Living Room Makeover (with Revamp, Restyle, Reveal Season 3)

This living room makeover post is in partnership with the official Revamp Restyle Reveal sponsors as listed below.

Thank you to the lovely Tamsyn for handing over to me on the RRR3 blog-hop. Such a beautiful transformation of her attic space.

Last year, I was very lucky to be invited to take part in season 2 of Revamp, Restyle, Reveal: an online interior design challenge, where 10 bloggers make-over a room in their home over a period of 4 weeks. It was a massive undertaking and a fantastic experience, supported by some AMAZING sponsors. If you haven’t already seen it, you can check out that post here.

 

Revamp, Restyle, Reveal season 3 has just finished AND WE TOOK PART AGAIN!!

If you follow me on Instagram (or have read the title of the post!) you will already know this: BUT IT’S STILL SO EXCITING!! When our fab hosts Lisa Dawson and Bianca Hall asked DesignSixtyNine back, I had no doubt that I wanted to do a living room makeover. Brian did though. It has been a good two years since the living room was completed and for me that is a decorating eternity. Brian is more of a ‘decorate for life’ kinda guy, so convincing him to change it up took a bit of gentle persuasion. Eventually, my persistent nagging worked. Revamp, Restyle, Reveal Season 3 was on!

Now, I’m fully aware that a iving room makeover may be met with mixed reactions. It wasn’t a room that needed a makeover and it was very much the room that kicked off every success that DesignSixtyNine has achieved. It never fails to pull in the Instagram ‘likes’ and I have lost count of how many messages I’ve had, asking about the wall colour. I too still love that room… but it was getting tired and I was craving change. So, change it we did.

Revamp Restyle Reveal: The Living Room Makeover Plan.

All good interiors start with a source of inspiration. Sometimes that can be an image, sometimes, an object. On this occasion, it was a chair. The chair. The only chair I will ever want to sit in or look at again. When I heard that West Elm was on our list of sponsors, the Cosy Swivel Chair went straight onto my style board.

Isn’t she lovely? …curvy.

The only furniture we knew that we definitely wanted to keep in this room was the vintage Morris of Glasgow sideboard and the sofa. Everything else could be re-deployed elsewhere. We also had a beautiful glass cabinet that Brian had been given by one of his friends, which was in a sorry state of repair. We really wanted a home for this, so Brian took this on as his own RRR project.

Once we had decided on the key pieces for the room, I started pulling together inspiration images (this is the best way to focus your plans) so that I could get a feel for the space that I wanted to create. Pinterest, magazines and books all played their part to clarify my dream.

 

The Final Living Room Makeover Plan

Once I had decided on ‘the look’, the fun really started. This season we have some huge sponsors on board, which really helped to make my dream room become a reality.

As you can see, we have ditched the dark in favour of a much lighter aesthetic. Am I over dark? No way. I still absolutely believe that darker colours can be one of the best ways to transform a space, however, it also depends on what you want from the space. I’ve been using the living room much more in the mornings these last few months and the light we get flooding in this East facing room is so lovely. Especially now that Spring is here. I really wanted to maximise this, so decided that lighter walls and matching trim would be the best way to achieve this. Darkening the ceiling would retain the drama that I really didn’t want to lose.

I’ve always loved the elegance of Parisian style apartments (aspirations are high, folks) and wanted to achieve a similar feel here. We already had the herringbone floor, the height, and the mouldings, so furnishings and accessories would play a key part in getting the look right. Statement pieces would be the key.

 

Revamp, Restyle, REVEAL!!!

GAAAAH!! I cannot begin to tell you how happy we are with this space. The light in here is stunning in the morning, filtered through sheer curtains onto our beautiful soft toned walls. It still feels as comfortable in the evenings, as the walls take on a warmer tone by lamp light. I’ve mixed strong contemporary shapes with vintage pieces, to break up the overly ‘check out my new room’ look and brought in a mix of colours, textures and fabrics to add warmth and a relaxed ‘I don’t care if it coordinates… I’m THAT cool’ feel. Again, aspirations are high.

Let me tell you how it all went…

We wanted away from the dominance of grey, so opted for Owlswick by Sanderson for the walls and woodwork, with a much darker ceiling in City grey by Zoffany (in reality, it’s a dark brown/grey). Both were sourced through Style Library, one of our amazing sponsors. It took maaaany tester pots and squinting of eyes before we settled on our colours, which have provided the perfect backdrop to our scheme: not too warm, not too cool.

