the right, we've got our bar.
10:13Because obviously, we need drinks.
10:15It's a party room at the end of the day.
10:17The chairs are the Future Perfect in Los Angeles.
10:20They are green satin with a beautiful gold fringe.
10:24They swivel.
10:25They're stunning.
10:26And they're comfortable.
10:27I'm going to group them around this marble top table for like kind of an elegant upscale look.
10:32We're not going casual here.
10:33We're going very, very luxe.
10:35As for accent chairs, I want to do like a mix of old and new.
10:38So the new is going to be the super furry little friend from the Campana Bros.
10:41And then for the old, because we're doing both sides of time in this room, these vintage pieces from Blackman Cruz in Los Angeles.
10:48They're velvet.
10:49They're sort of worn.
10:50And they're from Italy.
10:51On the right side of the room, I really want to add a bookshelf.
10:55I chose this Elize bookshelf by Pierre Paulin.
10:58It's a beautiful honeycomb bentwood design.
11:01I think it goes really well with the geometric shapes that we have going on throughout the space.
11:06And the idea of a honeycomb fits into that whimsical summer of love hippie thematic we have going on.
11:13Instead of this like big demi-loon table, I'm just going to do a credenza.
11:16Because you could always use a little bit of storage.
11:18No matter how big your house is.
11:20This one from Colette Elmés is so colorful.
11:22It's wood.
11:23It's rattan.
11:24It's like caning.
11:25But it's also like leather-wrapped pipes that go around the perimeter of it.
11:28And it looks gorgeous from every single angle.
11:31On the left side of the room, I think this is a great opportunity to bring in pieces that have more organic curves to them.
11:38To offset the squares and the rectangles we have going on.
11:41I would love to add this cabinet by Nicola L.
11:44She's one of my favorite artists of all time.
11:46She was a Moroccan-born French artist who was known for her witty, human-like sculptures that really fused art with function.
11:54Bringing in this piece not only creates a talking point within the room.
11:59But also introduces a sort of new silhouette that we don't have going on in the room.
12:04On the right side of the fireplace, I want to bring in this amazing piece.
12:08It's by Claude Delon.
12:09It's called The Crocodile Banquet.
12:11And I think it's just a piece that exudes extravagance and elegance.
12:19With regard to lighting in this room, everything in this room should be ambient.
12:22It's a hosting space.
12:23You don't need to do your math homework in this room.
12:25I'm actually going to use the Revere chandelier from my new collection.
12:30It's a total peeve of mine in hosting spaces to be reclining on the sofa.
12:34And as you look up, you're staring directly into light bulbs.
12:36So that's why I wanted to cover the bulbs with alabaster stone.
12:39So you already have a lens that helps diffuse the light.
12:42And because they shine outward.
12:44It's more about ambient light.
12:46So remember that coffered ceiling?
12:48The idea is that each grid has one of these beautiful sort of glass pendants in them.
12:54And they're going to be at staggered heights for a very candlelit, garden, outdoor, midsummer night's dream kind of look.
13:02And then in the game room, the high roller room, we've got this beautiful dramatic chandelier from Soho Home.
13:07The sconces on the fireplace are from London.
13:10And they've got this beautiful fringe on them that kind of echoes what's happening with our swivel chairs in the little card table up here on the left.
13:17And then my favorite piece, which is actually a really simple piece from anthropology, is this wall mount sconce of a hand holding a lamp above the bar.
13:25And I just think it's like really fun and whimsical and kind of cute.
13:28I really want to do a cool lighting installation.
13:31This Noguchi Akari light sculpture.
13:34It's made out of paper.
13:36It brings a bit of delicateness to the space while still complementing the geometric patterns that we have going on.
13:43It gives off a nice glow light.
13:45And I think it'll bounce really nicely off of all the blue walls.
13:48I'm going to do sconces on either side of the fireplace.
13:50And those are also from my collection.
13:52They feel like angular and weird, almost like origami sheets of brass.
13:56And then there's like a rock crystal inside.
13:58And then in the corner over here, I just want to have like a totem.
14:02It's from Allied Maker.
14:04Again, I have alabaster up in the ceiling light.
14:06So I wanted an alabaster friend that I didn't create.
14:09There's something almost spiritual about the light warming itself through the alabaster.
14:17So I've been talking about the paneling, custom tailoring it.
14:20I'm envisioning that we do custom sized panels on either side of this wider fireplace that house Daisy Patton portraits.
14:27Daisy Patton is this amazing artist out of Boston.
14:30I want some real plant life.
