Here are some more before we bought it photos.

The other day however we decided we have had enough of the black wallpaper and started picking at it. To our amazement and delight, the darn stuff came off really easily.

This really spurred us on to think about what we could do with the space. We have to start with the fireplace as I don't want to lose it. But we do think it is original with the tiled hearth. We may be wrong but can't really afford to replace it anyway.

The laminate board in front is what we are putting over the floorboards. Ideally we would sand and repaint but the office chairs are doing bad things to the floorboards so I want to protect them.

Now to the reason for the post title (at last I hear you cry!) We popped into a handmade furniture shop today expecting to see really nice stuff that was completely unaffordable. Then I saw this.

A teal velvet chesterfield. A lovely thing and quite a lot of money. We got collared by the sales lady, who turned out to be the owner. Got chatting and mentioned how lovely the sofa was. She then said she would sell it to us for £500. Bearing in mind this is hand made, by her husband in the workshop out the back of the shop, is about 2m wide and 1 m deep, so not small. She needed it out of the showroom so she can bring a different model in. It was on sale for ages but no one wanted it.

So it's going to come home to us on free delivery and after they have re-stuffed the cushions for us to make them a bit firmer.

We now have our statement pieces for the room.

I think the walls will be painted white, mainly because I can't think of a colour that goes with that fireplace and the fireplace tiles. We have billy bookcases (yes more of these darn things) that we will get partially glazed doors for to make a more clutter free look. The picture above the fireplace is one I have had for years so I want it to stay somewhere in the room. Not sure about above the fireplace though.

Any thoughts or opinions on wall colour/accessory colour are very welcome. At the moment I am leaning to yellow and orange as accents on cushions and lights but happy to hear other suggestions. Here is a quick photoshop the lovely OH did to show what we were thinking of:

Will post more as we start clearing and decorating.

A bargain sofa! i like the floor you've chosen but was just wondering if you've tried the castor cups on the links for the chairs (I haven't but reviews look good) If you wanted to keep the original floor? I don't think I'd go white for the walls, the below pic is ammonite which might work. I would look at the colours shown in the picture below for accent colours

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MagiGLIDE-ULTIMATE-furniture-protection-Designflooring/dp/B003WJFYPC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

I know this sounds a complete bodge but as you want to keep the fire, I wonder if you'd consider tile decals just for either side of the fire? (Or is it a working fire?) Just thinking a pattern could help to break up the solid bands of colour

Love the library btw, I've got this fornasetti tumbler next to a decanter (just the one as they're dear!) it made me think of your library!

Thanks for the ideas Minnie. We will certainly get the castor cups for the sofa, however the office chairs need to move around.

That picture with the ammonite on the walls is really lovely. Unfortunately we don't have nearly as much light coming in and ammonite looks very similar to the pale grey already on the walls which makes the room feel a bit dark and cold (just checked against the F&B card). The window is east facing but quite small for the room size so I need to maximise light in the right way.

Love the accent colour pic, rich golds and rusts would sit very well with the fireplace, thank you!

Ooh, just seen your tile suggestions, thank you.

I have actually painted the tiles then taken the paint off because it looked terrible. Problem with decals is the marble is really busy and introducing more pattern is tricky. Here's a close up of the marble:

Apparently turquoise was a 'thing' in Edwardian houses.

https://www.oldfireplaces.co.uk/product/edwardian-tiled-combination-fireplace-1849tc/#

https://www.flickr.com/photos/roath_park_mark/98366783/in/photostream/

I think those castors are for gliding so suitable for office chairs, moving furniture etc, may be worth a look anyway to protect the new floor? The marble colour is lovely. Ive just found some pics of marble fires with patterned tiles to see what you think , I don't think the tiles can be original as they don't complement the fire? Maybe you could consider retiling? Maybe try skimming stone for the walls?

We thought they weren't original either, but as you can see from the links above it was a 'thing' and the first link shows a fireplace with the same tiles, from the same time and in the Midlands area. Circumstantial evidence perhaps but it is not the only thing I have found to suggest they are original. Just put in by someone with interesting colour sense!

