living room makeover

9 August 2014


Amazingly, we have just finished decorating our living room (after 10 months since we moved in!). It took a good few days to take everything out of our living room and paint the floor and put up some shelves but its much better now. Last winter we got so down because of the lack of sun. We spent more time in this room because of the log fire (and the telly) but it is generally the least sunny room in the house. I HOPE that with the new white floor, it will help to make the most of the natural light, and keep us the right side of sanity during the depths of January.
That massive sign on the wall was an ebay purchase by my Mister, and yes, he didn't look closely at the measurements before bidding...I think you could see this from outer space.
By the way,  Mr. Stephens of Stephens ink was a very fascinating fellow, who trained to be a doctor, but whilst writing his essays, became fed up with the rubbish ink he was using and so developed his own ink. This ink became the biggest selling ink in the world! This enamelled sign looks quite modern I thought around 1960s but it's actually from 1910-1920s! It probably would have been on a railway side.



The clockwork menagerie is getting bigger...full of dysfunctional old creatures (right at home in our house!)

I'm trying to make myself print out more photos as its easy to just keep them on a disk and forget about them. So after about 50 attempts, I managed to persuade our printer to kindly give us three pictures.



Also, I'm trying to be tidy and make use of the storage we have. However, these toys will stay like this for about the 10 seconds it takes for our daughter to walk into the room.

I'm very proud of my wallpaper collection ; )



This old 70s wicker lampshade has a bit of a makeover, but, it was a lot harder to paint than I thought...I should have used spray paint...oh well...

My favourite this about our 'new' living room is the shelf above the door.


its feet up time now.

I'll deal with this another day...

arrrrgghhh!!!

in other home improvements news, we decided to say farewell to four huge pink hydrangeas and hello to a nectarine tree and lots of perennials.

but, I do like other species of hydrangea, so I planted this one which I love!

and my dahlia has managed a flower! Its like a firework explosion.




If things go to plan, we should have a little crop of plums, apples, pears and peaches very soon.

and some cut flowers too...


love these bonkers yellow things. And a few early plums that we shared with some caterpillars.

So there is still tons of stuff to do to this summer before the winter comes and we turn into vegetables again. The littluns expression here,  pretty much sums up my mood too, after all that physical work lately.

















Oh by the way, those cushions on the sofa are both purchased from Jo Waterhouse!

18 comments

  1. LOVE those beautiful white floors! Our house is mainly carpet (and rugs) but if it were up to me they wood be white and wooden too. We are off house sitting (next door) for 5 weeks now and I'm planning to use that time to give our house the spring clean of its life! And then in summer we have a tin of painting to do, plus a garage to turn into an office. Thank for the inspiration :). Yours is one of the few blogs I still make time to follow and it's always such a treat to see a new post up!

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  2. I love all the layers on your sofa - very inspired to cover up our old manky ikea sofa in the same way! Shearling solves everything!

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  3. gorgeous, uplifting & inspiring makeover! and beautiful Pehr looks more & more like you every day !

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  4. Your home is amazing and beautiful and so inspiring! And the vintage toy collection! Seriously! Never stop writing this blog and never stop sharing these beautiful details of your life.

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  5. Don't worry about the breakfast room. Summer is almost over and there's plenty of time during winter to fuss around some more. So glad you printed Pehr eating the peach. Always been a favourite of mine.

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  6. Forgot to add - love the white floors, reminds me of Swedish floors.
    My first blog: http://loveandxxxx2.blogspot.ca/ Take a peak if you have time please.

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  7. I love the big sign, the wooden floor and the shelf above the door. Perfect!

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  8. I actually love how huge the Mr. Stephen's sign is! Such a lovely focal point for the room. And I must re-iterate that your little one is the luckiest child in the world - how enchanting to have one's own clockwork menagerie :) Really like the little shelf above the door, and what a beautiful dahlia. Always so much inspiration to be taken from your home posts! xx

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  9. Love your makeover and the sign - and your reflection in the tv adds a nice silhouette touch. On the photos front I make my husband an album every year from our snaps, mostly of what we do in the holidays, and only using the best ones, and now the whole family look forward to seeing which ones will make the cut.

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  10. Lots of hard work and it looks lovely. I wish I has time to do the same!

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  11. the floors look lovely, I'm sure they will bounce the light around! your garden looks wonderful, we planted dahlias and lots of other cut flowers and I'm completely amazed they're flowering so well! x

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  12. Love, Loooooove, Luuuuuuurve it! The sign is the perfect size if you ask me. We have dark wooden floors and i've been pinning pictures of white floorboards for three years now! (ahem... blushes) ... suffice it to say this post has me itching now!
    Tips? Pointers? May I ask what paint you used and if it was a nightmare or surprisingly easy... actually if it was hard then just lie... I need to convince Hubby so a few fingers crossed behind backs... no harm done ;-) xx ♥

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  13. Fab job. I love the white floor and the little shelf above the door and the clockwork menagerie with flowers above. Its little things like that that really make a room interesting. I love the rustic additions, the little green table/desk is gorgeous and really adds charm and warmth, as does the sign and vintage toys. The thing that really completes the room is the beautiful fireplace - very envious.

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  14. I am envious of your immaculate white floors!!! Could you talk me through how you repainted them please? We currently have dirty slightly chipped white floors in our living room and the thought that we might have to strip them all to re-paint makes me feel queasy! Also what paint did you use?

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  15. A lot of people have asked me how to paint a floor...
    As I am not a decorating expert I would recommend buying a floor paint (we used Ronseal but there may be better ones on the market?) and following the directions on the tin for best results. Further info can be obtained by the staff in say, B&Q or Homebase, who are more knowledgeable than me, about types of floor and preparation, durability etc...
    Good luck!

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  16. Oh...yes, it took a long time because we needed quite a few coats but maybe other paint could be better I don't know. It took around 4 hours for each coat to dry but ideally should be left 24 hours between coats (check on back of tin).

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