How Our Living Area Usually Looks These Days...

Before I get onto today's post, I just wanted to give an update on those lost photos of mine.  About an hour ago, I thought I'd have another go at locating them and like magic, there sitting in the folder that had been giving me grief yesterday were my missing shots!!  I don't know how it happened or why they vanished but they're back and I'm so happy!  

Anyway, today I thought I'd share some photos of how our living area typically looks lately.  With the wintry, 'stuck inside all day' weather we've been having here, when we're not out and about, the girls and I spend the majority of our time in the open plan living / meals / kitchen area.  After all, with our gas heater glowing away, it's definitely the warmest part of the house to play in.  Here's what you would typically see if you were to stop by our place lately... 

The 'clutter basket' on my bench is growing by the day.  So much so, that Paul just emailed me a moment ago to ask if I could pay the electricity account that's sitting in the middle of this basket as he just received an SMS to say it was overdue.  Oops!!  The pretty irises however aren't a typical occurrence.  Sick of seeing this end of our bench looking bare, I treated myself to a bunch the other day.

I am proud to say however that the rest of our bench remains clutter free these days.  I have been making it a priority to keep our living areas tidy and even though there are currently beds unmade and shower screens that need scrubbing, having a clear bench makes me feel SO much better.  It was becoming quite the dumping ground (one of the downsides of such a big benchtop) but usually it looks as it does above.  As for the clothes drying rack in the background, that's typical around here lately too.  We don't have a dryer, nor do we have the space to put one and so the rack above is frequently used on rainy days...

... Here's our other way of drying clothes.  With our heater on come most afternoons, I rotate items I'm desperate to dry in front of it.

As for playtime, the girls are often in the warmest spot on our rug.  Grace tips out all the baby toys and pleads for Sophie to be 'restrained' in her Bumbo so that she can build towers without her little sister destroying them.  Our Bumbo is now destined for Gumtree though as Sophie wormed her way out of it for the second time yesterday.

As soon as there's been a spot of sunshine however, I've been encouraging Grace to head outside to play.  Blowing bubbles on the patio has been a popular activity lately along with painting on her easel.

And while I'm on the subject of our living area, I thought I'd share a photo with you of what those wooden stools I sanded back and painted currently look like.  They're probably a slightly darker blue than the photo above which was taken when the light was streaming in a few mornings ago, but the one on the right is pretty true to colour.  The shade is starting to grow on me so I think I'll paint the top coat over the weekend and finally be settled with my decision.

Enjoy your afternoon everyone!  I'm off to make another cuppa and cosy up in front of our heater before the girls wake from their naps...

Drawn To Pink

Image via French Knot

Since this time last year, I have been looking to make some changes to our living area to 'finish things off' in what has for too long been a half completed part of our home considering we spend most of our time there. With a grey and white base and some touches of blue, I had been deliberating over a final colour to add some contrast. For a while, I toyed with the idea of adding yellow. However, without any yellow elsewhere in this area, it didn't seem like the right choice.

Over the last week, turning to two prints we have hanging in this area, I found my answer... pink. I won't be going overboard and adding pink items everywhere, just a few subtle touches as the pink will be more of a 'surprise colour' in this room's colour scheme.

I never used to be a huge fan of the traditional girly pink shades. As a little girl, my room was decorated in apricot (not that I had any input into that) and my favourite colour was purple. In high school, this changed into a love of all things blue, a colour which made its way into our first home and is still one I am drawn to today.

However lately, I've developed an appreciation for pink. I've been admiring some soft pink pieces to add to Grace's white and yellow room, the flowers we bought recently to add some colour to our back garden are all shades of pink and I even bought a pale pink top recently on my shopping spree (a colour which I've never had in my wardrobe).

Which colour have you found yourself drawn towards lately?

Family Friendly Living Room

It has been such bliss sitting in front of our 'fireplace' the last few nights. It really does create a warm and cosy ambience and heats up our living area beautifully. As part of our living room mini-makeover, I want to make the space a bit more ‘family friendly’ and a lot lighter and brighter. Down the track, we’ll look at getting some white in-built cabinets and shelves on either side of our new heater which will really lift this whole space but for now, we’re going to focus on the following smaller changes…

• get rid of the feature wall and re-paint the same as the other walls
  
• replace the dark grey rug with something lighter to contrast with the sofas and make some big floor cushions to provide a comfier play space for Grace
  
• add a few little pops of colour in the form of cushions and accessories
  
• remove the chunky coffee table so Grace has more room to play (one day we will get a less obtrusive one)
  
• replace canvas above fireplace with something else (possibly a family portrait)

Before I had Grace, I always thought I’d keep the kiddie clutter to a minimum. I now realise this is difficult to achieve and I actually want bits and pieces around our home to make it more ‘family friendly’, afterall, it is a place for all of us to enjoy. As Grace gets older, I’d like a little wooden table and chairs or toy kitchen around, little reminders that there are children in our house.

Here are a few images I found in my inspiration folder that hint at being family homes…

Image sources: #1 #2 unknown #3 #4 #5

Warm & Cosy House

Finally, after what seems like months of freezing in our house and after months of expensive power bills (running our little electric heater), our new Rinnai gas heater has finally been installed. We ended up choosing the Aspiration Gas Log Flame Fire and we are happy with the way it looks in our living room (excuse the poor photo above, it was difficult taking a shot at night with the reflective glass). Now we just need to touch up underneath the unit, put the skirting back on and hang our artwork back on the wall.

For the past few days, I've been battling a nasty cold so no playgroup for Grace and I today. We're going to have a nice quiet day and hopefully get outdoors and enjoy some of the sunshine that has been forecast. At least when it gets cooler this evening, we'll be able to keep warm in front of our new heater. Hope you all have a lovely day too.

