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?