I think I've given up - Living Room v Man
User
7 years ago
Often, after a big clean up / reorganisation / new furniture buy / DIY project, I sit down and think... "Yes, I really love our home. It's perfect now, there's nothing else to do."
And then my other half waltzes in the room, leaving a blazing trail of mess and destruction behind him.
I think I have or am very close to giving up on improving our home. Seeing as I'm new here, I'll give you a brief description of our living quarters:
We moved here in late June of this year, leaving behind what was a terrible one bed flat and downsizing to a large, ground floor, studio flat with a garden. Sounds crazy to downsize but it was worth it... not only do we now have a large garden full of design possibilities, we have what is or could be a beautiful home.
The bathroom and kitchen are not the best but that's easily "tarted up" so to speak. The most important area especially as it's a studio flat is of course the living room and bedroom. Our bedroom is perfect - after a huge fight along the lines of "no, we are not having it open plan and no, we are not putting every item of furniture slap bang up against the walls" I'm glad to say I finally won and even he loves the room! My bedroom set is a vintage wardrobe and two very light lavender tall chest of drawers (with crystal handles, I love this set!) which I have used to separate the bedroom from the living room by placing them directly at the foot of our white metal industrial / vintage style bed. It looks wonderful.
Now... here is the problem. Our living room. I hate it. The whole house is painted white to keep it bright and airy, we have dark wood floors and lovely tall double windows/doors to the garden which let in tons of light. Instead of curtains I have used self adhesive vinyl in a frosted glass effect with a kinda white floral pattern to allow as much light in as possible. Curtains / blinds were making the space feel too cluttered.
Our furniture is ok... but... Unless I get rid of my boyfriend or win the lottery to purchase brand new furniture, there's not much I can do to stop this room going bad.
For example, I bought a white Ikea Klippan sofa only 1 month ago. I got this for the sole purpose of upholstering and changing the legs, plus it was the only sofa that would fit through our door! Within one month, the white sofa is filthy. So I've removed the cover and upholstered it in a vintage light blue flora fabric. Only one week later it is completely ruined by my other half and his cousin who are typical manly men who like to lay and roll all over the sofa.
Regardless of me buying really lovely coasters from Sass & Belle, there is a lovely assortment of water / hot cup marks on our 1960s coffee table.
He then convinced me to sell my original 1940s armchair and I'm now stuck with these two large, round, bamboo cane wicker contraption, armchairs which look ok but I hate them.
So... my options are to throw out my other half, rob a bank to buy a whole new living room, or to live in a miserable flat of black, chrome and leather to prevent damage and for easy cleaning.
Any advice as to what to do with this he'll hole will be much appreciated. I'm considering dying our white sofa a charcoal grey and completely redesigning the awful wicker armchairs by upholstering and essentially turning them into proper fabric armchairs.
We've got too much furniture and it's all mismatched now, all different woods - should I paint or stain them all the same colour? Or should I pick a few different colours from the same range and paint each item a different colour / shade? Should I stick to pastels and duck eggs or go bright and bold?
My main problem is this bloody sofa and horrific armchairs, if I can get these right, the rest will easily fall in to place.
But until them I'm at a loss as to what to do.
I've attached a photo of the much hated armchairs.
And then my other half waltzes in the room, leaving a blazing trail of mess and destruction behind him.
I think I have or am very close to giving up on improving our home. Seeing as I'm new here, I'll give you a brief description of our living quarters:
We moved here in late June of this year, leaving behind what was a terrible one bed flat and downsizing to a large, ground floor, studio flat with a garden. Sounds crazy to downsize but it was worth it... not only do we now have a large garden full of design possibilities, we have what is or could be a beautiful home.
The bathroom and kitchen are not the best but that's easily "tarted up" so to speak. The most important area especially as it's a studio flat is of course the living room and bedroom. Our bedroom is perfect - after a huge fight along the lines of "no, we are not having it open plan and no, we are not putting every item of furniture slap bang up against the walls" I'm glad to say I finally won and even he loves the room! My bedroom set is a vintage wardrobe and two very light lavender tall chest of drawers (with crystal handles, I love this set!) which I have used to separate the bedroom from the living room by placing them directly at the foot of our white metal industrial / vintage style bed. It looks wonderful.
Now... here is the problem. Our living room. I hate it. The whole house is painted white to keep it bright and airy, we have dark wood floors and lovely tall double windows/doors to the garden which let in tons of light. Instead of curtains I have used self adhesive vinyl in a frosted glass effect with a kinda white floral pattern to allow as much light in as possible. Curtains / blinds were making the space feel too cluttered.
Our furniture is ok... but... Unless I get rid of my boyfriend or win the lottery to purchase brand new furniture, there's not much I can do to stop this room going bad.
For example, I bought a white Ikea Klippan sofa only 1 month ago. I got this for the sole purpose of upholstering and changing the legs, plus it was the only sofa that would fit through our door! Within one month, the white sofa is filthy. So I've removed the cover and upholstered it in a vintage light blue flora fabric. Only one week later it is completely ruined by my other half and his cousin who are typical manly men who like to lay and roll all over the sofa.
Regardless of me buying really lovely coasters from Sass & Belle, there is a lovely assortment of water / hot cup marks on our 1960s coffee table.
He then convinced me to sell my original 1940s armchair and I'm now stuck with these two large, round, bamboo cane wicker contraption, armchairs which look ok but I hate them.
So... my options are to throw out my other half, rob a bank to buy a whole new living room, or to live in a miserable flat of black, chrome and leather to prevent damage and for easy cleaning.
