Snapshot: The living room

I haven’t done a ‘snapshot’ post for a while (here’s the bedroom, dressing table and Country Bebe’s nursery) so I thought I’d update you on how the house renovations are getting on.

The answer is slowly. Things have taken a bit of a back seat since last year but we are slowly getting back on track with the project. This week we finally finished the living room:

I didn’t have the foresight to take any shots of the fireplace’s previous incarnation. In fact, whenever we took shots in the living room, we’d be careful to edit it out, so hideous was the 60s gas and faux stone extravaganza.

One of our big aims for the country move was to have a wood burner. Cliches abound I know, but the whole ‘snuggling up with glass of bourbon in hand, next to a crackling stove with a snoring labrador at your feet’, that’s the dream.

After a lot of research we plumped for a stove from Charnwood, based on the Isle of Wight. Our 60s home would not suit a country, oldy-worldy style and Charnwood specialise in modern, sleek designs. We’ve only used it a handful of times (thank god, it is July!) and it burns incredibly efficiently and the big aperture window means you can see the flames dancing beautifully. Roll on September!

The mantle was actually an Ebay find, a forestry in Wales cut the oak to our specific dimensions and oiled it to match the floorboards. Pretty good for £110 huh?

The rug is an ancient Urban Outfitters number, we’re secretly hankering after this one from Made.com, who incidently, we’ve bought a couple of things from now (including the brilliant Graphix Desk I posted about here) and if you were concerned about the ‘no showroom’ aspect, don’t. They’re fab. The quality is amazing and customer service second to none.

The sofas are actually (whispers it) DFS. I know! They are really elegant, beautifully finished and super comfy. Not the faux leather, cherry red monstrosities I’d expected from them. They’re really upping their game at the mo – they’re doing collections with French Connection and Country Living. Worth a look…

Other than that, the walls are good ol’ Dulux in a really calm mushroomy/greige. Our downstairs is all open-plan so we wanted something neutral that would work through all the various spaces.

We were in two minds about the floors, we thought we’d give them a sand and see how they turned out and after four coats of Danish Oil and some TLC they are perfect. In a ‘lived in’, love-worn kind of way.

The knickknacks are a mixture of junk shop, car boot and flea market finds but the radio is my very precious Roberts Rambler. It was given to my daddy for his 30th by my godmother and he avidly listened to his beloved Radio Wales on it; carrying it around the house and garden wherever he went. A very treasured ‘part of him’.

That’s it! Coming up next is the biggie. The kitchen/utility room/pantry/cloakroom extension… watch this ‘building site’ of a space!