Lounge Vintage Makeover...l

They say only hotels and airports have lounges

But it's called that in our house too.

It was the first room I tackled in my mini home make over.

As you can see it was perfectly nice and all but it just wasn't grabbing me.

The other wall which you can't see in this pic had patchwork wallpaper in duck egg shades and the chimney breast was painted in a teal colour.

I started by searching for the perfect wallpaper and decided I would paper the whole wall, chimney breast as well as the alcoves either side.

I checked out all the usual places I turn to for wallpaper - Laura Ashley; Cath Kidston; Next; Wallpaper Direct but it was eBay where I succeeded in finding the perfect paper:

Vintage Sanderson - I couldn't find any info about it online so I emailed Sanderson with the label info and a photo and they said it was printed in the 1970's.

Isn't it just gorgeous?

I was delighted when my searching though eBay proved so fruitful but I was, however, a wee bit nervous about what Mr G would like as he always said "No" to full on florals in the lounge.

Naturally, I did what any self respecting girl would do and I didn't tell him and bought it anyway!! *blushes*

My friend says "better to seek forgiveness than ask permission"!!

I managed to get all four rolls for £40 - Sanderson wallpaper is about £70 PER roll so as well as being just wanted it was also a super bargain.

Luckily, when I broke the news to Mr G he reacted in his trademark laidback style!!

And so we spent a Saturday wallpapering.

I hate wallpapering.

I swear I'm never going to do it again every time I do any.

But I love wallpaper, so what's a girl to do?

We can't have a real or gas fire in the chimney breast as the flue is not right and we'd never found an electric one that didn't look totally fake. Then when we were on holiday we saw these stoves by Dimplex from their Optimist range - you fill a reservoir with water and a light shines through the steam, this creates ever such a realistic flame effect.

They were priced at £500-£700 so we thought we'd save up to get one but I decided to check good old Gumtree and low and behold there was an almost new top of the range Optmist fire for the princely sum of £125!!

So we collected it on the way home and it fitted right in. The mantle shelf was £20 from eBay and I just waxed the bare pine with Annie Sloan's dark wax to get an antiqued look.

It's impossible to capture in a photo but the flames have that real flickering look.

The wallpaper gives the vintage look I was after.

The china cabinet was my £6.00 bargain from the tip!! The chairs belonged to my Mum and we had them when she got a new suite.

The hare lamp is by Abigal Ahern for Debenhams and is last Christmas's favourite present.

The portrait is of my beautiful horse TC and Mr G had it done for me a few Christmases ago.

As you can see we have a lot of photos in our home - I love the way they are a daily reminder of treasured memories - I once read that lots of photographs is a sign of a happy home.

The cabinet they sit on is Art Deco and was another bargain (£8.00) from the tip!! The clock on the sideboard belonged to my late beloved Granddad and though it no longer works it's something I treasure.

This cabinet is an Ercol Court coup board and was a bit expensive for us at £40 - once the paper went up I knew it needed a colour change....

I decided to pick out the gold/mustard colour in the wallpaper and I used Miss Mustard Seeds Milk Paint to re-paint it. It's proper old fashioned paint that comes in powder form, you mix it with water and it creates a beautiful, authentically chippy look....

For the sofa (which I'm not keen on but is very practical with a houseful of animals and teenagers) I made a stack of cushions out of Sanderson fabric remnants and used a beautiful vintage crochet throw that my dear friend Dawn gave me for Christmas....

So that's the lounge. I need to change the curtains at some point, I'm rather fancying some heavy, interlined ticking ones so I need to keep my eyes peeled for some bargain fabric, I think....

Thanks for reading!!

Hugs

S x

 

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