Living room renovation | before and after

The first room we've renovated in our house is the living room. We moved in December 2016 and in the first year here we spent a lot of time and money tidying the garden, which looked to have been neglected for a very long time, and paying lots of money to fix things like holes in the roof and dangerous wiring upstairs.

The living room is north-facing and doesn't get much natural light at all. I spent a lot of time researching colours for north facing rooms and came to the very quick conclusion that we should paint this room as dark as possible, floor-to-ceiling. Thankfully, Kate Watson-Smyth of Mad About the House posts lots of photos of her beautiful dark living room so after tactfully sending these to my dear other half over the course of a few months he agreed to come over to the Dark Side and paint the room in Farrow & Ball's delicious Down Pipe. The room doesn't feel any darker than it ever did before, just cosier. The walls go from teal, to blue, to grey, to black all in one day as the light moves around the room.

before

This was the room before, as it was the day we moved in. None of the these things are ours.. The house was previously rented and its final tenants moved to Norway, leaving us with all of their unwanted possessions (including a baby grand piano so I can't complain too much). But safe to say, I was itching to get rid of that awful orange-red paint from the day we moved in.

moodboard

Months before we got started on the project I put together this mood board - all helped to convince the dubious other half. When I rediscovered this a week or so ago I realised that I'd had the art deco mirror and green velvet curtains in my mind all along, I'd just forgotten about them.

(How To Mood Board by Karen Knox) 

The beautiful chandelier is currently sat upstairs on my office floor. I saw this many moons ago on M&S's website but was never ever going to be able to afford £299 for a light fitting. Last July we were on holiday down in west Wales and took a trip into Cardigan where there just so happens to be a small, little known shop in the market selling ex-display M&S homewares - guess what was hanging front and centre as we walked in? It's got a few loose strands so we managed to get it for £120 - I sat in the back of the car holding it like a baby for the entire drive back to Cardiff.

almost finished

And here it is today!

We put up the picture rail and shelves ourselves. It took a very long time and tested our patience and love of each other. The picture rail isn't straight, the shelves are. If you want to know how to do it, you'll have to ask my other half - I was the nail holder and Polyfilla gal. We both almost fell backwards off ladders several times. We bought the new cupboard doors online from Doors2Size and Sam sanded, primed & painted them. We chose to use Farrow & Ball's Modern Emulsion as it meant we could do the walls, cupboards, shelves and skirting board with one tin of paint. All of the current furniture is things we bought new for our old flat so we aren't ready to change any of it just yet.

The bits on our shelves are just little things we've collected over the years. My favourite things are probably our lovely green & pink bowls by the wonderful Sophie Southgate. This isn't the best home for them as you can't see the detail of them - we'll relocate them when we find a better spot.We finally ordered curtains recently from a local fabric shop. I was determined to have bottle green, full length velvet curtains but after four+ months of searching it was either bite the bullet and get some made or go back to the drawing board. It's both of our birthdays this month so...we bit the bullet. I am terrified that we've spent several hundred pounds, and two months of our 'renovating the house budget', on some curtains and that they might not fulfil all my hopes and dreams - we'll see. Either way I can't wait to get them and to then find someone to hang my chandelier. 

And then I need to to convince Sam that I really do need these Anthropologie bee holdbacks to match the bee handles on my cupboards.

Not in shot is one very ugly black sofa, complete with silver swirls - the big sister to the one in the before photo. I dream of a pink velvet Loaf sofa but Sam's yet to be convinced on that one...

Have you joined the Dark Side yet?

PAINT: SLAKED LIME BY LITTLE GREENE AND DOWN PIPE MODERN EMULSION BY FARROW & BALL | SOFA AND FOOTSTOOL: IKEA | MIRROR: JOHN LEWIS (SOLD OUT) | COFFEE TABLE: MADE | FLOOR LAMP: HABITAT | LAMPSHADE: MADE | BLUE CUSHIONS: LA REDOUTE | MUSTARD CUSHIONS: ETSY | SIDE TABLE: MADE | CHANDELIER: MARKS & SPENCER