You did well: it went from old people's home to modern and fresh.

Great job! What paint did you use?

You know what - the paint selection was pretty hit-and-miss actually. It was simply the cheap Homebase own brand. We'd bought Farrow & Ball for the walls, and other expensive paint for the ceiling, some other expensive paint for the woodwork - I was already stressing about the the £'s spent on paint alone, so grabbed this.

I didn't want it super shiney - but I didn't want it matt. Thought that eggshell would do the trick.

I may actually put a layer of clear varnish on the top shelf as that'll make it easier to dust.

The new sofas come today so that's actually Room 1 99% completed (just need some artwork)

Glad people like the fireplace though :)

I recently have a deal with this brand and had total disappointment! Paint looked lumpy in the tin and it wouldn't cover wall evenly, Instead of two coats had to go for three and still not perfect. Never again. I did little price comparison recently and found out that tin of paint from Colour Lab in store (Homebase) brand Dulux is cheaper than tin of Home colour, I was comparing wall emulsion. And paint from Colour Lab has good quality, no problems during application.

We have the identical fireplace surround and hearth! We also painted ours white but it only needed two coats of Dulux satinwood to cover. Will take pic when home.

I am looking to do the same to my fireplace and not too sure where to start, do I sand it or just go with pain over it?

Sand it a bit, to give it a key so the paint adheres properly, it should be smooth enough for it not to need a lot of sanding.

Thank you

I notice that this post is still getting quite a bit of attention. So, now a few months down the line, and I've forgotten how much of a nightmare it was to get perfect - I retract my origional comment of not doing it again - and will replace it with - "Possibly the best thing that I've done in the house so far, and I'm really, really pleased with it"

I also painted the inside black - which makes a massive difference as well.

Now that the room is 99% complete - I wouldn't want it any other way.

Anyway, here's how it looks in situ.

Great job! What colour F & B is on the walls? I like it.

Thanks!

We've used 2 colours actually - each ever so slightly different tone.

On 2 walls we've used F&B Elephants Breath (on the wall behind the 4 seater sofa - pic below and around/in the bay window)

The other 2 walls are painted in Toasted Almond which is Crown (the fireplace wall, and the wall with the double doors through to the dining room - pic 4 from above)

On the pic below you can see that there is a very slight difference between the two.

We get the morning/early afternoon sun through the windows so put the F&B on the walls that are bathed in sunlight as it looks amazing.

FYI - The crown toasted almond looks totally different on the wall, in natural sunlight than it does on the colour charts / internet etc.

Congratulations on job well done as I've only just come across this post and definitely does look miles better with the inside painted black. Have you got any other plans for any other rooms in your home?

Thanks.

Oh yeah, we're definately doing other rooms ! The whole house from top to bottom eventually. This room was top priority as it's the sitting room, we wanted to put our 'stamp on the place'.

We've only been moved in since the start of the year.

This is the before room, taken from the Estate Agents listing:

.......... And now (trying to take a pic from the same place)

The conservatory is hard to change, pic taken from the Estate Agents listing:

....... And now (taken this morning) - currently has our old sofa in there until we find some conservatory furniture that doesn't look like it belongs in a 1970's old peoples home.

Only change is really the addition of blinds

The study pic taken from the Estate Agents listing:

And then ..............

The current kitchen is getting ripped out and a new one put in starting 30th May.

There is also a dividing wall that's being taken down between the kitchen and dining room to allow for a breakfast bar and a much bigger space. Designs from the kitchen people below

Oh, and the double garage is slowly taking shape into the gym:

Sorry for picture overload.

Wow sounds like you wont have much time for anything else! Nice to see you have managed to grab one of the rooms for your man cave! You will have to put some images on once its all finished as would be nice to see the finished rooms :-)

Put a lock on the man cave until everything is finished, or you never will! (Hubby is jealous you have a man cave - his is also the dining room!)

Did u paint tiles