Bringing Warmth to My Living Room

We have a huge living room. Almost everyone who comes here comments on how deceptively big it is. The reality is it’s like a living room and dining room in one, but the space is used well. However, our heating isn’t great – the nasty air vent kind – only two in the house; upstairs and downstairs.

In summer it’s a lovely room to be in – with the windows open and the sun streaming in it’s a room which has a nice coolness to it – neutral decor with just our photos on the walls to decorate. In the winter, however, it gets really cold.  Even with the Christmas tree up it isn’t as cosy as it should be.

We rent but own all our furniture – so if we’re going to make changes they have to be on our property. We were set a challenge with HomeServe to bring warmth to a room in our house so we decided on our living room as it’s where we all spend the most time.

Living Room - Before

We were given a £50 B&Q voucher to put towards the changes, so yesterday after school H and I went shopping.

Our walls are a lovely shade of what I’ve always called ‘landlord paint’ (I believe it’s magnolia), the floor a neutral brown-y grey. Our settees are both blue and I have cushions on those in varying shades of purple, burgundy and beige with plenty of spotty designs. If we’re going to bring warmth to our room we’re going to need to use some bright colours and some clever lighting. Shaun fondly calls the living room ‘my office’, as I have everything around me I need – files never get put away as I need them on a daily basis to stay on top of everything. So I picked up a fabric storage box. What I need is something that holds my school files, slanket, iPad chargers and anything else that just lived on the floor or the back of the chair. While it’s not the tidiest box in the world it now keeps all my things in one place.

After umming and aahing for a day I had to buy this floor light – it was one of those purchases-to-be that refused to go away. I love it. It brings warmth to the room just by being on. I want to curl up on the settee and drink hot chocolate with marshmallows floating on the top. You know the kind of thing?  We sat with the lights off, with the new light and the christmas tree on last night, watching a spot of Vintage TV. Dare I say it? It was pretty cosy in the room.

Settee - now

I bought a fluffy pink throw. Shaun thought it’d be a bit bright but it adds colour without being too odd. It suits the burgundy cushions too – plus it’s got a fluffy texture to it which is quite nice for lying on when you fancy a tv night.

After that I decided our cushions needed some love. I picked up a couple of cushion inners from The Fabric Warehouse and two new purple ones to go on the settees. No longer do we have flat lifeless cushions you have to fold in half to feel any kind of difference – we have big squishy ones again!

Living room - after

As far as doing things which don’t cost a lot, the light was on the pricier side at £49.99 – but it’s sturdy which is important when you’ve a four year old around. I was able to pick up everything else at a discount – the cushions were £5 each and the inners were £8 (it’s their largest size). That works out a lot cheaper than buying two new large cushions. The throw had 50% off as well! But never mind this waffle, why not see for yourself how things are different? We made a video. I’m not very good at doing commentaries.

This is our entry for the HomeServe Winter Blogger Competition. We received a £50 B&Q voucher to take part.

4 Comments

    1. Thanks! It’s been the first time in ages I’ve fallen asleep on the settee in the evening – it’s so comfy and cosy now!

      Fingers crossed, and thank you! x

      Reply

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