Just over a week ago I shared the new Rock My Room series which will be gracing the pages of the blog every Thursday for the next few weeks. I’m tickled pink a lot of you have also got your paint brushes at the ready and are planning on joining in with your own DIY projects.
I have a little secret to share, I am already well on the way to rocking my room. To be honest I’m a couple of weeks ahead of you guys to make sure I have a post fully prepped and ready to share the progress with you.
Now back to the room in question. I thought it would be helpful to share a bit of inspiration for my space before I launch into what I got up to in the first week of the challenge.
The vision is a relaxed and tranquil living room using a palette of greys. I think my mum was a bit dismayed when I told her there wouldn’t be an accent colour. Perhaps I’ve got my rose tinted glasses on but I feel you can get away with murder with charcoals, dove and oyster shades. I’m throwing in all fifty shades of grey and hopefully will come up with some form of calm yet cosy scheme. Expect a fire surround to create a focal point to the room and some form of storage in the recess.
The Inspiration
During week one we made great progress and spent the first seven days painting and peeling and getting new lighting in place.
The Lighting
I wouldn’t normally approach lighting first but I’d purchased two Cox and Cox lights over Christmas I was keen to get them up so we could focus on the other tasks. As the house had previously been renovated the money had quite rightly been spent on the structure of the house rather than the fixtures and fittings. It was great to take down the cheap plastic pendants and replace them with a more nordic-inspired industrial light.
The Walls
After using Crown’s Sail White in our old living room we opted for the same chalky shade this time round. It has the slightest whisper of grey (a touch lighter than Farrow and Ball’s Ammonite) and against the white of the ceiling really highlights the shape of the roof height. Rather foolishly (as we are up against it for time) we decided not give the ceiling a lick of white paint. It appeared to have been done recently so we just decided to tackle the walls and get the new lights up ASAP. However if we had chosen to paint the ceiling then I think this contrast would have been even bolder. Just to point out, it’s only the middle image of the faux chimney breast you see in the header above which has the freshly painted walls in view in all the others the buttermilk is still taking centre stage.
Week one was also spent peeling off the paper which thankfully was an absolute doddle to remove. All we had to use was a cold water spray and a scraper and the wallpaper satisfyingly peeled off. I think it must have only have been in place for a short while so we didn’t go through the same drama we had in the spare room of our last place. James simply had to rub down the walls with a sanding block and we were ready to paint these two areas too.
With the week one update centred around painting, week two will be all about the woodwork and the fire surround. Riveting stuff folks. How are you getting on over at your pad? Anyone rocking their room during February?
I wish our living room was gonna be this quick! We are starting In March I think cos I wanted to have all the money saved up to just crack on rather than do bits at a time like we did with the bedroom cos it made it took a lot longer. We are going for either a log burner or an open fire but need to take off the fire surround and get the inside retiled. Then we want the walls skimming over the dreadful suede effect paint! Then we need a new windowsill and we want some white shutters for the bay window, to take the awful big draped curtains and dark wood curtain pole down. Then painting it all a nice white maybe off white or grey white and then. Nice chunky beam above th fireplace and some shelves in the alcoves. Eventually new settees but in the meantime I am looking for fabric so the MiL can do some new cushion covers to just brighten it up! It’s gonna take a little while lol! Getting quotes in the next fortnight, have toyed with getting a dark shade on the chimney breast but usually I get fed up after so long so tempted to stick to neutral and get the colours through accessories. Can’t wait until that room is done! That will be two down lol! Can’t wait to see yours finished you have such a good eye!! X
Hi Alex, Sounds a lot like what we want to do in our lounge! Can I ask where you’re looking for your log burner, do you have a tradey coming in to do the fireplace work and where are you looking for shutters?
Kitty x
Hi Kitty! My cousin is a gas engineer and can do them so not sure yet of cost until he comes in a couple of weeks! I don’t think the actual log burner costs too much it’s the whole thing and if you need any work to the chimney etc that adds it on. Some of my friends who had them said about £1000-£1300 for it all so we’ve set a budget at a similar amount but if it’s going to cost a lot more have some other ideas up our sleeve lol!
Hi Alex, loving reading about your plans. It’s going to be a fab space when you get it finished x
Can I ask if you put the lights up yourself or if you needed an electrician? We’re keen to have a similar pendant light in our kitchen – looks fantastic!
