Our living room has been completely transformed into a light and airy space. Here’s the full tour.
Photography Coastpark Creative
BEFORE
We were fortunate enough to have this large living room extension already here (which a previous owner added in the 90s). It was a fairly spacious room however it did feel very divided from our kitchen in the room next door. There were a number of small windows too, and made the whole room feel disconnected from outside. By removing and adding in two sets of stacking sliding doors, we were able to bring the outdoors in and allow so much more natural light in (which is hugely important in any reno). No one dreams of a dark and dingy house do they?
We also connected this space to our kitchen by removing the dividing wall (however this did mean we needed to add a couple of structural beams). The living room was fairly big, so we pinched some of the space in here and added it to our new kitchen. The other half of the kitchen space went to our guest bedroom (we did quite a bit of reshuffling of the floor plan to make it work better).
Our red hardwood floors were also replaced - you can’t really tell but it’s a different looking timber to the rest of the house and because of all of the floor plan changes the best thing to do was completely replace the floorboards and lay new flooring over the top. We chose the ‘Refined Oak’ in Hamptons engineered timber flooring from Carpet Court and it has made such a massive difference to the way the home feels. The red flooring just looked so dark and heavy, whereas our new lighter flooring just makes the home feel more modern and light.
Before living room
Before and After
CURTAINS + BLINDS
Large sliding doors have allowed so much natural light into this space, which is great, however with the room being north facing it can also get very hot. To help diffuse that light and the glare in here, we have installed ‘Tahiti Snow’ sheer curtains from Tuiss Blinds Online. The white curtains go so perfectly with our white walls and VJ ceiling (painted in Tint ‘So Fresh and So Clean’). Not only do they help reduce the glare in the room, they also provide day time privacy. For night time privacy and full blockout and relief from the heat, we have chosen the Moda White electric blockout blinds from Tuiss Blinds Online. I think it’s definitely worth the extra money to have motorised blinds as you can control them easily via a remote control (plus no unsightly beaded cords). The ones I have also have the ability to be programmed with the SmartView App, allowing you to control the light effortlessly from anywhere in your home with a touch of your phone’s screen.
FURNISHINGS
I was fairly deliberate in the furniture I selected in terms of scale. I didn’t want ultra bulky furniture so chose a more slimline style sofa from Life Interiors. This is the ‘Bronte’ three seater sofa in an off-white colour. I love the timber leg detail on this one! Plus it’s super comfortable and you can tell the quality of it is great too.
In the corner of the room we have a gorgeous boucle and rattan armchair from Bay Gallery Furniture. This style is called the ‘Kilara’ and it ties in so well with our bar stools from Life Interiors and our coffee table. I love sitting in this armchair, it’s the perfect spot to relax in the afternoon.
Our ‘Lauria’ coffee table is also quite narrow and streamlined, this one is a cheapie from Lifely. I will say this though, the first one arrived damaged and they replaced it with another one that was damaged in the same spot, so I can’t really say I recommend this piece (although it does look nice apart from that fact).
STYLING
I love to style with foliage, flowers and plants and I’ve used all three in this room. The fiddle leaf fig tree adds a lot of life to the space and I think it will be pretty happy in that corner by the doors.
I think rugs really help to define spaces and on the floor in our living room we have used the ‘Rolini’ rug from Miss Amara. It’s made from wool, it’s super soft and I just love the geometric pattern. It has a little bit of a retro feel and a perfect fit for in here.
