first house! help me paint and buy furniture for living/dining

3 years ago

We have just moved into our first home and are slowly starting to repaint and furnish the place.

It is a modern home but we are trying to make it more cozy and less grey. Especially this room.
Looking for suggestions on paint colours and furniture that would work well in the space bearing in mind we have two cats and a dog.

Useful info for future plans:
-Loveseat was a temporary fox until shops opened and we get something ordered. Thinking of getting a L-shaped sectional in a peacock or dark blue velvet.
-replacing tv with a large wall mounted one and removing tv stand.
-little rug will go
-coffee table can stay or be moved to second office/lounge room

Our style
I like modern, mid century but also classic and antiques. I prefer natural materials and like rich colours. I want to inject some colour and personality in this space. A bit of sophisticated drama while still being classic of that makes sense.

Paint colours:
Having a hard time picking the perfect blue. I’ll love one colour in bright light like in the photo, another in dark daylight and another in artificial light. Are there better blues that would work? Also open to teals.

Stiffkey blue farrow and ball
Hague blue farrow and ball
Inchyra blue farrow and ball
Smalt Craig and rose
Deep ultramarine dulux heritage
Sapphire salute dulux

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Comments (7)

Jonathan
3 years ago
Great room I understand your excitement to get started.

For me I think that decorating is the last job and you need to make some decisions first.

If it were my house I would swap the radiator by the kitchen door for a narrower one. I might also rehang the door into the hall because when open now it obstructs the door to the kitchen. Personally I think the lighting needs reconsidering as the spotlight position is a little odd and I think the droplet light fitting is out of proportion. I think you should have one ceiling pendant that works with your mid century vibe and then table lights and standard lamps which are more comfortable to live with especially in an evening watching tv.

I think where you have the two dining chairs is an obvious place for furniture and perhaps an extra socket here would be useful.

Tv area- given there is no fireplace I think you might find a TV on its own on the wall too plain and you should consider if you want to make a feature of your tv with a media unit, a mid century lowboard or fireplace feature with electric flame effect fire and recessed tv.

And I think the idea of a bold colour oversized sofa sounds spot on. But I wonder if it choosing an equally strong wall colour may make it lose its impact. Try to find some images of rooms you like to emulate their look. Houzz has a wealth of pictures that you can save.

Only when you have a plan for the other elements can you decide on the wall colour (for instance the choice of colours for the sofa may be limited so don’t decide on wall colour until you have chosen that).

You should also consider it you are going to paint the whole room or an accent wall as the previous people have done- personally I think it depends on what furniture you choose for the tv wall as you may decide a mid century piece sits better on a pale coloured wall.

Given you don’t like the grey you might also be thinking of replacement blinds- if you did decide to replace them Venetians blinds are a great choice for a room with lots of glass as they can control sunlight and they fit your mid century vibe- your choice of wood or white might influence your wall colour.

Right now I think you should be making the room your own by painting the grey wall you don’t like - paint it white so you have a blank canvass and then concentrate on the big elements like the electrician and the sofa and tv wall and then make the wall colour work with these choices.
Jonathan
3 years ago
When you search for images you like try to see if there are themes you like..... for instance do you particularly like images of bold sofas when they are in rooms painted sultry black, clean and bright white or a more bohemian mix of colour?
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And another person agreeing...DO keep the fireplace. People in the future will be grateful. It's the natural focal point, and the tiling looks original. What a gift! I love your ideas about dark colours, and the teal sofa suggestion is genius - teal references and tones with green but also subdues the effect. Two sofas is a great idea; its an elegant and efficient way to seat 4 and no-one ever wants to sit in the middle of a larger one - it makes conversation impossible. One tip is to place them NOT right against a wall if possible. Pull them into the room even if only a little way, making sure you have enough circulation space between them and a coffee table Paradoxically, space behind a sofa implies a larger room. Alternatively, and I know this works, you don't have to have a coffee table between them, but can use side tables. I also agree that a TV above a fireplace is a very bad idea. It looks unsophisticated, it's harder to change when you want a new, or no, TV, and the angle of viewing is all wrong. A big black screen is not what should dominate your sitting room - which is going to be great. How exciting to be planning your first home.
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Kate R
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks Johnathan. You’ve given me a lot to think about. We have other priorities money wise so won’t be able to do anything more than paint and furnish the room for now. We have thought about putting in an electric fireplace and think it would be a nice feature in the room.

I see what you mean about the door blocking the kitchen. If we rehang it though then it would be blocking the under stairs cupboards where coats and shoes are kept. I guess we can experiment and see what we prefer.

I agree with your point about getting the sofa first and then picking the paint. Find it hard to choose one or the other when I’m looking at paint and sofa fabric samples at the same time.

The pot lights are in a giant circle around the large light fixture in the middle of the room. I can see how they would look strange when you can’t see the whole thing together.

Of the three sofa images you posted, I think I like the first one best. We are currently painting the master bedroom in oval room blue and we’re wondering if it would work in the living room too. I think it might. Thanks for all your help, I think we’ll choose the sofa first and then go back to the drawing board for paint. Thanks
Kate R
Original Author
3 years ago
Forgot to say, I don’t hate grey, I just think it is very overdone in this room. The curtains, carpet and one wall is grey, even the “white” walls feel a bit grey to me. Hopefully cheaper fixes like furniture and paint is enough to make it more cheery.
Jonathan
3 years ago
Equally how you imagine the tv wall might influence how you paint too.
Jonathan
3 years ago
If the carpet is grey if probably affects the light quality and so the wall might feel a bit grey or faded. I think painting the grey wall white would help enormously.

Considering you were drawn to the boho look a quick fix could be to add big house plants (as tall as a person) and later change the wall colour when you have got the sofa.
Jonathan
3 years ago
In response to something you said..... furniture is rarely a cheaper fix than getting a minor thing fixed.... a new radiator could be done when you have your boiler serviced and by combining these jobs the radiator might only be a £80 job.

An electrician could have all the spotlights out and a new pendant light hung in no time making their labour only a £100 job..... although I concede the need to fill the holes which means a good decorator (or plasterer)at £160 per day.

Because it’s your first home home you might never have called in trades people before and be nervous of if- however you will find they can achieve a better finish than you can in much less time. The moto is don’t try to work around anything that might be a problem..... get it sorted and deal with the disruption before you buy lovely new furniture and while you have less stuff to move out of the way.