Lounge progress

Several rooms in the house are in the 'part way' stage of being 'done'. Not to mention the outside but that's a whole other story. Anyway... to the lounge room.

To really give the full background... when you get to the pictures, imagine a room with the far end as exposed brick, the right hand side wall covered in mirror tiles, a (once) beige old carpet on the floor and at least one door way (left wall) wasn't there before, and one part of the wall (far end left wall) was a door way... once. Oh and one rattan and gold looking ceiling fan and some wierd wierd light fittings... Yep there's been some work done in there but not for a while. It's dribs and drabs depending on the two usual factors.

The table is inherited from my Mum and Dad as the 'sunroom' table from when I was a kid. The white highback dining chairs were a 'lawn shopping' find. The two raw timber chairs were freecycle. The floor is thanks to Mum and Dad. The walls we did ourselves (and boy those mirror tiles were the only thing in the house stuck on properly and left massive holes in the walls which took Michael ages to fill layer by layer) and putting the gyprock on the end wall meant re-doing the cornice and cutting new corners.

One lounge was a Christmas gift, the firescreen is from good friends of ours, the book case was passed on to us from friends who were going away and couldn't take it with them, the tv and cabinet are hand-me-downs. The 'prints' on the wall in the 'before' pics are 3 blank canvases with some fabric I chose, that I stapled gunned on while sitting on the floor rather massively pregnant. Always the way! Anyway, the point being that you can 'make a room' without masses of money. It just takes time, patience and being willing to accept that it feels 'unfinished' for much longer than you'd like. :)

Recently, someone we know kindly put aside two bookcases for us when they were given the opportunity to rehome some furniture. The lounge room has never really had a solid 'thing' going... I've never quite worked out exactly what was missing.

Well these bookcases might be it. Okay, paint would be good but I mean in the structure of the room. Apart from that, we have quite a few books that really really need to not be in boxes (and I've given away a lot because I didn't have anywhere to put them and they weren't on my 'these days' interest and wouldn't be again, most likely... AND somewhere to put photos without putting holes in the wall. Very appealing.

I ummed and arred about a few places they could go in the lounge but none of them were quite 'it'. Then, thinking about the styling in rooms of blogs I like, I wondered some more. Then came up with this... would it fit? Would it work? So this morning, with cloths under each bookcase, I dragged a few things round. Fished out the odd socks, shoes, blocks, cars (you get the idea) from under the lounges as I moved them around, vacced and mopped and this is what the result was (nb in the 'before' photos, I have taken the curtains down to wash them so there's a lot more light in the room and in the 'after' photos, I've taken the lounge covers off one lounge, and they're in the wash... how cool, but extremely impractical, would a white lounge be there!).

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After.

I want to introduce some more black (maybe on the rug on the floor or a dark grey), some of the leaf green and ... not sure what else... still workin' on it. It'll come. Suggestions appreciated. Oh and the 'hanging thing' is an IKEA curtain/mozzie net style thing that with some internal 'walls' was doing duty as Quinn's cubby house.

Now... just needs some paint (ha! one day) and finishing 'stuff' and it would be done! There's no way we would have been able to buy book cases for this room, so we really appreciate the thoughtfulness of J&S in putting these aside for us! Thanks guys!