So although the living room is, for me the hub of a house, with cosiness and cat cuddles, we actually left the living room until last to work on in our house. This was because we prioritised the bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom. I think looking back, although those are key areas we needed to sort (especially the kitchen and bedroom!) we should have considered the need to have somewhere to sit after a long hard day working on the house (or working a 9-5!).
The befores: so when we moved in, the living room was very.... brown. There was a lot of dark brown carpet, brown wood and the effect was that the room was incredibly dark. The mantlepiece was topped with some silver tree effect wallpaper and this completely swamped the art deco fireplace. To be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with this fireplace as someone has clearly ripped out the original in order to add this, and I'm not sure I love the fireplace as it is. However, this in itself is history, and the fireplace is interesting in its own right, probably having been added in the 20s or 30s. In fact (see below at the photos) we actually saw an advert at the Black Country Living Museum for some fireplaces that are very similar! There was also a rather large dark window box to cover the electric meters, and after getting a rather large quote to get these moved we decided that we needed to keep some sort of box there, even though we ripped this one out and Jonny built a new one. The bottom photo of these 3 is the room with the previous owner's belongings in.
The afters: I wanted this room to be as cosy and comfortable as possible, but to also be light and airy. We ripped up the horrible carpet and painted the floorboards grey, then topped this with a mega cosy grey rug. For the whole house, we had been trying to go for a mid-century feel and I think this room is one of my favourites. I didn't want the TV to be the centre-point of the room, I wanted it to seem warm and inviting for warm brews, celebrations and nice evenings. In terms of the decorating, all the walls are white, and every painting on the walls is personal to us. The picture above the Ercol couch is of our 2 cats and the pictures above the yellow couch (are pictured below) are Rifle Paper Co prints of Paris and Moscow (where I have lived) and London. Jonny built the window box, which we use to store books and for guests to sit on and the fire is now a lot less offensive, as we have filled the grate with cosy logs when it is not in use. Overall, the room is bright and airy, as well as being cosy and comfortable. Perfect!
I would love to talk about the stories behind the items in this room, but I feel as most of them are vintage they deserve their own posts. I will be posting about the ercol however later down the line, to try and inspire everyone to raid charity shops and antique fairs for bargains!
I hope you enjoyed this post, please let me know which room you would like me to talk you through next!
I would love to talk about the stories behind the items in this room, but I feel as most of them are vintage they deserve their own posts. I will be posting about the ercol however later down the line, to try and inspire everyone to raid charity shops and antique fairs for bargains!
I hope you enjoyed this post, please let me know which room you would like me to talk you through next!