Slowly Slowly

Here in our little household, work has finally started on building out our wall for our heater (which is currently waiting in its box on our patio). Mum's partner who is doing the job for us came over yesterday and started. I was so happy, I baked him his favourite dessert, apple crumble, to take home with him to enjoy.

All that is needed now are a few coats of sealer and Paul said as long as I'm willing to paint the wall on Wednesday/Thursday, I can book the heater man to come and finally install our long awaited unit anytime after Friday. Paul prefers to wait until next week but I'm desperate to have a nice glowing 'fire' next weekend and so I have volunteered to get out the paint roller. Fingers crossed all goes to plan and I'll be warm and toasty soon!!

What lovely things do you all have planned for this week?

Living Room Latest

Hi everyone. Sorry I haven’t been on here for a few days – between our new skirtings being installed and all our power points being moved, Grace and I were pretty much confined to the living room. I was also without an Internet connection for a little spell so my poor little blog has been a bit neglected. Thanks for all your get well wishes for Grace – she seems to be much better now and is almost back to her usual happy little self.

Here in Perth, we've had a record number of minimum temperatures below 5°C lately and in our little house, we're unfortunately still without a heater. The latest with our 'living room heater dying dilema' is that we have decided to go ahead and build out the section of wall required for a new in-built gas heater. I don't think the extra 30 centimetres will encroach on the room too much and either way, this step is inevitable if our vision of a glowing log-fire-look in-built heater is to come to life.

My mum's partner who is a carpenter has kindly said he can do this job for us so hopefully he can do so in the next week or so and by then, the unit we're ordering on Saturday should have arrived and can be installed. You can see our choice of heater here.

As for what to do on either side of the built out section of wall, we've decided not to rush into any decisions too soon, especially seeing as this is an expense we hadn't been expecting at the moment. With all the wonderful ideas I have gained from your comments back on this post, I will continue flicking through my mountain of interiors magazines and browsing online until I come up with the perfect design for our living area that is both practical and pleasing to the eye. In the meantime, I'll just have to keep warm on our couch snuggled up under our spare doona and try not to complain too much about how freezing it is in our house.

We do have some ideas for small changes we'd like to make to our living room in the near future which I'll share with you soon. For now, here are a few cosy looking living rooms with fireplaces I've come across so far...

Image #1 from Small Place Style

Image #2 from Ideal Home

Image #3 from Glimpse of Style

Totally Confused

Hope you have all enjoyed the weekend and are having a great start to the week. Our weekend was a lovely one which saw us order our new carpet, enjoy a lovely breakfast at Beaches Cafe in East Fremantle followed by a wander around the E Shed Markets and then potter around the house.

The gas heater man has just been to assess our living room space and totally upended what we had envisaged. It looks like the inbuilt log-fire look gas heater I had my heart set on (in a style similar to this one) is not possible unless we build out and re-plaster the section of wall where our heater is currently situated by another 300mm. My worry with this is that it will make the space appear smaller (although some low line cabinets on either side could look nice).

His only other suggestion was to put a free standing gas heater (a pot belly style looking one) in the corner where the television is. This would mean relocating the TV and at the moment, I like the fact that it is hidden from view when you first enter the living room. I don't really want a huge screen to be the first thing your eye is drawn to in this area.

It's quite ironic that we now need to rethink this space, as only last week Paul and I were discussing how we need a new lighter coloured rug and should get rid of the big coffee table so Grace would have a space to sprawl out with all her toys. Now, this unexpected heater dilema has meant we will definitely have to reconsider our living area.

I am so confused now and think I need to spend a bit of time picturing different options and thinking about how things can be changed around in our living room. I would really appreciate any of your suggestions for re-working this room as I know you all have such great decorating ideas and will think of some different options to me. Please let me know what you would do if this were your space even if it means new cabinetry or a new wall (keeping in mind the couches, television and speakers must stay in the room)...

Heating Help

Just when the early mornings and evenings have begun to get really chilly here and just when I had only yesterday thought that I should get a small electric heater to keep me warm in the study, our big living room gas heater stopped working last night.

As much as our heater was old and had been seen to by a repairman nearly every year, it did a great job of keeping our open plan living area warm and cosy so I'm keen to find a replacement that is equally efficient. We're after a built in heater with a log fire look, one with manual heat settings rather than solely a thermostat so I can keep it on as long as I like and as warm as like without it cutting off and on. Does anyone have any advice on features I should be looking for or brands you would recommend?

In the meantime, I'll be trying to keep warm this weekend with lots of layers and a cosy blanket along with plenty of hot drinks like the one above. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and enjoy whichever weather you are experiencing in your corner of the world.

Image above from Haust

Homely One House Tour - The Living Room

Extending out from our kitchen and meals area is our living room. This is where we spend most of our time in our house (although with Grace crawling, our carpeted lounge is getting its fair share of use too). It has all been repainted (goodbye ‘Iced Peach’) and has also had the tiles replaced by floorboards.

We have the main pieces of furniture for this area but it is still looking very bare. The area around the TV is definitely lacking something, especially on the wall to the right of it where the laundry door is. Our rug also blends in too much with our sofas so will one day be replaced with something a bit lighter and perhaps with a bit of texture. At the moment, I’m keeping my eyes open for new cushions to give the sofas a bit of a freshen up – am still deciding on whether to go for neutral greys and whites or bright patterns for a burst of colour.

As for our unattractive gas heater, each winter we think it will be on its last legs, only to find it pulls through for another season. At the moment, it heats up the area beautifully, but eventually it will be replaced with something more ‘pleasing to the eye’ as I think there’s nothing like a fireplace as a focal point to create a cosy feeling in a living room.

What is the focal point of your living area?