Living Room Reveal!

When I last posted I never intended it to be so long until I wrote another blog piece. I thought, the next post I write will be about redecorating the living room. Either I’ll do a half way post before a full finished room post, or just the one. It’ll be done in a few weeks. Oh how naïve I was. It was four month before we were finally able to use the room. It still isn’t actually finished. But at the risk of never, ever writing this or sharing our process, I am putting this up now, and if it ever is “finished” I will share this too. I have already learnt that room design is organic and as such, it will never really be finished.

We always said that we would live in the house for a few months at least before doing any work to it. We wanted to learn how the light would change in the rooms throughout the day, how we naturally began to use the space, where we tended to leave "stuff that has no home" (AKA crap). We were then going to design the room around this information.

So after saying this repeatedly, we were in the house less than a full week before we ripped half the wall paper off the living room walls, decided where we needed new plug sockets, and picked the wall colour. To be fair to us, we were ordering a new sofa with 8 weeks to wait. It seemed ludicrous to buy new furniture and set up the room, only to have to store it elsewhere when we did eventually redecorate. The room is empty so let's do it now. Sensible choice you say. Well in some ways yes. In others, not so much. The number one rule of renovating is to have a plan of what you're doing and stick to it. Changing your mind, or adding extras not only costs more money but it can seriously delay the job. Or cause you to have to redo areas that have already been done.

With all that being said, we massively rushed it. Most of our decisions didn't change, but we definitely added things to the list of what we wanted to do. It went from adding new plug sockets, plastering and painting, and treating the floorboards. To doing all that, while also redecorating the windows including repairs and replacing the putty, installing a new cast iron radiator and plastering the hallway while we have plasterers in. Not a huge amount of things to add, but it all adds on time. This should be starting to give you an idea of how redecorating took four months. In my mind It was "just painting some walls right?" If you’ve ever decorated a room that hasn’t had anything done to it since the mid 1980’s you will be laughing at me for ever thinking this room would take a few weekends.

So the electrics and plastering were done by professionals, so that should have only taken a couple of days, I thought. LOL! The electrician did half the job and then went on holiday for 3 weeks. We couldn’t plaster until the electrician was done. When he got back from holiday it was another week before we could get him to come back. One month down, just on the electrics. The plasterers were a dream, they were in and out in half a day! Of course we then had to wait about a week for the plaster to dry before we could do the mist coat. Now at this point you’re thinking so that’s what 5/6 weeks. How did the rest take 3 months? To be honest I haven’t a clue. Everything just takes so long, also we were only doing it at weekends, and we had weekends away and a week on holiday at one point. So mostly the delay was us. But even when we were working on it I couldn’t believe how long things take. We also decided we wanted a cast iron radiator which meant having a plumber come and fit it, and we discovered the window was rotting in places, so my brother in law came up one weekend and carried out a huge repair, replacing sections of the window that couldn’t be saved. So that made the list a bit longer. 

Basically there is so much stuff you have to do to prep a room before you can do the fun bit, which is painting it the colour you want. 

I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to cut corners and do a bit of a botch job just to get the thing done, thankfully Ciaran is very good at not getting too frustrated with it all and taking the time needed to do it right. But after many, many, many tantrums from me (turns out for someone who is quite messy, mess makes me really stressed) we finally got the room finished. Well I say finished, there are still some bits and pieces we need to get like another lamp, a rug, some artwork etc, but we’re pretty much there. 

We have taken a break from house work, and are now making plans and getting quotes for the next project. It’s been really lovely to just relax and enjoy the house. I adore the living room, every time I go in there it makes me so happy, and I loved getting it all Christmassy, the tree in the bay window looked amazing, I think this room might have been made for Christmas! 


The guest room is the next project, I'll be sure to update you next year when it's finally finished. Just kidding! (I hope).