In our current (rented) house in York, our living room / dining room is open plan with a door leading on to the narrowest galley kitchen in all of England. There are many, many things that I love about our home (including the airy open-plan layout of the downstairs) but the floors and walls are not included in that.
The walls are the renter’s nightmare (magnolia) and the floors are a quite cheap laminate, so Sam and I did everything possible to make it look “ours” without actually spending any money on a home that wasn’t “ours”. (I actually think our landlord would let us paint if I asked, but I am loath to spend money painting a rental when we are on a house-hunt for our own place.)
We also used to have a gorgeous rug in the living room that has been temporarily moved upstairs whilst Harold is still in a destructive phase. We hoped to have it back downstairs by now, but he still likes chewing on rugs a little bit too much for comfort at the moment. (But you can see peeks of the rug here and imagine how the room would look with it.)
I like our decor to be fairly sparse and minimal, a combination of mid-century modern and Scandi, with a neutral palette that lets the occasional pop of colour, and our jungle of plants really shine. One of the natural focal spots in the space is the massive floor to ceiling bookshelf monstrosity that covers a whole wall behind our dining table. It’s the closest I’ll ever come to having a library like in “Beauty & the Beast”.
You might remember that back in November, I collaborated with DFS and Joules on their JoulesxDFS line, that ended with my going to the DFS studio and upholstering my own Joules chair as well as painting and designing my own print for a pillow. I was more than a little nervous about my chair, convinced that my upholstery job would look dreadful, or that the poor skilled man who helped me had to rip it all out after I left.
Sometime after the holidays, I received a phone call from DFS saying that they were delivering my chair, and I couldn’t wait to see it again. (Also huge props to the Yorkshire DFS delivery team – they delivered my chair in a snowstorm, and were absolutely, positively lovely! I couldn’t speak more highly of them. I hope they get a raise!)
We already had a reading nook behind our dining room table next to the side of the humungous bookshelf, so I had planned to swap out the chair that I had there for my new Joules and DFS piece. When the chair touched down, I was understandably nervous. Would you be able to tell the part that I upholstered from the professional’s side?
I can happily say that you can’t! (Though I also can’t guarantee that he didn’t just unpick everything I’d done after I left. That or just burn it and start from scratch.)
I absolutely love the pop of colour that it’s added to the room and it’s so comfortable to sit in. It’s formed the best “reading nook” in the house. And when our attention is elsewhere, Sam and I have both come into the room to find that Harold has abandoned his bed for our new chair.
The whole range is for sale now at DFS so get shopping! It’s stunning!
So that’s our living room in a nutshell! Not so bad for a rental house that we can’t really put our own touches on. (At least in my opinion.)
***I was a guest of DFS and Joules, but all thoughts and opinions are forever my own.***
