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| Photo by Guillermo Nolasco on Unsplash |
{This is a collaborative post}
We moved into our house nearly seven years ago now and it's a truly beautiful home. Built-in the 1700's, it was originally a stable block for a large manor house and now I refer to it as the tardis, as on the outside it looks tiny, but when you come in, you realise it is very spacious. We really are very lucky to live here as part of my husband's job.
As the house isn't actually ours, we haven't done too much with it, it had all been cleaned up before we moved in, so we have magnolia walls and beige carpets, but they really are a bit boring and the furniture and soft furnishings we bought with us from our old home are not the most stylish. I've therefore decided it is time for an upgrade and I'm dreaming/ planning how we want it to look.
How is our lounge used?
I've never been one for following trends, I'm all about making the space work for our family and the way we use it. For us, the lounge is a sanctuary, it's where we come together to snuggle up and watch a film, it's where the cat gets played with, where we craft and make cards and often where my husband and I both work. In short, it is probably the most used room in the house and we spend well over 50% of our time in it.
Somewhere amazing to relax
I had a chat with all the family and asked them what they wanted from our lounge and the top answer was an amazing sofa. When we holidayed in an airbnb last year we had two of those sofas where you can raise up the footrest and relax back and everyone loved those, but I do worry about the durability of them, with kids keep flipping them up and down! With that in mind, I think we'll go for a massive corner sofa with deep seats and beautiful, soft cushions. As well as a couple of footstalls, so even when all five of us are together watching something we can still all have our feet up if we fancy.Opening our space to the outdoors
Our lounge is dual aspect, with a large and bright front window and a smaller one at the back. What I'd really love to do is add in french doors at the back, so we can throw them open and have some natural light and feel the breeze as we relax. We'll need to have a good look around for a supplier of cheap windows and doors who we feel can give us good quality at a fair price. |
| Thanks to Unsplash for the images |
Bringing in some colour
I'm not too bold in my decor choices, and whilst grey is still a super trendy colour for home interiors, I find it a bit stark and cold. I don't have that special eye that allows you to combine all different variations of a colour and make a beautiful scene. So I've decided to take the hints from the things that we already have that I love. The way forward is with all kinds of shades of duck egg blue, turquoise, jade and deep green. As well as chocolate brown, as our fireplace has natural brown quarry tiles and I don't want to change those.I'll paint the wall behind the fireplace a rich jade green colour, and the other walls a natural stone, so it still feels light and airy. Then we have a beautiful turquoise rug and I'll invest in some silk curtains that I've seen in John Lewis that are mainly a duck egg blue with tones of beige, brown and jade in the floral design. I think they'll fit perfectly. I'll as need to go shopping and get some cushions to add the rich hints of colour, but I think I'll get those once the walls are done and the new sofa arrives, so I can see what will suit best by then.
Making our fireplace a feature
Our chimney needs a sweep and once that is done, we'll be good to go. It will be very nice to have a warm fire to snuggle up in front of on a cold night. We need to invest in some fireplace furniture, like a grate, tools, screen and log basket and I'm surprised that they are far cheaper than I imagined when I just had a browse.I've realised I'm quite happy with the lightening we have, so I think that will remain the same and the art we have on the walls is fine too, it is a mixture of family photos and some original art which I love.
As I mentioned before, I am definitely not an interiors expert, so if you have any tips, please do share them with me. Thanks, Mich x