Lisa’s Characterful New Build {The Lounge}

Have you ever delved into our Home Tours Archives? If you haven’t yet, get yourself over there. It’s where I stumbled across this drop dead gorgeous church conversion which gave me inspiration for the colour palette of my lounge.

I love coral tones anyway – it’s the one colour that occasionally makes itself into my wardrobe and I’m always drawn to peachy hued flowers – so I decided to go for a colour scheme of white with dashes of coral and gold.

The Vision

As much as open-plan-living is de rigueur these days, Rich and I are a bit old fashioned in that we like to have a living room that is totally separate from the kitchen. We wanted to create a light and airy, calming oasis away from the pots and pans of the kitchen space.

The Furniture

At the risk of sounding like I have major first world problems, one of the challenges we faced when we first moved in was working out how to fill the space. Our last house was a 1930s semi so our furniture just looked titchy and ridiculous in our new build. We decided to treat ourselves to a new U shaped sofa from made.com which is lovely for stretching out on and is also the perfect sociable shape for when we’ve got friends round.

Lyra spends a lot of time playing in the lounge so we went for a TV unit that we could hide all the children’s books and plastic tat in at the end of the day. I loved the one from Dwell in the gallery below so much that I was tempted to splurge on a second one and put it on the other side of the fireplace, however I think Lyra much prefers the toy kitchen that’s now in that space.

The Feature Wall

You will probably have gathered from my posts on my bedroom and hallway that I love a wallpapered feature wall. I think this may be because I hardly ever seem to find affordable art prints I like, however set me loose in the wallpaper section of John Lewis and I come home clutching armfuls of samples. I’d had my eye on the iconic Woods wallpaper for ages and love the twist of the gold pears. I wasn’t keen on the fireplace that was here when we moved in however the wallpaper has done wonders at making it blend into the room.

The Soft Furnishings and Accessories

Another thing that really helped to make the fireplace blend into the lounge was chancing upon some curtains that were the exact same putty colour. I had initially chosen the same curtains in ‘cream’, however ‘putty’ was so much warmer that the cream ones were relegated to our spare room.

I found the mirror in an antiques shop around the corner from Charlotte’s old abode, and have since draped some paper bird bunting over it. (Idea stolen from editor Lauren. Sorry Lauren). The cushions were from Habitat and I have my eye on this throw from Anthropologie which, with its peachy hues and gold flecks, fits the lounge colour scheme to a T. You can never have enough blankets and throws to snuggle under.

And my favourite thing in the living room? These prints that Rich actually chose during a New Year’s Eve trip to Edinburgh when I was heavily pregnant with Lyra. They were from a cute boutique art shop – my favourite kind of shop – The Red Door Gallery in Edinburgh’s Old Town. So many memories right there.

The Next Steps

Well I have recently treated myself to a gold honeycomb vase with the intention of starting to collect a few more nick-nacks and pretty things to make the space cosier. I’ve also just bought the Winter Signature Candle from The White Company that a couple of you lovely readers raved about in the comments section following my post on Christmas decorations last week. (On that note, be sure to use the code AP058 to get 20% off and free delivery at The White Company until Monday).  I’d also like to add in some greenery – maybe a plant inside a belly basket next to the fireplace – and some beautiful coffee table books. Naturally Rock My Wedding (the book) is top of the list.

And in the long term, I would love to add a bit more character and interest to the room by building a false chimney breast where the fireplace is and popping a wood burning stove in there. (Have I mentioned I am not keen on the current fireplace?)! Has anyone done this/considered doing this? Is it an absolute nightmare?

So that’s my lounge, and that also rounds up my house tour. I feel a little bit sad about this and clearly need to get decorating the two as-yet-untouched bedrooms. Watch this space.

{STEAL LISA’S STYLE}