Living room makeover in progress

For the past month or so I've been working on giving my living room a makeover. Today I will show you some pictures of how the makeover has been going, and later in the month I will have some photos of it in its almost complete state.

I had got bored of the sludge green I'd painted the feature wall, which looked warming in winter but a bit dark and depressing at other times of the year. The rest of the walls, which were cream, really needed a new coat of paint after 19 years! And while I liked the style of my shelving, I really wanted to lighten the room up a bit.

I decided to bring as much white into the room as possible, while keeping some vintage pieces of furniture. This meant painting the walls and ceiling white, except for the feature wall which I painted a pale grey (Dulux Chic Shadow). 

When I moved into my house, the two things I swore against were white walls and dark teak furniture, but now I have white walls everywhere, and am bringing more and more teak in! I also was unsure about grey walls when they first became a decor trend, but now I've got them in two rooms!

With probably over 1000 books in the room, and lots of ornaments, DVDs, CDs, etc, it was a lot of work to clear the shelves. Initially I moved them to one end of the room, but eventually they all had to be moved upstairs to my craft room! Painting the walls involved a lot of shuffling round of furniture, painting one third of the room at a time. 

Eventually, after three weeks, that phase was finished, just as I broke off for three weeks' holiday. It felt like a major milestone when I was finally able to put my geisha painting back on the wall!

Once I was on holiday from work, I was able to arrange the pickup of the old furniture by the Salvation Army, and, a few days later, the delivery of my new Ikea furniture. After a few days, and with Dad's help, the furniture was built up and the room began to take shape! Getting the TV off the sideboard, and moving the sideboard so that it was more central, has made a huge difference!

I also had a chance to scour the local charity and secondhand shops and pick up a small side table and some picture frames. 

Now the process of moving the books back downstairs has to begin, and I will work on the finishing touches for the room. I want to order a couple of new cushions, a throw I've had my eye on, some prints, and possibly a cute but expensive stool I've seen!