Our Living Room Makeover

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When we moved into our house six years ago, feature walls were all the rage. We were so excited to choose some wallpaper for a few of the rooms and put our own stamp on our new house. In the living room, we went with a dark red wallpaper with large flowers on it (you can see a glimpse of it behind me in this video if you’re interested) and for a while, I loved it. But after a few years, I realised that the red wall, teamed with the black velvet sofa we have, made the room feel very small and dark. Sadly, as beautiful as our Victorian terrace house is, it’s not blessed with much natural light in the living room. In fact, there were days during my maternity leave where I could have sworn the walls were literally closing in on me.

Needless to say, I’ve been desperate to do a living room makeover for a while now – I just wanted to paint the whole room white and the introduce some bright colours with accessories and knick-knacks.

So when Homebase asked me to have a mini spending spree in our local store, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. The first thing we bought? White paint. A huge tin of the stuff. Mr P set to work one morning and by tea time, our living room already looked a gazillion times better. In fact, it looked 20% bigger, thanks to the light bouncing off our new white walls. It made me giddy with joy!

Next, we bought a new coffee table. Our old one was too big for the room and we’d had it for 11 years, so I didn’t feel too bad sticking it on Gumtree and seeing it head to a grateful new home. Our new coffee table is small and a real bargain at £23.99!

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We’ve been after a tripod lamp ever since we stayed at the Polurrian Bay Hotel last year and fell in love with the uber expensive ones they have. This tripod base was £90 and is a Habitat base, bought at Homebase (I think Homebase selling Habitat products is one of the most exciting things ever).

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Lastly, we picked up a retro tray and a couple of bright cushions from Habitat in Homebase too – their pelican print and yellow flower print – to add a splash of colour.

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I’m totally in love with our new living room, and I’ve spent the last couple of weeks shopping for more colourful accessories to finish it off. Watch the video at the end, where I’ve done a proper room tour and say where we picked everything up!

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 Ma-hoosive thank you to Homebase for giving me money to spend in-store towards our brand new living room!

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27 Comments

  1. August 23, 2015 / 10:00 pm

    I love it!! My preference is for light and bright interiors and this is just perfect. I’ve bought a few things from the Habitat range at Homebase too. I love that they stock it.

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:22 pm

      It’s so handy isn’t it. especially since they closed down so many stores a few years back.

  2. August 23, 2015 / 10:43 pm

    Love love love! Such a gorgeous room Alison, and I’m the same – light and white interiors definitely make the space brighter and seem bigger. Our rooms are quite small and white definitely works! I love the floor lamp, and we have some Habitat cushions too. I am worried I’m going to develop a Habitat obsession though as we have one in HOmebase around the corner! X. Oh, ps, does your house always look that tidy? It’s amazing! X

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:23 pm

      Haha – the dining room (which is the other half of this open plan room) is covered in toys and my messy work space!

  3. August 24, 2015 / 6:46 am

    LOVE IT! I have that arrow in yellow for when we do the playroom. Which will hopefully be this week! Now I’m just off to Homebase to spend a fortune… x

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:24 pm

      Ooh they do it in yellow?!

  4. August 24, 2015 / 6:46 am

    LOVE IT! I have that arrow in yellow for when we do the playroom. Which will hopefully be this week! Now I’m just off to Homebase to spend a fortune… x

  5. August 24, 2015 / 6:47 am

    Oh this is lovely! I want to redo our living room now! We have almost zero natural light so I feel your pain 🙂 x

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:24 pm

      It’s annoying, isn’t it? White walls FTW!

  6. August 24, 2015 / 7:07 am

    Love love love. It looks so bright and white walls make showcasing colour so much fun.

    Habitat at Homebase is one of my faves.

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:28 pm

      I wish I’d painted the walls white years ago 😉

  7. August 24, 2015 / 8:33 am

    It looks fab and really modern. Love a good cushion! P.S. think I’ve seen that rug in a doll’s house somewhere…:-) x

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:29 pm

      Haha – all the best houses have that rug. Mine, E’s dolls….

  8. August 24, 2015 / 9:38 am

    It’s so colourful yet peaceful, I really love it! I’m also really loving tripod lamps at the moment, now I just need to find somewhere to put one…

    I’ve only just discovered Homebase are selling Habitat (yeah I’ll crawl back into my cave now) and agree, so v exciting! x

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:29 pm

      Ah thanks Alice. I’m SURE you can find space for a new lamp…..

  9. August 24, 2015 / 4:04 pm

    I’m loving all the bright colours and bold prints. That’s a great livingroom!

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:30 pm

      Thanks Adele!

  10. August 24, 2015 / 8:13 pm

    That lamp. The arrow. The cushions. Just lovely, it looks really nice. Our front room hasn’t been touched since we moved in, it desperately needs a makeover! x

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:31 pm

      It’s so easy to never redecorate/revamp, isn’t it? Next on my list is my bedroom!

  11. August 24, 2015 / 8:35 pm

    Love it all A! It looks so much brighter, & tons more spacious too. (you know I’m a white wall lover). I’ve been looking at adding some shelves at ours, but haven’t decided just yet if it’s a genius idea or more dusting for me?!

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:31 pm

      Yes, you have a LOT of white walls, don’t you? Get involved with the shelving!

  12. August 24, 2015 / 8:41 pm

    Ah it looks fab Alison. I love this style and the shelves where you can put all your fave things and prints. Great lamp too!! x

    • Alison Perry
      Author
      August 24, 2015 / 9:32 pm

      The lamp is one of my fave parts…

  13. August 25, 2015 / 10:07 am

    I love the little shelves, are they from IKEA too? I’m thinking of buying a really shallow one to put prints for above our bed. Love the contrast of the bright cushions against the darker and more monochrome tones! x

  14. November 24, 2015 / 1:23 pm

    Hi Alison, I love the variety of cushions in your room, it’s so much more interesting than the standard cushion pairs!

  15. January 11, 2020 / 3:17 pm

    Amazing makeover! Great job!
    So glad I stopped by your blog to check this post out!

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