Living room makeover complete

I promised some photos of my living room once I had added the finishing touches, and I've now finally got round to taking some photos of it in its finished state! 

I had ordered a single sofa-bed-chair to replace the futon that I had before. I realised that if I had visitors they could sleep in the double bed upstairs and I could use the sofa bed! This was ordered from Made.com, and I liked the style of it which fitted well with the mid-century look of some of my other furniture. There was a bit of a problem with the delivery, since I'd paid extra for a Sunday delivery, but when the delivery company got in touch they said they do not do that in my area (which is not exactly remote!). I was a bit annoyed about this, and almost cancelled the order altogether because of it, but my dad house-sat so it all worked out OK!

I've also added the book frames on the wall, and changed the throws around a bit - the grey throw is almost exactly the same shade as the chair, and it disguises the black back of it.

I'm really loving having this chair, rather than the futon which made a fantastic bed but was not at a good height for sitting on. The chair now tends to be my seat of choice whenever I arrive home.

Book frames

One of the final parts of my living room makeover was making these book frames. I had an area of wall that used to be hidden behind a Japanese screen, and it really felt like it needed something. Then I saw a picture by someone I'd just started following on Instagram, of books in frames, and this was the perfect solution for this space. She's @tulipbooks, and you just have to check out her photos of her bookish wedding!

One of the things I've tried to do when decorating my craft room, bedroom, and living room, is to have display areas that I can easily change around. I have so many lovely things that all deserve to be made the focus of attention some of the time.

Luckily I had some square Ikea Ribba frames in my cupboard that were no longer being used. I was pleased that the glass was easy to remove from these, because I had visions of attacking them with a hammer!

After removing the glass, I gave the backing boards a few coats of white paint to match the wall. When hanging the frames I added some sticky pads to the backs of them to make sure the frames didn't move about. The frames can hold small books that are not too thick.

I had just bought a French book about mushrooms, so it was the first that I placed in one of the frames. Then I added a couple of other books on a natural history theme. Because there is no glass in the front, it takes moments to change the display of books!

And I feel that these frames continue a theme of white squares that can be seen all around the room, with the square shelving, the dining table, and a little white tray I have on a side table.

Living Room makeover

Here are some photos of my living room in its almost-finished state! Since I took these photos last week there have been a few additions, like a single sofa-bed-chair, and some frames to hang books on the wall, but I'll share some photos of them soon.

Here's a reminder of what I've done to the room:

Painted three walls and ceiling white

Painted one wall a warm grey

Reduced height of sideboard and painted drawers

Replaced black shelves, table and chairs with white

Added a new rug, throws and cushions

Added a gallery wall

Made a Mount Fuji canvas

Added a small side table by the door

Painted a small wall-shelf turquoise

Got a funky clock

Hung some cute plaques from Tiger on the wall

And generally arranged and dressed the room

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!

A visit to Ikea

I'm giving my living room a makeover, so a trip to Ikea was in order! Luckily Dad volunteered to take me and Mum (which is pretty unheard of, usually he has to be dragged there!). Because they don't have a huge car now, like they did when I first decorated my house, this was more of a recce mission to check out the items I fancied, and pick up some smaller things.

Mum and Dad settled down for a coffee while I explored upstairs. I've always done this with their company in the past, so it was a bit strange to do so on my own! I always like to see the room settings as it gives me ideas. I had a look at the shelving units I fancied (white Kallax units to replace the black shelving units I have), and confirmed that they were what I wanted. I'm glad that I went to the store rather than just looking online, as I came across the perfect extendable dining table in store, which was brand-new and not even listed on the website yet!

After looking around, I joined Mum and Dad for a bit of a Danish pastry, then we headed downstairs. With Mum's help I eventually decided on the perfect rug, and it wasn't too expensive. I also got a throw, and a white uplighter to replace my black one. As well as all the other random things like a glass, a tray, napkins, picture frames, etc.

I didn't pick out my furniture when we were at the store, as I had another week at work before I could get things delivered. Because the table was not on the website, I phoned the store to ask what to do, and it turned out I could just email my list to the store directly and get them to pick the furniture. After some emails back and forward it was all sorted out, and I'm looking forward to my finished living room!

Pin frame

Because I was running out of space on my pin banner, I whipped up this frame in five minutes to display and store some more pins!

1. Remove the glass and backing from the frame

2. Cut a piece of plastic canvas to fit behind the frame

3. Glue the canvas in place with hot glue.

4. Decorate with pins!

If you want to match it to your colour scheme, you can spray-paint the frame or the plastic canvas or both!

10 years of emuse: Craft room video tour

I thought that my bloggiversary would be a great occasion to tidy up my craft room and film a video tour! I hope you enjoy having a look round my room!

10 years of emuse: Today is my bloggiversary!

I can’t believe that ten years have gone by since I started my blog!

Of all the celebrations I’m doing for my bloggiversary, I’m most excited by this big paper wall-art display that I created in the shape of my blog header!

At first I was just going to create the emuse bunting to use as a photo prop. This was the very first idea that I had for my blog’s 10th anniversary – take some photos with me holding an emuse banner. I was going to use a fabric one that I use on craft stalls, but I didn’t think it would stand out well in the photos so I started on a larger one made from card then I realised I could put it up on the wall. Once I had the banner idea, I then thought of adding the little bird from my blog header. I wanted to hold this above my head because in the original collage it was sitting on someone’s head! From there it was a small step of the imagination to add all the other elements like the Japanese doll and craft materials.

Luckily I had some free wall space in my craft room, and that wall just happened to be almost the same colour as I had used in the original collage I created as the blog header, so it seemed like fate!

I cut all the pieces from white card, added coloured card for some of the elements, and embossed some pieces to match the collage I’d made 3 years ago. I braided some thin string to make the cord for the bunting. The only thing I had to buy was the blu-tak to attach it all to the wall.

I did intend the display to just be a short-term thing, but I love it so much that I think I’m going to leave it up for the whole year (even if the blu-tak does stain the wall!).