Removing them is not a job I want to do because of the mess and time. So I am going to work with them. The OH wants to laminate over the hearth tiles too but I can't see how to do that without it looking too odd.

Thank you Lomuarredi for the lovely desk suggestions but we do have desks already. One thing I find hard to reconcile with stylish desk suggestions though is the fact that they work if you only have a suitably stylish/minimalist computer. As I am more of a great big brick under the desk type to run my 3 old monitors I have to have something a bit more substantial and less form over function :)

Thanks for the suggestions shjuly71, some lovely colour combos there. Re the floorboard, the office chairs are chewing them up so even if they were sanded etc., they would still get damaged. I am pretty set on the laminate to protect them.

The sofa is lovely but very strong, so I would go for something like a deep browny olive on the walls which would be very warm. Bright blue and olive go well together as these photos show.

Very striking colour combo Colourhappy, thank you. Unfortunately it would darken the room too much. I would certainly consider a white in that kind of tone though. Hmm, lots to consider!

I didn't see the links before! I can't photoshop but better or worse? Are they 10x10 tiles?

Little greene have quite a large range of neutrals and for most colours list the light reflectance value

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/594378714/ps00167-cancun-pvc-tiles-for-bathroom?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=tile%20stickers&ref=sc_gallery-1-1&plkey=5961bf314263f79565b81f0ea02b3e7d8993d9b5:594378714

They are nice Minnie! The OH is just looking at them now. Currently taking a break from sloshing 5litres of white emulsion everywhere. Good grief, the place has brightened up! Lol!

I think you see the fireplace with them more? Busy day then! maybe some more photos when you're done?

The last 2 days have been plain old hard work decorating. 3 coats of emulsion, Socket rewiring (more Schnieder sockets put in!) sanding, undercoating and glossing all the woodwork Johnstones Aqua stuff is pretty nice to use but the prep took a bit of doing. Today we have laid the grey laminate floor. The room is actually a negative of it's previous colour! Got a laminate cutter from b&q, brutal but does the job with relatively little mess.

Here's the room before the laminate. The brightness makes the fireplace tiles very vibrant so we are keeping them and going for a bright colour blocking style.

Last night we finished most of the decorating, just a few snagging bits to do. So we decided to play. :) We put the Ikea grey cabinet together and reassembled the office desks. I dug out another print I have had for years by Delauney and popped it on the fireplace, it looks as if it was made to be there! The coffee table is a one off by a local furniture maker from an off cut of sycamore. It's never looked right where we had it but in this room it's found a home. The mustard yellow blanket under it is to represent a rug, I think it works pretty well. More things to sort including taking the door off and planing the bottom as it's catching on the floor and putting up shelves to make a cat superhighway to a hidey hole on the built in cupboard but I really like how this is coming together now.

View from the door.

From the built in cupboard.

From the window.

Just wanted to say thanks again for all the response, ideas and encouragement. You guys are awesome.

Love the transformation T Gray! It looks fantastic, definitely all coming together!

It's nearly there, we are just putting the rest of our study crap back in behind the new ikea billy bookcase doors. Oh, FYI, for anyone else doing this, please be aware that IKEA in their wisdom have changed the Billy bookcase design. So if like us you have older bookcases (pre 2014) the new doors WON'T fit. Luckily we had 2 in the library that were the later design so that was a lovely afternoon removing all the books, swapping bookcases and putting everything back!

We are now waiting on a custom blind for the window. Once that's in I will pop up a couple of completed photos.

Thanks, guys. It's nearly there. Just filling the Billy bookcases with all our study stuff now the doors are on. FYI, IKEA have changed the design of Billy, so if you have old bookcases the new doors won't fit. Luckily we had two of the new style in the library. That was an interesting afternoon taking all the books out, swapping the bookcases and putting everything back together! We are just waiting on a new custom blind to arrive, then I will take some completed photos and post them up.

Just had another look at your fireplace. It's fantastic.

It reminds me a little of a Victorian marble fireplace I bought with the unfulfilled intention to install it in our home but later, sadly, sold it again. Still hurts thinking about it... But that's another story... :)