DIY - rennovating the living room

Another walk down memory lane. Lets re-visit my house in Fentonbury how it was when I first bought it.

So, you may remember this is how it looks right on my real estate listing as I wait for someone to decide its their dream home:

 

And this what what it looked like when I saw the original listing. Gotta give it to the owner and agent for staging huh?



And here it is after I moved in.

 





It was painted white with dark blue and egg yolk yellow trims. Tasteful.

There was a wood heater in the middle of the living room far wall which, I discovered, wouldn't burn all night and didn't do much to heat more than just that room.

When I bought the house I came down and stayed for a week just to get a few things organised. It was August and thus freezing cold. I brought down an air mattress and slept in front of the heater, waking up every couple of hours to put more wood on the fire.

Of course, a city like me had no idea about damping down back then... however, the wood heater still refused to burn all night even after I figure it out. It had a tiny firebox so would only fit smaller pieces of wood.

On the area between the bathroom and kitchen there was a laminate built-in wall unit. I used this to dispay items and books. I didn't do much to the room for a while, just lived in it as it was more or less. At the time most of my furniture etc was 50s as it had come from my 50s style house in Melbourne.

The living room was a newer extension to the house. There was a step up from the kitchen (and a step down again to the bathroom, weird), the ceiling was a bit lower and the window was aluminium (compared to the sash windows in the old part of the house).

First thing I did when I started renovating, was to get pine lining onto the walls and a dado rail. I love that look. The idea was to tie this newer part of the house with the older part. At that stage the dining room had an unfinished dado rail – no lining below it. Once I had both rooms lined with timber below a dado rail the whole area would flow. Seeing at its open plan, that made sense.
 

The colours I chose were dark brown (Dulux Columbia) for the feature wall behind the wood heater, and a creamy mocha colour for the rest of the walls. Sorry, I can't remember that colour at the moment. All the trims were painted Dulux Antique White USA.

The room looked warmer and more inviting straight away. The white trims were so much nicer than the egg yolk yellow!

Of course, the carpet was a problem. It had been 2^nd hand when it was put in, I was told, and a year of muddy paws running in and out did it no favours. I was itching to get rid of it. However, the floor underneath was not floorboards like the rest of the house. It was chipboard flooring. I had to find a covering which would allow for easy cleaning, be hardy, and look good.

And while I was at it, replacing the flooring, I decided it was time to get rid of the woodheater. The woodheater in the dining room was much better placed to heat the house and more efficient. I liked the layout of the living room much better without the wood heater in the middle of the far wall.

I dislike laminate flooring. I've seen it not wear well in others' homes. I couldn't afford to replace the floor with timber, so I settled on vinyl. I bought a good quality, non-slip, industrial strength vinyl by Gerfloor. Its taupe in colour and small flecks/flowers scattered through it.

I didn't want to put vinyl floors that pretended to be something they weren't. The idea of timber-look alike floors next to real worn floors in the kitchen and dining rooms would have been tacky. And no way was I doing the tile/stone thing either. I wanted something warmer than that. And this vinyl is just that. Warm and easy to keep clean and pretty to look at.

Sure, ideally I'd have liked to be able to afford real timber floors, but this was so much more practical with standard poodles jumping about on it.

An area rug for warmth in winter and a seagrass rug in summer finishes off the room nicely, don't you think?

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Note:

This post has been added to a link party at The Thrifty Decor Chic. Why not visit and see other living room makeovers.