BEFORE
AFTER
If you read my post about Prints and Pictures, you’ll know that the first thing we bought for this room was the map. I hadn’t quite decided what I was going to do with the room but I knew whatever I did, I would make the map fit! I thought it would look best against a dark backdrop and felt grey would offset the gold tones perfectly. We tested various greys and eventually chose Farrow and Balls Moles Breath.
Painting the shelves in the alcoves was quite time consuming, I primed the wood first and then it took 3 coats before the paint was even. After the first coat I’ll admit I was a bit panicky, it was very streaky! But a couple more coats sorted it out. I’m so pleased we did it in the end, it’s really made the room. We paired the grey with Crown Aged White, which is a nice off-white / cream shade that isn’t too yellow.
I really wanted sanded wood floors in this room. The hubby wanted carpet. It’s one of the rare house -related battles that I lost. I guess I can see his point that carpet is cosier (although I know the real reason he wanted it is for the dog!) In my mind you just can’t beat sanded wood floors, I think they would have looked great against the grey.
I don’t know about you but I find sofa shopping tricky. I know you have to chose comfort over style, but I struggled to find anything comfy that I liked the look of…and that wasn’t a fortune! I knew I wanted mis-matched sofas and we found two that we liked in Next which were really reasonable. They’re definitely not my favourite items in the house but they are comfy and we liked the fact that with Next you can pay them off over a year – which came in handy as we had so much else to shell out for! The armchair was a great find – we stumbled across it at an antique shop while out on a dog walk one day. It’s perfect for this room! 
Opposite the grey wall I created a gallery wall made up of old photos of the village we live in and some vintage postcards. The frames are a mix of Hobbycraft frames which I painted in Downpipe, a vintage gilded frame from eBay and two hanging frames by Nkuku. I also added a mirror from Cox and Cox and some vintage antlers found at an antique market.
I’m still on the search for a side table for this room. At the moment I am using crates which we bought with us from our cottage. They suited the style of our old house but I don’t feel they are quite right in this room, I just haven’t found a table to replace them with yet.
The shutters made a big difference to the room, I don’t like the thought of people being able to see in (mainly because I’m pretty much always in pyjamas when I’m at home!) and it’s always nice to let lots of light into the room so shutters are perfect. I also love the look of them from the outside. Turns out there are a lot of decisions to make when choosing shutters – who knew?! Simple things such as the size, whether to have the rod in the middle, and having more than one panel per window really change the look of them. I made sure I did a lot of research before we chose ours. And by research I mean nosing at neighbours shutters :)
And there you have it – my living room makeover. As always, I love to hear your thoughts so leave me a comment below :)
What a great transformation! You were lucky to inherit built in cupboards, but painting then to match the wall definitely makes them!
We sanded the floorboards when we moved into our Victorian cottage but the dogs have scratched the hell out of them so maybe your husband was right! Can you remember the details for your carpet? I’m looking for a grey one that doesn’t show up dog hair and this looks perfect!
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Thank you so much Jen! We were lucky to have the cupboards you’re right! Oh what a shame the dogs have scratched your floors! Still, sometimes that adds to the character? :)
Funnily enough someone asked me about the carpet yesterday. It was from Carpet Right – Berber tweed it was called I believe xxx
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Yep everything adds to the ‘character’!! Thanks for letting me know. Suprisingly hard to find nice carpet!
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Beautiful room. Care to share where the map was purchased from please? Xx
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Thank you so much Lynetta. The map was from Brookpace xx
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Loved this post – thanks for sharing – such an amazing transformation! I totally agree about sofas… I am having a sofa meltdown at the moment!!! Like you, I want mismatched ones but finding it tricky to find a colour that will go well with our current mushroom colour sofa. So difficult to decide! Yours compliment each other really well! x
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Thank you so much Tish!! Sofas are tricky aren’t they! Hope you find one soon! xx
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Love the little handles on the cupboards-they look like magic keys! Where are they from?! (Crossing fingers that they aren’t a secret one off!) x
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You’re in luck Claire, they were from Zara Home :) xxx
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Fabulous transformation Kate. I love your alcove cabinets and shelving. Your living room is similar to ours which we are currently renovating and we will have shutters by the end of the year. I feel your pain in the decisions on shutters. We’ve had 4 quotes and they have all suggested a new idea!! Can I ask which company you got yours from? The prices are varying alot between them all. Xx
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Thank you so much Stacey!! We got ours from a local company called Shutters Up – they were the cheapest quote we had which made me a bit nervous but we’re really pleased with them!! xxx
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Hi Kate, can I ask, have you done your ceiling and coving in Aged White too? I have a similar room and unsure if to have it all the same or different… argh!
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I painted the coving with dulux low sheen brilliant white and ceiling in Albany vinyl Matt brilliant white. I think the Aged White might be a little too yellowy for coving/ceiling but that’s just my opinion! xxx
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Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, that really helps. I just had coving/picture rails put up but finding the decision of what colour to paint them so hard!! Thanks again!x
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Oh no problem at all 😘 it is difficult isn’t it! I think picture rails look really good in the same colour as walls if the wall colour is a bit darker! xx
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