As mentioned in a previous post, as a joint birthday from my mum, Joe & I decided that we’d love a carpet for the lounge. This way, when we get the Christmas tree up in a week or so, this room will look so cosy, and pretty much finished. So it was a race against the clock….
We needed to:
- Clear out all the rubbish we had been storing in there (bathroom stuff, unpacked boxes etc)
- Decide what colour we wanted the walls and actually paint them!
- Order the carpet.
So, first thing’s first. Here is how the room looked when we officially got the keys to the house in August.
In the month before we moved into the house, we had an emergency DIY session, which included lots of family, and plenty of jobs done:
The chipboard wallpaper was removed. The ceiling was re-boarded. The entire room was plastered. The electrics were re-done. The gas fireplace was removed. Radiators were fitted with the central heating. The floors were stripped back to the floorboards. The walls were painted plain old white.
We were then able to move in our furniture and start living there. So, up to a week ago, this is what our living room looked like (please pardon the mess. This picture was taken when we had just moved in!)
Here’s what we did in this last week…
Painted the room.
Our good friends Rik & Becky (and baby Skye) bought us a B&Q voucher as a moving in pressie so we decided to use it for paint. After all, it would be silly to get the carpet in and then paint the walls (thanks you three!).
We decided to go with Natural Hessian from Dulux for the whole room. It’s a lovely neutral with a hint of brown, and it’s still light unlike some of the other “light” browns we tested. Although it was the same Dulux range as the green we used in the main bedroom, it didn’t go on as easily. It needed at least two coats, as it looked really patchy with just one. (It was also very much like the colour of plaster with just one coat. If we’d have wanted that, we would have stuck with the skimmed walls!)
Thanks to Joe’s parents, we discovered this edging brush (again from Dulux. Christ, I sound like a salesperson for them! It’s just a coincidence that it’s all the same brand!).
I have such shaky hands and I’m just awful at the edges of walls, but this brush made it look less like a child’s scribbles. It really helped.
Order everything
We ordered the underlay from a great website which sold it at trade price. I think, if we had ordered it through where we ordered the actual carpet, underlay would have cost about £150. On this site though, we got it for approx £70, including delivery. I do love a bargain.
Get out of the way so we can get a carpet!
On Saturday morning, the carpet fitters arrived. After some heavy lifting from me & Joe (okay so it was mostly Joe), making sure everything was out of the room, we left them to it.
It almost felt like we were moving again, as we had to pack up everything – including our dvds/blu-rays/games case. There are hundreds in there and we had to whack out the cardboard boxes again. Oh well! It means I got to re-alphabetise them. <geek>
The carpet is absolutely gorgeous. I love it.
The room feels complete. It actually feels warm now that we’re not cutting our feet up on floorboards. It goes without saying that this room will be a strictly no-shoes area! Particularly whilst the dirty kitchen next door is still falling apart. The room looks bigger and the first thing I did when the fitting was complete, was do a stop, drop, and roll – like the grown up that I am.
Now all we need to finish the room is add the obvious – finishing touches.
We’ve asked for a few bits and bobs for Christmas, such as picture frames for example. If we get them, fantastic. If not, we will hit the sales in January. Either way, this room will be finished in the New Year.
There are still a few things we want to do in here, such as get blinds, curtains, and swap that window at the back for uPVC one, but these will come in time.
For the time being, we will “finish” the room next weekend, when we get our Christmas decorations up, for our first Chrimo in the house. I’m sure there will be pictures to follow. I think we’ve done really well in only three months.
Karen x
