While remodeling a bathroom, Liz Malm and her partner, Jack, turned an empty upstairs room in their 1911 Portland Craftsman home into what they called a “junk dump,” temporarily housing their sofa and TV. “It didn’t feel intentional or designed at all,” says Malm, noting that she had always planned to incorporate a sleeping or living space on the upper level of her home to free up the downstairs TV.
As Malm started decorating the room, she began the search for the perfect wall color. She needed a shade that would play well with the natural light entering the room. “I didn’t want to go super dark and ‘waste’ the sunlight,” she says. Still, the goal was a cozy, “wrap-around” feel, but she knew it had to be warm in tone, thanks to the orange wood floors. “Repairing the original hardwood is not in the cards for now, so we had to work on that,” explains Malm.
While a warm white or yellow would be safe, navy blue, another of Malmo’s favorite colors, was too dark and cool. So the self-proclaimed “neutral girl” felt inspired to go beyond her usual palette. “This room was small enough that we could take risks,” she says. “I knew I could always repaint it if we ended up not liking it.” She took to Pinterest in search of rich, golden hues that spoke to her and kept coming back to images of Farrow & Ball’s Indiana Yellow. “I ordered it online without a sample!” she says. “Luckily, we ended up liking it.”
Malm spent two afternoons and evenings after work patching up some wall holes and painting the den, including the woodwork. “The color didn’t look good after one coat, but luckily I stuck with it,” she says. In addition to painting, she also removed two doors. “We removed the door from the room because there was no need to close it, and it really cut into usable space,” explains Malm. The couple also parted ways with the closet doors, because they kept their cats’ litters in them and needed easy access to that space. “No doors keep it well ventilated, and the closet is big enough that they can be tucked around the corner and out of sight,” adds Malm.
Then it was time to furnish and style the space. With two closet doors and a partially curved wall, the oddly shaped room layout made determining furniture placement a challenge. “I probably remodeled the space four times until we got it the way we wanted it,” says Malm. Ultimately, she landed on the current setup, which includes a sofa in front of one of the unused closets, with a chair and coffee table floating nearby in the center of the space, while a closet and bench hug the perimeter to provide additional storage. .
Instead of buying all new furniture for the den, Malm “shopped” her home to fill the space, incorporating pieces from her previous apartment as well as other “placeholders” bought before the remodel. She and her partner ordered a new IKEA SÖDERHAMN sofa when they first moved into their home, and now this piece anchors the den. “It was narrow enough from end to end to fit in the space, but deep enough to be incredible for comfortable movie viewing,” says Malm. The sofa features a leopard pillow from Anthropologie, which Malm says embodies “the whole color scheme of the room: dark gold, rich green and deep blue.”
The coffee table in the space is from Target’s Hearth & Hand with Magnolia collection. Malm originally bought it for the basement of the house, but thought its small size was perfect for a den. She also appreciated how its rich wood stood out among the black furniture in the space (though it’s now only available in a lighter finish).
The Article bench, previously located in the entryway, found a new home across from the sofa below the couple’s Samsung Frame TV. “We didn’t have enough room for a TV console, but we still had to hide the TV cables and sockets,” says Malm. She added baskets under the bench to help camouflage that, as well as other looks. A yellow and white striped pillow from the Lulu & Georgia Collection by Sarah Sherman Samuel, also taken from the entryway, sits atop the seat. “It matched the color scheme perfectly, so I knew I had to move it into this room,” says Malm.
Perpendicular to the TV, Malm placed a wooden cabinet from Wayfair, originally purchased for the office. This is where the gym equipment is located. Her rug is from Zara Home, and the wooden accent chair is also from Target’s Hearth & Hand line.
Malm and her partner couldn’t be happier with their new and improved den, which took several weeks to furnish from top to bottom. “We spend almost every evening here,” she says. “It’s so cozy and comfortable. I love lying down to watch a movie.” The only thing left to do? Adding an overhead ceiling medallion and potentially painting the ceiling yellow!