Living Room Perfect

The living room has kind of been put off because it was going to be a lot of work. When thinking about the painting there is the window, the sliding door, the inner door and the feature glass panels, as well as the hatch and fire place to edge round. Then it is quite a big room so the walls and ceiling were going to take time. I had to shift all the furniture round between each coat too. I knew I wanted some shelves up so I could finally unpack the things we have collected on our travels and the family photos. I was also looking forward to finally putting my lovely bird clock up in pride of place on the chimney breast as well. Here are the before pictures.

My plan was to create a space which would feel peaceful and encourage me to slow down the pace of life, but also to live with purpose. I wanted a space that would remind me to put into action the reason for moving to Scotland - to live a more healthy life.

The paint effect was lovely, and Emma said it was a secret as to how they achieved it, although she did let us in on it. There was the feature wall in the lovely purple. We did like the paint effect, but it wasn't something we could match and there were quite a few places were a hole had had to be filled, or a wire pulled out, leaving a mark. The feature wall also needed another coat and there was no paint left behind to match it. In the end I wanted something all together calmer and more zen. I thought for a long time about going for a limewash effect. I kept seeing cool pictures on Instagram. In the end though, it was going to mean a lot of time, effort and money - with no guarantee it would look any good. By the time I had done the walls in a base coat of Cashmere Cream, thanks to a good deal on 10 litres in Homebase's closing down sale in Leamington, I actually really liked it as it was and decided that was enough.

 The door opened into the room but didn't fold right back so it did stick out awkwardly into the usable space. We decided to remove it altogether in favour of a Japanese noren (curtain) which my brother, Ben, sent me from Japan. A noren is used to divide living spaces and add a decorative element with lovely designs printed on them. They can be changed throughout the year to match the season.

Michal then came and put the shelves up for me and stained them to match the other wood, and the transformation was complete.

It feels like everything I wanted in my main living room and I enjoyed choosing the things I wanted on display and how to arrange them. Being able to sit in my nice, calm living room now, eating breakfast with the sun on my face (occasionally) or watching the rain or the low hanging clouds over the trees is just amazing. What an incredible way to get to start each day.