Yellow (and some grey) lounge makeover Reveal

No sooner have we finished painting our walls, choosing accessories and marvelling at our new yellow and grey space then I read that this year green is the new yellow. Always late to the party should be my tagline. I daren’t tell Mr C that I am now craving a little bit of green. Luckily, our new house means that there are still plenty of white walls that are begging for a splash of green paint! I’m thinking the hallway….

I should have taken a before picture but to be honest before we started painting our wall it was already covered in a hop potch of yellow paint samples. It took us a while and in the end we used Valsper at B&Q to get the yellow we wanted. Our room is very dark so we wanted a yellow that lifts the room but also doesn’t hurt your eyes. Easier said than done! The above painting was the picture that inspired the colour choice. We liked the yellow of the taxis but we worried that a yellow theme might be too much. However, we were wrong to worry as we have been surprised by how changing the colour of one wall has made such a massive difference and we love it.

It is now a room that we are happy to spend time in and the colour of the wall can’t help but lift your mood. This was important to me as the dining room table is currently doubling as my office work space.

Our kitchen has grey cupboards which was also the inspiration behind the grey and yellow colour scheme. To link the yellow in from the living/dining room space we added yellow accessories. We bought yellow tea towels and oven gloves from amazon as well as a yellow washing up bowl. These little touches really worked and are very inexpensive. My favourite accessory is our very cool new radio. The yellow is perfect and it now means that I can listen to the radio in the morning when we are making the breakfast.

In the living room we bought cushions and a throw from BHS. Ideally we would buy a new grey sofa. The reality is that this is a luxury we can’t justify, especially with two little ones. But the cushions have really helped link the whole room together.

I wanted to create a homely feel and the big, squashy cushions really help with this. We all like squashing on the sofa, amongst the cushions. Mr C likes them and he is not a cushion man, normally he despises them and
curses my love for cushions. I also love the lamp which we bought when we first moved in. Hopefully, it won’t date, although if it was on trend it would be copper! However, the light is ideal for us because you can move it round, depending on if you are working at the table or sitting reading on the sofa.

We invested in a throw to add to our collection as we normally end up fighting over the red one, which quite frankly is very past its best. This throw has a lovely feel and we have already snuggled under it whilst having a StarWars marathon. Bliss.

We also decided that we needed a nicer door stop as our doors just swing shut and the slamming is giving me a headache! He doesnt really fit in with the colour scheme but I couldn’t resist as he is very cute. The only problem is that the little ones have taken to picking him up and carrying him around. Hence more slamming doors. With our settee we have a big pouffe which has become a bit of a dumping ground. I decided to make it a bit more of a feature and with my brother visiting from Norway I decided to make him a festive, nordic tray.

Again the greys tie in with the colour scheme. As this was for Christmas I used some festive potpourri which made the room smell lovely. When the little ones are in their bed we light the candles, all very pretty! I’m not sure if it is very nordic but I was going for a nordic house in a little forest look.

The tray is also very practical because we can use it to put our coffee cups on and we still have room to put our feet up. The idea is to update the tray according to the seasons. We also have a lovely succulent in there which so far is doing ok in our dark living space. I was desperate for some greenery in the room and I read that these are pretty hardy.

I am looking forward to changing the tray with the next season. We still have a lot to do with this room. We are in desperate need of storage and we could do with some other furniture to fit the corners of our room but these things take time. For now we are very happy with the start we have made, all inspired by the yellow cabs in this picture. But now I need to start thinking about our hallway and say “yellow” to green. Sorry, that pun was appalling. I hope it didn’t leave you feeling green around the gills…