So the living room was actually the first room we completed in our house, having moved in in September 2010, one of our first big purchases was getting a proper suite of sofas from DFS. This seems to be a right of passage in the UK (I’m telling you DFS definitely got onto a winner with this!). Not sure if it is still the same 5 years on but in our rented house we got a sofa bed, 3 seater, single couch, which we still have in our spare room and it came from Argos and its starter home quality, it felt like a real grown up purchase to get a proper suite of sofas (plural), for us this mean a large couch which can seat up to 5 and a cuddle couch, which can sit up to 3, this was out of our price range up front but DFS do a 3 year, interest free credit deal where you pay monthly. Fab business model for them and affordable for their customers and as I say literally everyone I know went for this when they first bought a house so they really must be rubbing their hands together in glee at coming up with it as a business model. But to be fair to them too, 5 years down the line and we’re still very much impressed with the quality of said suite and I would definitely go back to them in the future. Of course the purchasing of the couches itself had a bit of a story behind it, I went into the store with my, now husband, was boyfriend, knowing exactly what couch and cuddle couch I wanted, a large vintage leather couch and floral cuddle couch from a different range, my husband once he got wind of this declared “not on your nelly” (polite translation) and so we spent 2.5 hours deliberating what couches to go for. When we actually saw the one we did go for in the end it had every cushion on the back in a different pattern, it was really garish and I wasn’t in the least convinced, but then the sales guy sweeped in and said we could pick which out of those we had as our fabric, in any combination…that’s when I was sold – I just went for the one pattern I liked mixed with plain and I was then so happy. These still were not the couches which I would have picked if I had been on my own, but they gave me a signature piece to base the room around and I have to say 5 years on, they are some of the comfiest chairs I have ever had the pleasure of using, they are just so snuggly and I have added some more individual cushions to them now too…anyway enough of me whittling on, time for some photos….
Big Reveal photos:
Before we began…
You might be thinking I could have done something with that fireplace and mirror, upon closer inspection it was just not my taste and the fire was fake and electric so both were sold together on eBay and went to a very happy new owner 🙂
Individual Decisions & Projects…
Buying the Suite
Picking out Featurewall
At the time we were very new to decorating, having come out of 5 years of renting where we weren’t allowed to paint the walls, I was just bursting with ideas, and I stand by the fact that it is always best to start a room from scratch with a single inspirational or signature piece and then let your inspiration run from there. At the time feature wallpapers had just come back in and I was keen to follow through with this trend, and whilst I have now gone off it, as a trend, in the most part I would actually say that our choice in the living room has lasted the test of time very well 🙂 This wallpaper we found in B&Q – again just going on friends advice on where to source paper from, and they did have a nice selection. I knew I wanted grey to go with the couches so I just collected samples of all the grey ones which I kind of liked and then went home and attached them to the wall – I was particularly drawn to the one we went with and Adam felt just the same when he came in the room (quite rare at this point that we just agreed straight away on a style item I saw it as a sign and knew we’d found the one, and as I say, still love it now so that’s good too).
Painting the Walls
Our budget was next to nothing for this room re-do, we had literally just moved into our first bought house, so we decided to just focus on getting the walls and furniture done, and leave the ceiling and floor for another time when we had more budget. If I had my time again I would have got the ceiling re-plastered even if I didn’t get anything else done. One really good tip if you cannot afford to re-plaster (as we couldn’t at the time) was to get our walls professionally lined with lining paper. We have a wonderful traditional, flat-cap-and-all, decorator who lives across the road from us and was recommended to us by our adjoining neighbours (another good tip – get tradespeople referrals from neighbours) and we stripped back all the walls of old paper and then he skimmed and then professionally lined all the walls (horizontally) with lining paper and then filled in all the cracks with filler too and they honestly look like they have been re-plastered, but at literally half the cost, he also hung out feature wallpaper, which again I would recommend in order to get a professional finish. Of course this budget tip would not really work in a kitchen or bathroom as you wouldn’t choose paper in those rooms due to the damp but is an excellent solution elsewhere and also is what we did in the dining room and master bedroom :). In terms of paint colour I would never have thought I would end up with a grey living room but I saw in the Wickes paint catalogue a picture of a similar dark grey couch against a lighter grey wall and I knew it would work, so that’s what we went for, pebble grey from Wickes. I highly recommend Wickes for paint, it really is a good quality and nice natural colours too with excellent coverage.
The plan was to get all the decorating done before the couches arrived, of course the old saying about “best laid plans” comes to mind here as the couches actually turned up a few weeks early and so we ended up having to paint and decorate round them, which wasn’t ideal but we still managed it…here are my photos from this part of the process…
Coffee Table
I always liked the idea of a nice large coffee table in the centre of a room, I found this 2nd hand pine IKEA one in the treasure trove Aladdin’s cave which is our local Age Concern Furniture Warehouse. When I got it home, I rough sanded it to get the sheen off and then I mixed a bunch of sample neutral paints together in a tupperware, and painted it and then went over it, once dry with furniture wax. It was a very successful upcycle which I still love now. The design of the table itself is great as it is a good size, it has handy hidden shelves underneath for storage and it has no sharp edges so avoids injury 🙂
Lights & Lamps
Finally, both of these lampshades were sourced from TK Maxx Home and both transformed otherwise plain plain light fixtures with a shade. We also have a, 2nd hand, Uplighter Floor Lamp behind the TV, this is fab and just keeps going forever (probably jinxed it now!)
Since doing the main room re-decorate we have replaced the door with the original door we found down the end of the garden. We have completed a photo wall – which does now need updating with new photos, which I will try to find some images of. We have bought a new multicoloured rug from Achica. I have sourced an occasional chair from a local salvage yard. We also have venetian blinds on order which should hopefully arrive in the next week and be put up soon after. I would love to know what you think of our living room reveal and see yours too. Hope you’re having a lovely weekend.