A Peek At My Living Room | AD

It’s coming up to a year since we moved into our new home – I cannot believe how fast time flies! We’re still a long way off making the house our own (for the most part) but I’d say my living room and hallway are the most complete so far, so I thought I’d share a peek of it here.

_{AD | This post is a collaboration with My Picture, but all views are my own.}

If you follow me on youtube, you’re likely to have seen all weekly renovation videos I posted last summer, and not much since then. We still have a long way to go in terms of getting the house exactly where we want it. Though I’m frequently reminded by many that this is an ongoing process for many years, and I’m beginning to they aren’t lying about this!

My Living Room

In case you missed the videos, here are some ‘before’ photos of what the room looked like..

Pretty bland and boring, right?

Now, here’s what the living room currently looks like..

During renovations, we made this room smaller by knocking down a stud wall and pulling it forward, to allow for a larger kitchen/back living area. I love that it’s small, cosy and full of beautiful plants; perfect as we currently spend more time in here when it’s just the two of us. It is a far better use of our home having a larger space at the rear of the house for when we’re entertaining. When we have guests over, we’ve found that we spend almost of our time in the back living space

I’ll admit that since moving, I have become slightly obsessed with buying plants. Some may think I’ve gone overboard in the living room, but I honestly don’t know how we lived with such a bare living room at our previous place. I find it incredibly relaxing to be surrounded by so much green and they’re great for purifying the toxins in the air too.

We also switched to a new, cream carpet to give the room a much cosier and inviting finish. Particularly with smaller rooms in the home this is a lot cheaper than you might think, thanks to online retailers such as Carpet Warehouse. You can also request a variety of free samples to test different colours with your room’s style before committing.

My Hallway

The hallway was bland and uninviting when we moved in. Think yellowed magnolia paint over layers upon layers of old textured wallpaper. It was a very unloved space and a disorganised dumping ground for all who lived here.

I shall spare you the ‘before’ photos of this one, but feel free to go back to my renovation vlogs on youtube to jog your memory.

This is the first impression of your home, and the first thing you see when the front door opens, so I wanted to create a warm, welcoming and spacious atmosphere without any clutter.

After months of searching, I recently found this vintage theatre seat in an antique shop in Bristol – it even has the original label on it that says ‘Royal Opera House, Covent Garden’ which is a rare find! I snapped it up immediately, even though it needs a lot of TLC and re-upholstering. Eventually, it will be used as a functional seat to sit and put your shoes on before you leave the house. I’m thinking of going for a bold, colourful print. Think maximalist vibes. What do you reckon?

I’m a big believer in having art in your home; be it a gallery wall, prints, photo frames or beautifully styled shelves. This really helps transform your home and adds a personal touch. I will admit that while I created this DIY crittall style mirror myself (don’t zoom in too closely to see the flaws), I’m still quite apprehensive about making holes in my freshly plastered walls. My future plan however, is to create an artsy gallery wall in the space above my industrial storage unit.

I think a well done gallery wall can add character to your home and you can make a statement on a wall without breaking the bank.

Thanks to My-Picture.co.uk, I have now made a start on my gallery wall collection. I created this brand new city map poster of Capri; the island Jass proposed to me on. I was able to customise the colour of the image, the text and the font. I went for a pop of pink for this one and loved the addition of the GPS coordinates at the bottom.

I also created a framed photo of my grandparents on their wedding day in 1958 and a couple of family photos from my sister’s wedding last summer. I’m a tad sentimental like that.. can you tell?

I love the original sepia tone of the old photograph and this turned out better than I expected, considering the age and quality of the original photograph. It goes wonderfully well with the muted pink of city map poster too which will be a great addition to my gallery wall. As you can see from the two wedding photos, the printing has really captured the colours as they should be and I think the walnut frame complements them really well too.

I’m now thinking that these will be the perfect Christmas presents for the family.

The process of creating the framed photos was super easy; I simply uploaded the images from my computer via their website and selected the colour of the frame and size before adding it to my shopping basket. The website advises you on the recommended size frame based on the quality and size of the photo, which is incredibly helpful as it helps eliminate the worry of them coming out blurry; particularly with older, pre-digital era photos. I am incredibly impressed by the quality of the photo printing and will certainly be placing another order to add to my gallery wall in the near future.

For now I’ve spread my framed photos around the house but I think they would look brilliant styled as part of a large gallery wall, so watch this space.. I think it’s a lovely way of having your memories displayed around the home, while adding a bit of personality too.

Thank you to My Picture for sponsoring this blog post. 

You can use my code NISHI15 for an additional 15% off all products (except MIXPIX) on My-Picture.co.uk. The discount code applies to all already discounted products and there is no minimal basket value and this code can be used unlimited times.