Our living room makeover part 2

The one about the giant mirror

This is the second part of the living room makeover, this open-plan space in our home stretches from front to back of the original build. the kitchen is an extension on the back which was already in place when we bought the house.

We’ve never really used this part as a dining room which is traditionally what it’s supposed to be. Ok so it’s used as a dining room at Christmas, but apart from that, it’s the artwork/homework area with built-in units we made years ago and Ikea storage repurposed from the kid’s rooms to hold school work and art supplies. The whole space just became more and more confused and messy until enough was enough.

The shelves have to go

The Ikea floating shelves started as picture shelves when the kids were young and over time random bits of kids art and ‘stuff’ began to clutter. We also used to have a little indoor rabbit crate under the shelves which was another reason we didn’t use it as a dining area often – just not enough room.

This wall has been pink, white, grey, it’s had blue patterned wallpaper and more recently fake whitewashed wood mural wallpaper. I built the little cupboard in the corner years ago, before we had a desktop computer downstairs, so it was too low for that, but then the window sill was too high. The table is an obvious choice here but this was often cluttered with school and artwork plus it meant the cable had to span across from the wall which was just not practical all the time.

Just before lockdown we had new radiators fitted, these are slim aluminium units smaller than the old panel rads that were here when we moved in. These are more efficient and save a bit of space. but of course once the old rad was removed there was a horrible mess on the wall with raw plaster and scrappy edges of paint and wallpaper. WE MUST DECORATE!!!!!

Yes, I know, it’s bad. We liked it…..about 10 years ago.

Lime wash paint as a feature wall

In our living room makeover, we wanted to have a feature wall for each section to help ‘zone’ the space. This is the stuff we used on the back wall. It’s from a company called Bauwerk Colour, we’d seen it used on walls by Kyla Magrath she has a walkthrough video on her instagram highlights, plus Bauwerk has great videos on their website. The colour we chose is White Fig, It takes a lot of coats over and over to achieve the look, but it still only took two cans as it’s very watery paint and goes a very long way.

Wooden clad window frame

We loved the boxed-in window frame and sill in our kitchen renovation so much we decided to do the same with the window at the back of the living room space. As usual, the stone wall wasn’t straight so after sawing off the existing UPVC window sill lip we made cardboard templates as well as taking measurements to make sure the plywood had all the right angles (which were definitely NOT actual right angles). Each piece was glued then screwed in to place to stop it warping over time, as in the kitchen, a thin strip was attached around the edge to give a picture frame effect.

You can see here we ripped out the corner cupboard and replaced it with a simple floating desk also made out of plywood. In place of the rabbit crate and old knackered Ikea storage unit we now have this beautiful honey brown mangowood side unit. We swapped the ornate drawer handles with leather loops to tie in with the leather loop details in other parts of the room, plus after one day of having the unit there was a variety of leg bruises from walking past the handles.