Living room before makeover

I started a living room and kitchen makeover waaaay back in January. Whilst most of the big stuff was done by February, after a few crazy DIY weekend sessions, everything started to drag after that due to delays in furniture deliveries, which meant I couldn’t pull the whole room together until last month. However, it is finally done and I love it, which is the main thing. The flat as a whole feels so much more cohesive and fresh now and even more importantly, the room works so much better on a practical level, which makes Jules very happy.

Today, I just wanted to remind you of what the room was like ‘before’ and show you a few snaps mid-decorating and then I will share the full room reveal later on this week, so keep your eyes peeled.

Before

What I didn’t like:

– I didn’t buy any of the furniture for this room; it was all stuff from my previous flat. Therefore, it never felt like it quite fitted and a few of the pieces were too big for this space.

– I got tired of the mish-mash style and craved simplicity and a calmer vibe.

– The teal blue loveseat blocked out too much light from the south facing floor to ceiling window, which always felt a bit criminal.

– From a practical point of view the room did not work. The sofa was too small for all of us (including Otto) to sit on together comfortably (I like to lie out). The rug was being destroyed by Otto as it is so thin and delicate and it showed up his hair really badly. Also, the position of the dining table didn’t quite work because  I would sit at one end and Jules would sit in the middle and because we weren’t directly facing each other it wasn’t very conducive to chatting or lingering after eating.

– There was very little storage.

What I sold:

– Teal loveseat

– Sofa

– G-plan sideboard

– Hanging pendants

– Wall mirror

– Lloyd Loom chair

– Large ceramic table lamp

– Retro yellow table lamp

– Gave back my mum’s school trunk to her and kept the kilim rug for the future when I have a house big enough for a dog-free room 😉

During decorating

I packed Jules and Otto off for a week to stay with his mum so that I could paint the living room, kitchen and re-paint the floors white (they were pale grey). Big clumsy dogs and paint don’t mix very well so I had to get it all done before they came back. By this point I had sold most of the furniture, which made it so much easier on a practical level, but once I had cleared out the remaining few bits I had a blank canvas to get started on the paint job.

After attending the preview for the nine new Farrow & Ball colours I fell in love with Peignoir and decided that it would be the perfect colour for the living room. I have to say, after using quite a few different brands of paint, that using Farrow & Ball paint is a completely different league. The ease with which if goes onto the walls and how smoothly it dries is something else. I really believe it is worth every penny, especially if, like me, you do the decorating yourself. I only had to do two coats and even Jules was pleasantly surprised at how professional the finish was when he returned (I am a bit notorious for rushing jobs like these so he was anxious that I wasn’t going to do a good job of it!).

Normally, I would have started by ‘cutting in’ but for some very good reason, which escapes me right now, I had to start by rollering the walls. It all worked out well in the end though. These are terrible snaps that I kept on sending Jules as he was anxious about Peignoir being too pink. It is very grey a lot of the time so he really likes the colour.

Once I had finished the walls I re-painted the floors white as grey floors with Peignoir felt a bit muddy and crisp white woodwork and floors helps to keep it feeling fresh and modern.

So, I will be back later on this week with the final reveal of the room and the new furniture and accessories that I have chosen for this space. The week after that I’ll show you the kitchen makeover, which goes off the living room to the right (as you can see in that picture above).

Katy x