Hi there, I hope you all enjoyed my catch up post about my new home? I had some great feedback and thought I would share a few more photos showing some of the renovations we have done so far. Our house is newly built and is approximately eight years old, saying that the decor was really out dated.
The style of house is a semi-detached three storey with the main living areas on the second floor. Having lived in an apartment previously I loved the privacy of being high up, you don’t get any passers-by looking in and car headlights beaming into your rooms.
Inside there are three sets of stairs this is great keep us fit but tricky when our parents come to visit and we are thinking that maybe we can put a conservatory room or extension to the back of the house as an additional downstairs sitting room.
As you probably know if you have been following my blog and Instagram for a while I’m quite minimalistic when it comes to decor and I don’t tend to store a lot so our garage wasn’t really needed for storage. Our plans at the moment are to convert it into a gym and workout room, the work has just started on it so ill keep you all posted how that comes along.
After stripping the entire house empty of curtains, carpets cupboards etc one of the first rooms we started on was the living room.
BEFORE
As you can see the decor was very cream and brown and the flooring was a really shiny laminated wood effect. The room itself is a good size square shape with a small nook in the corner and two windows along one wall. The doors were a very yellow beech colour and I felt were more suited to an office or hospital than a home.
AFTER
After painting everywhere white and fitting a new soft grey carpet the room now looks bright and fresh. The sofas we had actually planned on replacing, I had brought them from my apartment and the struggle to get them up to the second floor was so difficult once in there we decided they would be ok. I added new cushions and tables, and a couple of contrasting feature armchairs in a darker grey for extra seating.
One of the main things I wanted to do in this room was to think big and have some big WOW items such as the light fitting. As you can see I wanted something unusual and different as a centrepiece to the room.
Another thing I really don’t like in homes are TVs and more to the point lots of wires and cables on show, I don’t think a huge TV should be the focal point in a living room so I did a bit of research into an idea I had seen a few years ago in Venice. Luckily I found a company in Cheshire that could make exactly what I wanted and it turned out perfectly.
As you can see we had the TV mounted into a specially made two-way mirror so that when turned off it can’t be seen at all, also all the wiring is hidden behind.
The next room we took on was the hallway and utility room downstairs, the flooring down there was a dark solid wood and when we removed it there was an even darker black tile. it all felt cold and dark and needed brightening up with of course lots of white paint. We added a new marble tile floor with under floor heating and some beautiful brushed nickel lanterns throughout.
BEFORE
AFTER
The downstairs guest bathroom got updated with the same marble floor running through and a gorgeous piece of quartz on the ledge. we mirrored the back wall right up to the ceiling to reflect as much light in there as possible. Also we used frosted glass doors downstairs to let in lots of natural light as before it was really dark.
BEFORE
AFTER
Thanks again for reading and sending all of your lovely Instagram comments, ill keep you all updated on the next rooms we finish and please get in touch if you have any questions on where we bought items from,
Much love
Caroline xx
