The transformation of this room has honestly been a bit of a slog. Our living room renovation has taken longer and proved harder than we initially anticipated! This was due to a combination of things. Firstly, it was a complete renovation with new walls, floors, windows etc. which obviously involved a lot more work than just a makeover. Secondly, we had issues with damp in the room, which resulted in us having to do some jobs over and over again. And thirdly, we literally changed EVERYTHING, so this involved a lot of time consuming selling of items on eBay and other platforms.

I feel like I’ve literally neglected everything else in my life since we started at the beginning of February. I’m so glad that I can finally get round to the ever increasing ironing pile and manicuring my chipped, paint ridden nails! Of course, it’s all totally been worth it in the end, albeit that it now seems so insignificant as its completion coincided with the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

I explained in a previous blog post, my living rooms plans and the reasons for the renovation. 

First Stage of Building Work

We kicked off the project by fitting a partition wall part way through the living room and a false chimney breast on the adjacent wall.

The wall, chimney breast and ceiling were then skimmed.

We replaced the basic coving with a deeper ornate design and added a gorgeous palm leaf plaster ceiling rose.

I bought a few pink tester paints, having already previously decided on the wallpaper. And then came ‘paint gate’. I decided on the Dulux shade that I wanted and Andy got a full sized tin mixed at Homebase. I painted a few walls, before realising that the shade in the mixed tin was a lot lighter than the tester pot. Without boring you with all the details, I spent days running around trying to get the right paint colour amidst problems with the mixing machines, closed shops and discrepancies between different pots/tins. 

I finally decided on Valspar’s ‘Pink Perfection’, although I even had an issue when needing extra paint, that it was this time quite a few shades darker!

The light shade below is the one in the original mixed tin from Dulux, which I just wasn’t happy with as it didn’t match the tester and didn’t have enough depth. The shade on the chimney breast is the Valspar ‘Pink Perfection’.

We replaced the old window that we inherited when we bought the house and was letting in a lot of draft and cold. Its design also didn’t fit in with the style of our 1930’s house. We ordered DIY plantation shutters to dress the window. 

You can see some damp patches in the picture above. We have 9 inch walls with no cavity.  To tackle the problem Andy treated the external walls with Dryrod damp proofing rods. We painted the affected internal walls with damp proof paint and papered them with a thermal wall liner. 

Decorating & Flooring

With the damp dealt with, I painted the walls and we had the ceiling and band across the wall papered. If you’ve read my previous posts/follow me on Instagram, you’ll know I’m on a mission to banish all of the white ceilings in my house!

The flooring we decided on was a herringbone Luxury Vinyl Tile and Andy made a superb job of laying it, even though he’d never had experience with LVT before.

The last part of the main building work was the fireplace. Andy boarded the inside and fitted the fire surround that he’d removed from the other side of the room which is now separated off.

With all the building and decorating complete, our Loaf sofa was delivered on Friday 13th March. Unlucky for some, but not for us!

Living Room Renovation – Before & After

It was now time for my favourite part of interior design which is dressing the room. Out came all of the accessories I had been planning and ordering for months.

So this was the room before.

And here is the same view following the living room renovation. I chose a blush and teal colour palette as I have in other rooms, to create a cohesive feel throughout the house. The geometric pattern adds interest to the space, as do the splashes of leopard print. As you can see, the wallpapered ceiling design ensures the fifth wall is part of and included in the overall design.

This is a before view from the window.

This is what it looks like now with the partition wall separating the room off.  You may have spotted ‘The Frame Samsung TV’. Andy has hidden the wire for this in the stud wall, and our V6 box is inside the sideboard. We discovered a way to control it with the remote whilst keeping the cupboard door shut. My mind was blown by this gem of a tip! You can find out how to do it here. Scroll down to the sixth comment and follow the steps.

We bought a soundbar with the TV and Andy has fitted this on the wall just above the sideboard, which is also black, so as to disguise it as best we can.

The teal velvet sofa compliments the wallpaper border and the blush velvet chair is a gorgeous contrast, allowing the flexibility to swivel between watching the TV and facing the main seating area.

Creative Upcycling

Whilst the majority of the decor is made up of new items, I wanted to bring some old and creative touches into the room to add character to the space and also save on cost. I upcycled the mid-century Schreiber sideboard that I bought from eBay. Here’s what it looked like before.

And here’s the transformation. I’ve done a separate DIY blog post on the sideboard makeover.

This is a before view of the living room renovation with our old leather recliner sofa.

You can see part of the old window here too, which had a large full pane in the centre of the bay.

And here’s how the space looks now. I’m in love with our new shutters which we measured and fitted ourselves to cut the cost. You can see how we did this in more detail in my DIY plantation shutters post.

As with other rooms in my home, I’ve added metallic gold accents to bring light, warmth and glamour to the scheme. I wanted a gold shelving unit for the alcove in the corner and did this on a budget by buying a second hand chrome one from eBay and spraying it gold.

Here it is before.

And after its gold treatment. 

I’ve softened, layered and added texture to the room by introducing plants, soft furnishings and lots of lamps. 

I will be following this blog post up with a closer look at the furniture and accessories I used to create my glamorous living room renovation and where you can get them from.

I’d love to hear what you think of my latest project in the comments below!