LivingEtc: Small living room, limited budget, bright colours! (Or, what a difference a rug makes)

Hello!

I thought I'd share our living room, because it's really taken us by surprise how much enjoyment we get out of it, now that we've finally found the time to give it a little love.

Let me explain. We bought the flat way back in 2004. I've just flipped through my archives and I see this image, which was taken during the estate agent's tour of the flat, before we'd even decided to buy it:

The flat had been given a quick makeover in neutral colours to facilitate a quick sale. A few months after moving in, we discovered that the paintwork hid a rather upsetting secret: damp. The entire flat had to be damp-proofed, taking plaster off the walls and tanking before replastering. The timing wasn't exactly brilliant: my first child was six months old, and during the month-long process we were living in chaos, not to mention the dust everywhere.

Well, I think the trauma of living through that (imagine trying to cook, relax, or get your baby to sleep under those circumstances) put us off doing anything more to the flat for ages. Soon after, I went back to work full time, and between parenting and my job, there just wasn't the time to do anything. We lived with bare plaster walls for longer than I like to admit. I'm sure you know how it is: after a while, you stop seeing them, although I have to say, I felt quite ashamed when people came round.

This year, something snapped. We still didn't have much money, but darn it, we were determined to do what we could on a limited budget. We're lucky enough to live in Brighton, where there are tons of retro furniture shops and a big carboot sale, plus loads of cheap, quirky little boutiques, and that helped a lot.

We began by getting a painter/decorator round. We were so lucky: I'd just picked up a flyer, but we chanced to get a really conscientious lad whose prices were very reasonable. I'm mad about colour, so my first impulse was to go for a bright shade (which indeed we did throughout the rest of the flat), but my husband wanted white. Soon after, I found the website of a wallpaper company named Studio Nommo, and fell in love. I struck my husband a bargain: I'd agree to white if I could purchase the insane wallpaper I'd fallen for:

It is very fortunate that we share interior decor tastes.

The wallpaper was our most significant expense. The company, which is basically just a group of Turkish designers, make it to order, shipping it to your door within four weeks. I found the service to be great - very personal, with emails assuring me at every stage.

Meanwhile, we went out to buy a new rug to replace our ratty old one. I went to a great local independent shop in Brighton named Gaff (Great Art For Floors). Gaff will actually make custom rugs to your own designs, which I love the idea of, but while browsing what they had in stock, my husband and I fell for a deep pile very soft rug in vibrant pink.

Here we see my daughter loving the softness (and the colour, although she's not as obsessed by pink as many little girls are).

Of course, I spent the next four weeks worrying that the wallpaper would clash with the rug when it finally arrived. In fact, though they don't exactly 'sing' together, it's not a disaster:

You can pretty much see from this that we had used up most of our budget by now. Though I dream of a new sofa, it's going to have to wait. We're biding our time too, waiting for the right pair of curtains to come up on eBay (the blinds look fine, but I want something to keep the draughts out in the winter). The bright pink of the rug really informed our other big colour-block choices, and that's how we ended up buying a vibrant green throw for the sofa (and later, in a bargain bin, I found the spotty one too. I love bright pink and red together).

Oh, one other thing: the room has always been a bit problematic as a living room. It's a through-route to the kitchen, and we've always thought there wasn't room for a sofa *and* a table (and we don't have a dining room). However, moving the sofa to its present position gave us space for the small bistro table which my husband brought home as a surprise from Velvet, Brighton's budget interiors shop. OK, it's not the hefty wooden kitchen table I always imagined my daughter doing her homework on, but it is a step forward. (There isn't room in our kitchen for a table either, sadly).

Here are some more small details:

The fireplace, with pebble tiles reflecting the stony nature of Brighton beach.

We have too many books! But painting our shelves white (and they are only bog standard pine ones) really helped them look less tatty, even though many of them are falling apart (my husband loves them too much to get rid of them). You can also see the kitchen wall through the door here. I adore the views which include both this green and the rug's pink.

Finally, we got some of our favourite art on the walls, instead of stacked up waiting to be hung.

The cat's bed.

Believe it or not, these are our toys, not our daughter's. We always say that having a kid finally gave us an excuse for our belongings... I collect kids' picture books as well.

Yes! Like I said! We have too many books!

And yes, the room looks larger without them, but I guess interior design is about doing what you can with the facts of your life.

So, yeah - that's it! It's really given me impetus to work on the rest of the house, because this makeover cost very little, and the difference it's made to my contentment and the amount of time I want to spend in the room is just phenomenal. I went from really feeling very negative about the damp flat we'd been 'conned' into buying, to feeling genuinely proud of our home.

Edited by mockduck (27/03/2009 21:39)