Any advice as to what to do with this he'll hole will be much appreciated. I'm considering dying our white sofa a charcoal grey and completely redesigning the awful wicker armchairs by upholstering and essentially turning them into proper fabric armchairs.
We've got too much furniture and it's all mismatched now, all different woods - should I paint or stain them all the same colour? Or should I pick a few different colours from the same range and paint each item a different colour / shade? Should I stick to pastels and duck eggs or go bright and bold?
My main problem is this bloody sofa and horrific armchairs, if I can get these right, the rest will easily fall in to place.
But until them I'm at a loss as to what to do.
I've attached a photo of the much hated armchairs.
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Comments (27)
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7 years ago
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Comments (49)Tani I really love your cabinet it adds so much warmth to the room with the dark navy and I don't feel it clashes with your floor at all. I like your animal skin rug but perhaps a larger one in Tan and creamy white would help pull the woodwork, metal vase and floor together and give it nice balance. Not sure what colours you like but you could try some velvet or textured oranges with the navy as the tones are similar to the wood and then add some neutral beige or cream with it. Have you tried your mirror above your new cabinet it may help the balance with the TV one the opposite side. I feel a mantle peace will make a difference in white or antique white. Then add a canvas or painting that has all the tones you decide on in your room with some strong accent colours like the orange with the greens and yellows from your other rooms that will tie the two together. What ever you decide on I'm sure you will have fun. Take your time and good luck, most of all have some fun with it....See MoreBasement Man Room Required
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Comments (20)I'd say we all want to live in that lovely house we passed whilst on the way to go brambling with a jam jar in our hand and high hopes of a good day. Maybe it was the gates, or the gravel driveway that appealed, and it even had stone pillers and Georgian windows . And I'd wait and stare, and wait and stare curious about who lived there and hoping they'd drive out allowing me a quick glimpse of another world. Them. Then I'd feel ashamed stood there in my jumble-sale-new clothes, bothered that perhaps someone might come out and ask me what was I doing. I learnt it was a very rich person home, a shipbuilder who owned a shipping fleet and I wanted to copy him, if he could do it- then so could I. So that man and that lovely house blighted my life for the best, and it still does. I love this house and stop outside it whenever I pass by. I'm heart broken, and I'm a big strong man and big strong men are not allowed to cry. That adopted house is my comfort blanket, my home, and I go to sleep and it becomes mine.This is my lounge, this my garden, this gate is mine, and please come in when you go brambling. Don't walk on by, share it with me, you can adopt upstairs or the fireplaces, or ceiling coving and florals, I won't mind....See MoreDesign dilemma #living room
Comments (15)Sukiharrison and Odd job Hadyman, Thank you very much for your comments :) We actually intended to have the sofa on the opposite wall and built in cabinets and shelves exactly like you've suggested but I absolutely loved this big L shape sofa so desided to have it as it is now. There is no problem to move one part of the sofa to the opposite wall and the other to the wall against the window, but for now this is more convenient lay out. The shelves have to wait for now but I imagine them in white. After hearing a few suggestions about the secondary light by the window I will probably listen to the pros and remove it In favour of a floor or table lamp. No curtains.. For now :) I have a big thing about dust and would like this house to be as easy to clean as possible and generally don't like curtails Over radiators. Thou I understand this will affect the appearance I'd like to keep it simple....See More
Kit O
7 years agominnie101
7 years agoHi. I might go with either this colour palette or swap the deep teal for grey. It should then allow you to find a replacement cover in either the teal or grey so marks aren't visible. Also trying add a washable throw over the arm where your boyfriend sits and cushions on your side, You could try dyeing yours but they can be picked up cheaply (am just thinking you may need a lot of dye and salt so it could work out the same price). A pattern using those colours would also work as they're meant to disguise marks. I'd also paint the chair and swap the cover. I can see you like birds so you could have a feature wallpaper to further zone the living space? Do you have a large mirror to make the space feel bigger? Something floor standing behind the sofa might suit your style? I'd stain the table and maybe add glass ( will revert re safety!). Pics will be good for other ideas though
- PRO
User
7 years agoHi Alison,
The good news, you can do this.
The bad news, it going to require drastic action.
Stage One
Pick a good day and empty the room out completely, furniture, empty cupboards, "everything".......... Once the room is cleared, spend some time to look at the space you have created, then, start to move things back in one by one. You need to be ruthless with your decisions, only bring in the pieces you like, nothing else comes back in...
Stage Two
You obviously don't like the cane chairs, no matter how much time and money you spend on them they will always be the chairs you don't like. Take the big decision while your in the mood for change and sell them, replace them with something you like.
Stage Three
Train the other half (LOL)........ Can't help you with that, way beyond the skills of an interior designer.
Hope that helps,,Martin: www.angel-martin.com
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7 years agoWe may not share artistic values but we do share one good thing... love and our life together - he's simply your typical man who loves to lounge around even when covered in dirt! We may have completely different ideas for our home but he is a good egg :)
Anyway I do believe we have found common ground... surprisingly he really likes my idea of using grey with bright colours. We have agreed that as long as I stop forcing him to endure flamingos or similar, he will put up with me buying vintage and completely unnecessary furniture.
He's said I can do whatever I want with those awful armchairs... WIN!
I think we are going with man friendly greys meets pops of colour/vintage. It's pay day next week and I simply can't wait any longer!!
Having said that... some ideas for what style of vintage and arrangements will be wonderful!
Here is the photo from my kitchen door - anything attached to the walls were already there from the previous residents and will be removed... such as the mirror which isn't in line with that hideous folding table and the strange religious wall in the corner.... plus the half finished wallpaper on the chimney breast lol.
x
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