Home | My Living Room

It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally starting the home series where I share my home decor room by room. The living room is the heart of most homes so I decided to start here. It's also currently my favourite room but it still has a long way to go before it's finished.
It does look a little bare still but it's only because we're still looking for some furniture we want, like a trunk for blankets and a sideboard for storage. We don't want to get just anything, we want things we will really like. We're also in the middle of deciding on some wall art. We have some ideas of things we already have and I have my eyes set on a canvas print of a fox I saw in The Range a couple of weeks ago.

When we were moving in, I had this idea of having a cool grey and yellow theme in the living room. I'd pinned so many pictures of living rooms with the colour scheme and like so many say, you surprise yourself and end up doing something completely different. Instead, John and I went for a warm, neutral and grey theme in our living room. It kinda feels like we're going for like a modern farmhouse living room and I've also been injecting woodland creatures into the decor a little bit. It's really cosy now and there is still a lot to do but for where it is now, I'm happy. It takes a little time to get to where you really want it to be.

The Dining Area

Dining Table - Originally IKEA. Bought on Facebook Marketplace

Bunny Place Mats and Coasters - Asda

Candle and Diffuser - Yankee Candle and Asda

This is our dining area. Originally, we had it where our smaller sofa is now, but just two weeks ago we wiggled the room around and found a layout that felt more 'us' and homely. We adopted the layout the previous owners had and it felt like we just copied them. It wasn't right for us. Having the wiggle around with the furniture was just what we needed because we love the new layout and it feels like there's more room.

Our dining room table isn't yet finished. And by not finished I mean, we were supposed to sand it down, repaint and varnish it. It was where the 'farmhouse living room' look was inspired from, yet it's the only unfinished piece in the living room. We're looking for a dry and bright weekend to do this outside and also a weekend where we have a little more time. It was supposed to have a dove grey frame with darker varnished tops and chair seats.... like this (but a bit lighter). I was waiting to do that DIY before I did this post but I didn't know when that'd be. Still, I love it and I can't wait until it's done.

The Living Space

Sofas - IKEA

Blue Tartan Cushion - B&M

Reserved Cushion - The Range

Other Cushions - Facebook Marketplace

Throw* - JD Williams

Tree - Gift from Mum!

As you can tell, our living room is an 'L' shape. Though it may be odd, it's actually really lovely and it means we can divide the room up a little easier so that we have a dining area and a living space. We bought our sofas the day we moved in and picked them up from IKEA. We looked for sofas in all the usual places but the only one we genuinely liked was this set from IKEA. It was perfect in colour and size and the material was what we were looking for too.

I've of course added my touch with some cushions and my tree I had back home. My mum had two of these and I always asked if I could take one with me when I moved out. I love it and though in the photos it's looking a little sorry for itself, it's doing really well. It didn't have any of the shoots it has at the bottom when we moved in!

As for the cushions, I picked up the Laura Ashley velvet ones from Facebook along with my new favourite woodland animal cushions. It fits the theme I wanted and despite contrasting the grey, I think it looks quite nice.

Lamp - Dunelm

Throw - Primark

TV Unit - eBay

Nest of Tables - From a friend

Our TV unit was a spontaneous eBay purchase by John. We originally bought a fancy one from Argos but it just didn't look right in the room. We ended up selling that one on Facebook and John found this unit which he sanded down and varnished himself. It just suited the room better and I'm so glad he picked it up. We were also given a nest of tables by a friend who didn't need them anymore.

The most recent addition for the living room was what we call our 'Pixar' lamp! I absolutely love this addition and I've become a Sheldon Cooper who has 'a spot' no one else is allowed to sit in: under the lamp. It's currently my favourite thing in the room and it was an absolute bargain in Dunelm. It was on clearance and at a very good price of £30!

Plants - Asda and Mum again

Cactus ornament - Gift from my cousin. Originally Tiger

Lightbox - Arcade win in Great Yarmouth!

Curtains - Dunelm

We're very lucky and the room get's a lot of light in the evening because of the positioning of the house. It's perfect for both summer and winter because in the summer, we just open up the french doors and in the winter we don't have to turn the lights on until it's actually dark.
On the windowsill I've already started a small collection of greenery... I bought a couple of plants and I have a little cactus ornament my cousin gave me. It adds a little colour and life to the room and they're also easy to keep alive being both succulents.

Last but not least one of our other more recent purchases was finally getting the curtains. We didn't really know what to do with these because as you can see the ones by our french doors are very long! I quite like them being on the floor like that, but we're considering shortening them. When you buy ready made curtains, this is one of the problems you bump into. If we bought them any shorter it'd look ridiculous so we had to buy them long. Also, we have an in-between width of windows so we had to get the wider version for both windows too. Curtains were my most painful purchase. Firstly, because they're so expensive and secondly, because I didn't know how to measure up and buy curtains. I was a total curtain noob before but now I've finally delved into the world of curtains, I might be okay. We even had to buy poles because the previous owners didn't leave any. Is that a thing? I couldn't believe it.

So... That's my living room!

This is something really wanted to share because I don't think a lot of people realise that not everything is perfect when you move in - especially when you're buying everything for the first time. I thought it was important to share what an everyday, realistic living room in the UK can look like too because there are all these beautiful Pinterest-worthy living rooms out there on Instagram, blogs and Pinterest itself that we can compare our homes too and wonder, "why isn't mine like that?" But even though I don't think mine is enitrely Pinterest-worthy, I do think it's beautiful, realistic and lived in! I hope that makes sense. It does to me.

Let me know what you think? What's your favourite area? What does your living room look like?