Living with a Room: Living Room

As mentioned in an earlier post, we rent the flat we currently live in and have been here for just over 3 years. In that time we have slowly made changes to each room as we replace our 'starter' furniture and better come to understand what  decorating style works for us and the way we live. 

We first viewed the flat in September 2009 and got the keys in the first week of December. That first week I took annual leave from work and set about painting four of the rooms (one of them twice!)

We could have left the walls as they were, we knew they had only been repainted recently, but I've never been a fan of magnolia and I really wanted to feel that this was home for us, not just somewhere we were passing through. We knew we planned to be here for about five years, so to me it made sense to spend time and money making it beautiful for us. Lots of people seem to think it isn't worth doing things to a rented place, perhaps because they can't change wall colours, curtains or carpets because of the landlord, or because they don't feel there is any point in redecorating a place which they don't own, but for me if you live somewhere and want to enjoy living in that space it seems obvious that you do what you can to make it beautiful. We lived in a flat once where we couldn't paint the walls, and that was fine. But I still hung pictures, and made good the repairs when we handed the flat back at the end of the tenancy.  Even though we were only in it for just over a year, it still felt important to me that it reflect who we were and what we loved, rather than just being a series of beige and magnolia boxes where we happened to keep our stuff. 

So, I thought I might share a few pictures of the journey we have been on while decorating our rented space, turning it into more than just magnolia boxes, and making it as lovely and welcoming as we can, even with the limits of a small budget and the constraints of renting. 

I wanted to start with the living room, as this is the room which I think can be the trickiest. It's both a public and a private room, the place where you relax at the end of a long day, but also the place you entertain guests in your home. It needs to be both comfortable to live in and presentable to the world.

The pictures below are those I took the day we came to view the place in September 2009.

A lovely magnolia chimney breast (and bare floor boards).

Attractive cables hanging from the ceiling.

More lovely bare boards and dull walls.

Before we moved in carpet was laid and curtain rails fitted. We were very lucky and had a small say in these things, being able to chose the colour of the carpet and style of curtain rail from a selection. The first thing we then did was to paint the walls a soft grey. 

The pictures below were taken the autumn after we moved in as I, yet again, tried to work out which furniture layout would be best.

At this point we were working with the furniture we had brought with us from our old flat. The only addition was the second hand coffee table we picked up from a local junk shop. Actually, I think most of this furniture from the old flat was picked up second hand or donated to us, the exceptions being the sofa and TV.

Some things seemed to stay in packing boxes for an inordinately long time. It was mostly books, I think, as we needed to get some custom bookcases built.

 I settled on a layout which worked for Christmas, but I don't think it stayed like this for very long!

By the following Christmas we had swapped our very ratty old white sofa bed for a leather button back sofa. We had found out we were expecting a baby the week before we went looking for a new sofa and the practicality of leather appealed to us.

We had also had the first set of custom bookcases built and upgraded the TV and wall mounted it. Mounting the TV opposite the chimney breast rather than on it helped to ground the room and allowed quite a bit of flexibility in the furniture placement.

We'd acquired a few more pieces of furniture as well, although most were either bought when on sale or, again, were second hand. 

I spent several Saturday morning sanding and repainting our old dinning chairs. They are very heavy and solid, but once we had the new flooring laid the dark wood was too much along with the dark sofa. The cheapest way to make them work was to paint them. 

Another two  bookcases were installed and we got rid of the carpet which had worn badly in the first two years of us living here. I think carpet is one of those things that it really pays to invest in - you definitely get what you pay for.

We also added wood slat blinds as, in the summer, this room can get quite bright in the morning and they help to filter the light and heat.

We swapped our old reproduction oval dinning table for a smaller extending dinning table which we found at an antiques fair. It's very solid oak but it needs refinishing  - a project for the future perhaps.

The pictures below are the most recent. Since my daughter was born in June I have repainted the walls a pale blue green colour and we have had a new ceiling light fitted. We have had to take out the coffee table (to make room for the Jumperoo) and have, once again, rearranged the furniture!

Toys under the sofa and clean laundry on the arms - definitely a real life snap shot!

The ubiquitous jumperoo in pride of place, and my favourite blogging spot at the table by the window.

So there you have it so far. I don't think this room is 'finished' really, but I don't have plans to do anything major to this room in the future. If any more changes are made they will be cosmetic ones, changing cushions and pictures etc. I would like to add more art above the sofa, but I want to add pieces I really love, so they will be found slowly over time. Likewise the things on the bookcases will change as I find the things I love, and replace those I merely 'like'.

 If you had asked me my plans for this room before we moved in, way back in 2009, I would not have described the room as it is now. I would, probably, have described something more formal, with lighter colours, and probably some mirrored furniture and linen upholstery. But the room we have is a room we have created, piece by piece, as we find the things we like or the things we can afford and as our needs as a family change. One day I will be able to swap the leather sofa (which I affectionately call 'the big ugly sofa') for a linen upholstered one, but at this point it would be impractical. So, for now, we are trying to make the best of what we have, and make our living room somewhere we can all actually live - without worrying that living in it will mess it up and we can't have people pop round without warning so we can hide the mess!

Coco Blue