This year I had Christmas at mine. It was the first I have ever hosted and gave me the motivation required to complete the lounge.  Various people came over Christmas, mum and dad, the brother, Auny Lou, the American cousins and then I threw a NY dinner party for 9, so it definitely had to be looking its best, especially as I’m a bit house proud.

 

In September when Aunty Lou came for lunch, she offered to pay for some lampshades as a house warming gift for the lounge, perhaps it was a subtle way to say a naked bulb is not a good look.. I eventually found norm 06 on Achica and a yellow metal shade on Amazon.  The Norman Copenhagen is a work of art, it’s like a giant origami flower hanging from the ceiling. It arrived flat packed and took 3 h to construct. The other just arrived in a box. I wanted to hang the norm 06 over my dining table but the ceiling rose was not in the right place. After some internet searching and a visit to the Kings road habitat, i found that people were using hooks and longer flex to change the location of lights and thus some turquoise electric flex was bought. Fortunately the dad is a dab hand with electrics so he job on Boxing Day was to do the lounge light re-wiring. He also mended my doorbell, which I had realised wasn’t even ding donging.

 

A second area was the patio door.  It was my aim to get curtains in time for winter, to try and be more energy efficient.   I also wanted to make them myself but I just couldn’t find the right thing. I was looking for something bright with a geometric pattern, I did find one fabric by flock in Liberty of London, but at £70 a metre, they’d of cost me ~£1500. So I had to make a sacrifice and eventually purchased a pair from John Lewis in bird on wire fabric, they are grey with white, grey and yellow birds. The patio door width is 2.9 m, so 4 curtains are required, I currently only have 2 as I want a pair of white curtains in the centre.  However, you won’t believe how hard it is to find a white pencil pleat curtain with a cotton lining. 

The previous owner left the curtain pole but it was shiny brass, originally I was going to just bin it, but then I couldn’t find a 3 m long pole that was a) nice and b) not ridiculously priced.  So in the end I just spray painted it bright yellow.  Stupidly I decided to do the spray painting in the 3rd bedroom, who knew yellow paint could travel so far, every surface I have cleaned since seems to have a yellow film.  So my next paint spraying project (the world sprayed onto hessian fabric) will have to wait until summer, when I can do it in the garden.  I’ve definitely learnt my lesson.  

The finally job was to repair, paint and hang the hatch doors. They had been screwed shut for a good number of years and so had 8 holes and no hinges. But other than that they seemed fine, so I filled, sanded, painted and added some yellow knobs.  The great thing about them is I can no longer hear the washing machine when watching tv.

The new sofa eventually arrived in December, unfortunately due to poor quality control by Laura Ashley only three feet could be screwed in, in the fourth corner the thread had not been put into the sofa. I accepted the sofa and its currently on the floor with no feet as I needed somewhere for guests to sit over Christmas. It’s going to be replaced in February, let’s hope Laura Ashley do better this time! On a positive note I like the fabric and it goes with the room.

The total cost was £1536.88, it feels cosy and homely and I’m very happy with it.

 

Cost breakdown

Art

IKEA prints and frames £ 35.74

Ski-ing print £21.60

Decorating

2.5 L white eggshell gloss £12.38

5 L masonry paint £ 16.99

7.5 L Farrow and ball Pavilion Grey £99

10 L white emulsion £15.98 

Plastikote spray paint £23.97

Frog tape £14

 

Furniture

Bookcase drawers £32

Chairs: 8 at £19.20 each plus delivery = £208

High gloss white table £280

Laura Ashley large 2 seater sofa £560

 

Lighting

Blue lighting flex 3 m £15

Desk lamp £5

Norman collagen norm 06 £30

Tripod lamp £5

Yellow metal shade £17.99

Soft furnishings and accessorises

Bin £1

Clock £11.25

Curtains rings x 40 £3.00

Hatch knobs £1.98

John Lewis curtains £95

Placemats £ 32

Grand total = £1536.88