Hi Natalie, it was a like-for-like replacement so super easy but my friend is an electrician so we get him in to do anything involving electrickery x
Lovely stuff – where is that fab door mat from please?!! 🙂
Great paint advice too x
Hi lovely, ooh it’s from a very exclusive place…. Ikea 😉 x
This is going to look lovely! Can’t wait to see the end result! I’ve been wanting to repaint my living room for ages and I thought f&b Cornforth White was the perfect colour having seen it in a friends house but disappointingly when I did a test patch in the room it looked far too dark. Since then I’ve tried lots of testers that have all come out too dark / sludgey looking. We have sail white in one of our bedrooms though and I really like it so now I’m thinking that may be a winner for the living room! Nice and subtle but more to it than just white. I feel inspired to get on with it now! X
I love Sail White Sarah!
We shot a feature yesterday involving lots of paint samples so hopefully we’ll be able to help you in the future x
I have not made much progress…mainly thanks to the number cocktails consumed on Friday night, resulting in Saturday bein somewhat less productive than planned!
I have the very best of intentions to polyfilla and paint this weekend.
Am also considering “white/lime washing” a pine chest of drawers so if anyone’s done this and has some tips, that’d be lovely!
Those darn cocktails Sarah. They do nothing for productivity do they? SO worth it though 😉 x
Sarah – Have you tried Annie Sloan chalk paint for furniture? I painted a few mirror frames and old pine bedside tables which were brilliantly useful and the right size/shape but didn’t like the colour. It’s super easy and you can add more/less coats to get the shade you want, distress it etc and one pot lasts forever. Might be worth looking at for your chest of drawers!! I didn’t even bother sanding etc and 2 years later everything looks fine still x
Love these sorts of posts! I would have joined in with this challenge but we moved into our farmhouse 2 months ago and have discovered endless leaks in the roof which we need to fix before tackling the fun decorating part. We’re just waiting for spring for better weather to do the roof and allow all the damp walls to dry out. It’ll be worth the wait, and it’s giving me time to choose colour schemes etc. I can’t wait to see your progress update next week x
Oh M-J, sorry to hear about your leaks. Great you have a bit of time to plan your decor though x
Hi Lauren! Loving your schemes, so similar to those in our reception room, which is about a week away from being finished. Ours is a Victorian house in london and we’ve done the whole lot in one go, bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms – whilst living in it, through the cold weather with no heat, etc etc etc. However we’ve been lucky to have a team in to do it as it’s been a total replaster job, cornicing and ceiling roses stripped back to former glory, gas fires ripped out and the originals put back in, cabinets, flooring, new windows, cast iron rads, chandeliers, furniture. We’d been promised the living room by xmas – we are hoping to be in by valentines day! Fingers crossed. Love it already and it’s just a shell. Hoping the house will be ours again by march just in time for the side return extension through the summer finishing with a new tiled hallway – and a nice house warming!!!! Can’t wait to see what you achieve and also to put my chest of drawers inspired by you in to position xxxx
Mrs R! Your new room sounds utterly fabulous! How incredible to have it returned to its former glory. You must share a pic or two when it’s finished x
Loving your room and inspiration photos!
We’re completely stuck with our makeover 🙁 we’ve painted one wall in a cappuccino colour and decided it’s a bit dark to go on all of the walls. So I have 10 different shades of white/light coloured testers on the wall.
I like the Sail White, but my husband thinks it’s too grey/blue tinted to work with the cappucino & I think he might be right.
We just cannot find the right white, we need an off white with a warm tint or a really light latte colour… at this point i’m even considering magnolia!
Hi Victoria, have you tried Dulux Timeless? I’ve used it a lot recently as it seems to take on the tones of the colours around it.
Also i might be a bit too dark but a friend of mine used Dulux Almost Oyster in her living room and that has a very warm undertone x
Victoria have you tried Dulux White Chiffon? It’s a really warm, chalky off – white. We’ve used it in a couple of rooms and I always find it perfect x
I love White Chiffon! Victoria – I used this in my old dressing room. We’re going to use it in the new one too x
It’s one of those that follows you round! I had it back in the old house, now we have it in the living room and soon to be spare room/nursery/whatever too. White Cotton is v similar but a little lighter so also worth a try. xx
Thanks you lovely lot. I’ll be going out to get testers this weekend! Knew you’d be able to help. X
I missed this yesterday! Bathroom is pretty much in the same state as it was a week ago. The hall/landing on the other hand is well on its way to transformation!
Looking fab Lauren x
Thanks lovely, glad you’re making progress too x
We get the keys to our first house a week today and I can’t wait to start decorating and take part in this challenge, albeit a little late for the 4 weeks of Feb! x
Ahhhh, huge congrats Milly. Yes, please join in x
[…] you may remember last week’s instalment of the Rock My Room living room challenge featured lighting and wall colours. During week two it was all about painting […]
Please can I ask where your sofa and chair are from?
[…] you cast your mind back to week one I shared the inspiration for the room. The plan was to create a restful and relaxing living room using all shades of grey. We got to work […]