Living Room makeover – the beginning

When we first moved into our 50s suburban bungalow the previous owners had only been in there 18months, in which time they’d removed all traces of the old folk who lived there before them, and they painted all the rooms white, (except one grey wall in the living room) – so a real blank canvas.

We’ve been here nearly two years, and the living room now needs doing.  We’ve got some plaster coming astray in one corner and the white paint doesn’t fare well with the husband and his crutches to walk around inside, or the wheelchair.  Either way, we have black rubber marks from the crutches or the wheels on pretty much every wall in the house.

Add to that we used to live in a Victorian Semi with more traditional decor and we so we have a fair bit of oaky wooden furniture.  I’m edging towards a more modern feel in this house and it’s time for a change.

We’ll be doing this over the next month or two (probably won’t actually fully get going until the new year but wanted to lay out some plans and ideas in advance).

The living room used to be a bedroom before the previous owners moved in (they converted the old living room into two bedrooms to add a bedroom to the house and get more value!) and so the front bedroom is now our living room.

It’s a smallish room, 3m x 4m and a good rectangular shape.  It’s south facing and looks out onto the cul-de-sac which is really quiet.  In any case, there’s only the two of us so we don’t need a larger living room and we like to have the sunshine coming in.

I’ve taken some panoramic photos in the sun, you can see how much light it gets from the photos, one has curtains open, one has curtains closed…

The sofa is new (read more about the sofa here) so that’s staying but I think I’m looking for more modern furniture, a brighter rug, new curtains and different cushions.  Definitely looking for a round coffee table to make a little more space for the wheelchair and for the husband to move around.

I want to keep our picture of Florence on the wall, but not sure what else will stay in this room.  The mirror will stay in the house somewhere, I’ll probably move it to a bedroom but  otherwise ready sell or move the other furniture on.

So this is my starting point. I’m looking at some Farrow and Ball tester pots – I’ve used lining paper to paint the testers on, which allows you to move the colours around the room to see how they react to the different lights and in the sun and without sun.  I’ll put a blog post together about that shortly – with photos of the paint in different lights.

It’s a really bright room but it’s a little dull now and the white is getting grubby.  I think the room can take a darker colour wall as you can see how bright the room can get.  In the summer we keep the curtains closed when we’re at work so the sofa doesn’t fade in the sun and to keep the room cool.

I’ll be putting together mood boards and ideas for the new decor and be grateful for any feedback you might have!