Living Transformation

My lovely followers,

it’s Tuesday afternoon and I thought I could awake my sleeping Blog and do some Before/After posts. What do you think? I always like seeing those transformations on social media and it gives people a great opportunity to see what is possible to create a completely new feeling in a space. I will start with the living room of my latest project here in Somerset ( which was in this case our new home here in Somerset :-) ) . When we bought the house nearly one year ago in December 2019 the last refurbishment was 15 years ago. The house was built in 1936, but went to a lot of extensions and changes and the previous owners unfortunately changed all wooden sash windows into aluminium double glazed ones. That was the first hard thing to swallow - to realise that they are still too good to throw them away and that it would be too expensive to renew them. But- there is never a “ perfect “ ! When you buy an old house you will always find things that are ugly or badly made. A lot of them you can change and work with, but there are always bits you can’t change, or, at least, can’t change without spending a fortune. In this case you just need to let it go. Let the thought go, that it needs to be super, super perfect. It will be your home, it is not a show room or similar.

The whole house was furnished in a really old fashioned way. In this living room you could see heavy and antique furniture, carpets and all the walls were dressed with floral or beige ( or both) wallpaper.

The good thing was, that the structure and layout was pretty good. There was a lot of light coming through the large windows, although the heavy curtains took away a lot of it.The floors were in a good shape, but all covered with a varnish, that let the normally light pine floor appear very stained and dark.

The fire place was totally intact and was the central focal point in that room.

I actually decided to change that, because for me the focal point in that particular room should be the outside. The house has an immense garden with very old and large trees and it is always so calming to look outside the window with the crackling fire next to it. I arranged three white sofas with washable linen covers around a linen pouf and a glass table and now you still can see the fire from two sofas, but the whole seating group is opening up to the windows.

I painted all walls, skirtings, doors and door frames in Loft White from Little Greene to let the natural light bounce around and to give the whole space a very nordic sense of calm. The bespoke floating shelves made of ash with a natural waney edge are functioning as a great display for books, family treasures, plants and fire logs. They were made from the local cabinet maker Dix from Heartwood ( www.heartwood.co.uk) who is definitely in my A-Team now for future projects.

The floors were all sanded back and white washed with a wax varnish to add a more “ bleached look” to them.

I went with really paired back but layered window treatments made of sheer roller blinds covered by linen roman blinds. These were made by my lovely colleague Alice ( www.aliceverenna.co.uk), who did an amazing and precise job. This combination really allows the light to float the whole space during daytime, but also gives privacy in the evenings.

One highlight is for sure the original Serge Mouille five arm spider ceiling lamp. This lamp is a great contemporary contrast to the old fire place and the cozy soft furnishings. It offers indirect ambience light and is a great design icon.

A bit of greenery in form of a few plants and wild grown flowers is softening the transition between the indoors and the outdoors.

All in all this is for me a successful transformation of a tired and dull room into an airy, light , but also cozy family space. What do you like the most? Let me know your thoughts and leave a comment.

Have a great week and maybe you can transform a place in your house into something exciting?

Warm wishes

Maren xxx