I have some fabulous customers. They invite me in for a cuppa and a chat when I drop things off, and they give me presents and send me thank you cards. One customer is particularly lovely. She saves her eggs boxes for me, and has given me a number of things for my garden. She recently started saving me the interiors pages out of her Sunday paper for me, and thanks to an intro she made to a local estate agent I have a couple of potential jobs in the pipeline. She even calls me when she spots a new house going up somewhere so I can drop off my business card. I should be paying her. Which is why I’m so happy with how her living room turned out. It is quite a transformation even if I do say so myself but then it was looking pretty tired, see…

A lot of dusky pink and dark wood, and some very dated lights and soft furnishings.

There’s an empty fireplace hidden behind that coffee table and speakers…

But its a good size room and they had a budget that could potentially stretch to a complete makeover if I shopped around a bit.

After pondering the right look for them and their home I proposed an elegant scheme of blue and natural linen colours with a few pink accents for warmth. They were open to the idea of painting all the woodwork white and removing the dado rail, and providing we could do it within budget they also liked the idea of replacing the fireplace and adding a new fire.

So are you ready?

The Blue Living Room Reveal

Tada!

What a difference eh? I LOVE the colours in this room. The wall paint is called Windblown by Valspar and its a grown up, classical looking, powdery blue (if I can use that many words to describe a paint colour) with a hint of grey which takes it far enough away from looking like a childs nursery but still keeps the room looking light.

The new white stone fireplace looks very elegant, and the white woodwork frames the walls and almost makes their teak coffee table glow. (I’m getting quite poetic tonight aren’t I).

So the lighting is from Laura Ashley as are the curtains, all purchased in their sale so massive savings. They purchased the sofa and armchair after I sent them to look at another sale sofa at a local retailer. Apparently that one wasn’t comfy enough (which is why you should always send customers to test sofas) but this was and the same colours so fitted perfectly. Also in the sale so further savings made.

They used to have glass panelled doors between the living room and dining room but when their son moved back home they replaced them with solid doors to give him privacy as his room was beyond the dining room. They still had the old doors and privacy was no longer an issue so we brought them back which instantly made the room lighter. We carried the dining room carpet through into the living room (not literally obvs, we bought some more), and bought a second pair of the Laura Ashley curtains for the dining room so the rooms now flowed.

We actually finished the room before Christmas but the homeowners then agreed with me that they did need a second armchair so we had to wait for the one on the right to arrive.

They have some lovely traditional paintings and artwork around the house so we re-hung some of it in the living room, and now that the wallpaper and dado rail has gone the artwork becomes more of a feature and looks great against the blue walls.

I’d already planned to include some pink accents before Pantone announced their colour of the year for 2016, which is actually two colours, a pale blue and a pale pink. So the colour scheme is bang on trend,

They’d been against the idea of table lamps as apparently one of their grandchildren likes to do cartwheels in the living room (don’t we all) and they were concerned about accidents. Now I don’t like to be pushy but the room really needed at least one table lamp so I casually presented this little bargain to them when I went round to take the photos (£23 from Dunelm) and they decided to chance it. I also think it needs a rug and when I find the right one I’ll casually present that too….