So, in usual Estate Agents style I would like to take you from the hallway and into our Living room for some more before and after images.
If you fancy seeing the end result without all the dirty stuff in-between then click here to jump straight to the before and after shots.
We were living in the Burrow for a 4 months before we tackled the living room. We would eat in the kitchen, walk through our tip of a hallway and watch TV in bed. It wasn’t even as if we had our master bedroom done. Oh no that was a whole 12 months after we moved in, we just had an old portable TV in the spare room.
We had chosen sofas really early on in the renovation (in fact they sat in our kitchen for 15 months before I even got to unwrap them), so I had plenty of time to plan what I wanted to do. I had never been afraid to use colour and the Lounge was going to be no different. Below are some doodles I did not long after we got the keys.
Unfortunately i’m limited on the before pictures but to give you an overview, the original terrace layout had been knocked into one large room with a particularly sexy 70’s archway connecting the two. The original living room doorway had also been blocked up so the only entrance was in the dining room.
Despite loads of advice, we wanted to put the house back into its original layout; A cosy lounge and a formal dining room, so we set to work doing just that…
First job, sanding the floor (read all about the mistakes we made here in my hallway post). We did this before blocking the arch up to save on hand sanding the edges of the room.
Second job, knocking the original lounge doorway back through. Of course this meant the radiator and electrics all needed moving, a hole in the floor, a new surround and sourcing a giant reclaimed door!
Third job, block up the arch and board it our ready for plastering.
The existing windows were aluminium so they also had to be replaced. Budget was super tight so we had to go with simple and white UPVC
Luckily there was already an open fireplace but even this needed work. One of my favourite parts of home renovation has been trawling reclamation and salvage yards. We found one for our lounge when we were out on a Birthday treat (a freezing cold February).
We bought a period property for a reason, we both really love the features. This coupled with needing storage we decided to build built-in bookcases and cupboards.
Once all the hard stuff was done it was a case of painting… wahoo. Can you tell I love colour?!
And in with the accessories…
Tada! the finished result!
- Fireplace, Beeston Reclamation
- Sofas, DFS (discontinued)
- Purple paint, Grey Violet by Zoffany
- Green paint, Bespoke by Crown Paints
- White paint, Timeless by Dulux Paints
- Coffee table, Marks and Spencer’s (discontinued) but their Bradshaw table is similar.
- Curtain fabric, Ikea (discontinued)
*Sorry for all the discontinued… We renovated the lounge back in 2011!*
Our living Room, before and after –
So I hope you enjoyed reading/seeing. Expect ANOTHER before and after post this year as the living room is now tired looking and in need of a facelift!!!