14:32We're just going to do an olive tree over by the window.
14:34And then we're going to do like a gorgeous little arrangement right on that mantle.
14:37Use that shelf space.
14:39And a friend of mine in San Francisco, he's my floral designer co-conspirator, Mr. Lee.
14:43And I love that his sculptures are actively in decay.
14:46That's what flowers are, right?
14:48Morbid but true.
14:49And I think there's something really cool about having something that's always changing being a focal point in the room.
14:54We're going to use mirrors to help bounce light through.
14:56And they're just going to be fun shapes.
14:58It's like a really fun starburst mirror over the credenza.
15:01Then over the fireplace, this one that I found on First Dibs, it's almost like kind of a handle.
15:06And then like a pot or a pan of mirror underneath it.
15:09Since most of the furniture that we've added thus far is kind of art in and of itself,
15:14I want to be super selective with the art and the decor that we're bringing in.
15:19I would love to put a mirror over the fireplace.
15:22I'm going to choose this amazing piece by Misha Khan.
15:25He's a contemporary artist who I think is doing really cool things.
15:29In between the two French doors, I'm going to add this beautiful ceramic sculpture by Norwegian artist Torbjörn Kvasbo.
15:35And I'm going to display it on a very simple black pedestal.
15:38I'm going to add in an art piece by the artist Lauren Halsey, an artist from South Central LA that I'm a huge fan of.
15:45It has a neutral palette and also plays with the geometric shape.
15:49So in this room, the styling is really what's going to bring it to life.
15:52We've got this giant palm tree.
15:54We're going for Casablanca, Monaco, that upscale tropical feel.
15:58Adding to the drama on the back high roller room table, we've got a dramatic flower arrangement.
16:03And then in terms of accessories, we've got our game shelf with all of our games.
16:08Whatever you feel like, you can just walk over and pull an option off the shelf.
16:15To me, this room screams fun and it's like ready for a sexy night.
16:20This is like no kids are hanging out in here.
16:22This is adults only.
16:24We're coming in here after dinner.
16:26Everybody's ready for some cigars and some drinks and, you know, who knows what else.
16:31But we're coming in here to, you know, have a good time, let loose, play some games, maybe win a little money.
16:37And again, maybe if we turn the music up, take off our shoes and jump on the couches.
16:41You know, that's kind of what the room is for.
16:43I'm really happy with how this room turned out.
16:45I really achieved the goal of trying to brighten up the space and making it feel welcoming and lively.
16:51It feels like a much more modern and inviting space, but still very respectful to a lot of the original features that we wanted to preserve.
16:58My final thoughts on this room are I love it.
17:01I love color, but like earthbound color.
17:04It's a little bit fantastical.
17:06Yeah, I'll move right in.
17:13Oh, wow.
17:15Oh, my God.
17:16Everything is so different.
17:18Wait a minute.
17:19Whoa, that's crazy.
17:20This is super different.
17:21This is my game night room.
17:22I love that.
17:23And you created a partition.
17:24A partition, because this is like where the serious card players go.
17:28Oh, wow.
17:29Oh, that's like the high roller room.
17:30Yeah, that's the high roller room.
17:32It's amazing.
17:33But this rug, like, tell me about it.
17:35Oh, my gosh, it's out of control, right?
17:36It's so cute.
17:37I've been dying to use it in a project.
17:39It's by Edward Fields.
17:40It's called Daisy.
17:41It's beautiful.
17:42But it's like, it always gets defaulted to like a nursery.
17:44And I was like, you know what, I'm going to make it happen in the living room.
17:47Wait, so cute.
17:48I think this will help people understand, like, have fun.
17:51Yeah, exactly.
17:52Yes.
17:53Whimsical.
17:54Wait, Naz, your ceiling mural.
17:55Oh, my God.
17:56What is it?
17:57Is it watercolor?
17:58This is actually like a decorative finish that I've done in a Victorian living room
18:02project in San Francisco.
18:03All of us kind of went whimsical, I think.
18:05But I think these people are friends.
18:07Yeah, I think so.
18:08Friends who like go to each other's houses.
18:10Game night.
18:11Game night over here.
18:12Like this is like a defo party, like vibey space, like cocktail hour.
18:16Yes.
18:17This is like a tea party, tea time.
18:18This is like a cuddle time.
18:19Oh, my God.
18:20I love it.
18:21Wait, okay, so we start in Hema's room and then we transition to mine.
18:24Our drinks and then yours is the late night.
18:26Yeah, lounge hang.
18:27Oh, my God.
18:28I'm so stressed.
18:29I like it.