ONE ROOM CHALLENGE | WEEK ONE: THE LIVING ROOM BEFORES AND MOOD BOARD

This time last year I participated in the One Room Challenge for the first time, redesigning and decorating my dining room which, to my eternal shame, STILL remains the only room in my house that has been fully completed. Procrastination and I truly are the best of friends! So, this year I’m back to try and get my living room finished.

When we viewed the house the living room looked like this… living room before

living room before 2

And here it is on the day we got the keys… living room before 3

Super cute, right?!

The room has progressed a little since then. Back in early 2016, we made some changes to the floor plan of the entire ground floor, which you can read about in more detail here, meaning that the view you see above changed to look like this, with a widened doorway to the centre of the wall leading to the dining room… living room wall knocked through

And while we were completing the One Room Challenge last spring in the dining room we replaced the floors throughout the ground floor and added sliding doors so that we had the option of closing off the living room from the dining room. The plan has always been for these doors to became fake pocket doors, with a full wall on bookcases on the living room side of the wall for them to slide behind, giving the look of pocket doors.

In other updates those hideous light-up ornamental niches on either side of the fireplace have gone, along with the random trim on the walls, the walls have been given a fresh skim coat of plaster and gas fire and horrible fake marble fireplace have gone. Last year, just before winter, we splurged and had a wood burning stove fitted in the living room and honestly, it’s the best money we’ve ever spent. It’s made this winter so much cosier and more pleasant. Plus, it’s just so pretty to look at now going from this fireplace changes

to this… wood burning stove

From the outset it’s probably worth noting that this is never going to be some 100% perfect room re-design because there are elements in the room that I’d love to change (the sofa being a prime candidate…) but that are just not in the budget right now.

As a quick overview of the direction I’m thinking of heading in here is the mood board I pulled together for the living room. Living Room Mood Board

So the overall plan is blush pink and greens with leather, wood and white thrown in there. I’m stuck with my sofa which style-wise I hate – but it’s a neutral beige so at least relatively inoffensive.

Here’s how the To Do list is shaping up:

{PROJECT LIST}