Lake-Inspired Living Room Makeover at the Duplex

The first room makeover of 2024 is complete! The living room at our Duplex home had a ton of potential, so we decided to give it a little refresh with paint and this mantel I thrifted years ago. It’s so charming now! Read on for all the details and shopping info:

If you are new around here, Mr. Yolo and I renovated this 1890-built duplex when I was pregnant with our first girl. We started when I found out I was pregnant, and finished up a few days before having Lil’ Yolo. We did all the renovation work with the help of Mr. Yolo parents, it was a BIG job, and I definitely got design fatigue. Now that it’s been 4 years, I am excited to go back in with fresh eyes and make some updates!

The room feels SO warm now! I had a feeling that there was Cream City Brick behind this random bump out, and was so stoked when we uncovered it. I just love the character it brings into the room. A little slice of Milwaukee history. Another change was skim coating all that awful texture the was layered on the paster walls, yikes! We troweled on two coats of joint compound, and left a little movement to give it the look of plaster. Then primed and painted it a pretty taupe color, HGTV Home by Sherwin Williams Utaupeia. It was my first time using taupe on the walls, it’s not a color I would normally gravitate to, but I loved it with the Cream City Brick, and I think that combined with the Dark Auburn, it looks really fresh!

This mantel!! I found it YEARS ago for under $100 and have been storing it in our garage. I love that with a new coat of Dark Auburn paint, and tiling the inside with marble, gives it a whole new life. It looks like it has been here forever! I decorated the space with lake-inspired art and vintage items, and now this room looks like it belongs in our 1890-built home.

My goal for this year is to use as much vintage as I can, and hopefully inspire you to find unique items for your home. And I want to reuse items I have (like the light and sofa) to show how they can look new with a fresh design. I got a few new things like the rug, and the for the rest we found some similar items below!