From Style Library, I clicked over to West Elm, our headline sponsor for Revamp, Restyle, Reveal. West Elm has been one of my most viewed websites ever since it made it’s way to the UK, so the fact that we had W.E on board for the challenge, had me freaking out like a 90s teenager at a Take That concert. I headed directly for that chair…

Doesn’t it look like it was made for here? With a backdrop of my homemade sheer curtains filtering the light, this corner is exactly what I wanted. This is also thanks to David Hunt Lighting who very kindly supplied this beautiful Lustre Table Lamp with shade, which is part of their Alchemist collection. Just check out that shape!

The beautiful Watercolour Trellis Wool Shag Rug is also from West Elm, as is the Lucas Wire Base Chair, which I have coveted for some time. So comfortable.

Although I loved our old marble coffee table, it was huge and ate up the space in the room. This Mid-Century Art Display Coffee Table is the perfect size and gives me even more excuses to buy accessories. Yay!

The sofa got a mini-makeover with a new slipcover, and has been dressed up with some cushions that I made from beautiful Style Library fabrics. I even put zips in! New skill achieved!

From left to right: Tree Fern Weave in Rhodera by Sanderson, Metamorphic in Marine by Harlequin, Poise in Blush by Harlequin

This beautiful chair is from Flokk and is fully customisable with options for coloured legs, shell, and upholstery.

As well as painting and sewing, we also took on some mini DIY projects for our living room makeover. Brian restored a dilapidated glass display cabinet into this thing of beauty, using gilding paste and Makoto fabric in Zebra, from Scion, through Style Library. So proud. He has done an amazing job and I bloody love it.

I built a TV stand,

knocked out some artwork,

and converted two bamboo drawer dividers from our sponsor Soak.com into a printers tray style display case. This is perfect for holding the little collectables that otherwise look lost on a shelf. Still a few spaces to fill, so I’ll have to go charity shopping. Shame.

Now, I’m not the most green-fingered of people, but I cannot resist a bit of greenery to bring life to a room. I love a trip to Dobbies Garden Centre and on this trip, I chose some stunning planters and a few houseplants that so far, are surviving well. Keep everything crossed for them!

My faux succulents have been displayed in a marble toothbrush tidy from Soak.com. What else would you put them in?!

 

We Have Technology!

The whole Revamp, Restyle, Reveal experience was made all the more enjoyable thanks to advances in technology. This Dyson Hot and Cool Air Purifier from AO.com has been used on both settings and has made the whole experience a bit more bearable. It’s crazy how cold an empty room can get?! Thank you AO.

And if you’re not dancing while you paint, are you even painting?! This Sonos One Speaker is ridiculously clear and has provided us with hours of hands-free Dj’ing. So much so, that we are planning to buy another for upstairs. Sorry neighbours!

 

Thank You!

I’ll end this Living room makeover post by saying a MASSIVE thank you to everyone involved with RRR3. Lisa and Bianca do an amazing job organising such a huge social media event and deserve massive praise for securing such fantastic sponsors and for keeping us all right. It must be like herding kittens at times! Thank youth the sponsors fryer massive generosity and to my fellow bloggers for being such a great support throughout.

Thank you lot so much for following along and I really hope you like our end result.

Make sure you click the link below to check out Daniela’s incredible bedroom and ensuite transformation. If you’re a fan of STUNNING then you won’t want to miss this!

Daniela Tasca York – Bedroom & Ensuite

 

Then follow on from Daniela’s post to the rest:

Rock n Roll Bride – Dark & Cosy Snug

Luke Arthur Wells – Office

Lust Living – Monochrome Hallway

Matthew Shaw – Master Suite

Lisa Dawson – Family Bathroom

French For Pineapple – Study / Guest Room

Our 1930’s Fixer Upper – Kitchen & Entryway

Tamsyn Morgans – Attic Space

Design Sixty Nine – Living Room

 

 

http://www.westelm.co.uk

https://www.stylelibrary.com

https://soak.com

https://www.davidhuntlighting.co.uk/

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/home

https://ao.com/

https://uk.flokk.com/

https://www.dobbies.com/

https://www.theblindshop.com/

https://www.capietra.com/