My lovely friend Karen who blogs at All about the Boys has been my inspiration this week. She has 3 boys all under 18 and loves white. Most of her house is white and it always looks immaculate. Just re-read that sentence back to yourself........Yes, that's correct she has 3 boys under 18 and lives in a white house!!!! Also, no, she isn't crazy and she tries to do it all on a budget. Check out her other blog 'The White Approach' to see just how lovely their home is.
I decided last week that my living room needed a bit of a re-vamp but I only had a budget of £30!!! Now before I show you how it worked out there is something that I should tell you about us.......a) Chick and I are both hoarders b) we are both VERY messy c) I hate cleaning and d) our house has NO storage.....like none and it's an utter pain especially when mixed with a, b and c!!!
So these are the before shots of our lounge on a usual evening when Chick has been home for more than 10 minutes:
I refer you to the points above. So armed with my £30 I hit the shops for inspiration and saw these cushions for £4 each in Primark so bought 2 and used this as my starting point:
I also had the throw to go with them which was £5:
On one of my walls I had these pictures which obviously needed changing:
The only pictures that I could find that I loved were in John Lewis but were massively out of my price range on this occasion. I'd looked all over town for something similar but cheaper and couldn't find anything when I found myself wondering the aisles in the Pound shop. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted two cushion covers that would be perfect as pictures, so I bought them and covered the old pictures and I have to say that I absolutely love the way they have turned out:
Not to everyone's taste I'm sure but I'm thrilled with them and the good thing is that if I decide to go back to brown I will still have the original pictures!!! I cut the little love hearts out from my lunch bag and added them to the picture on the left!
So with the cushions as the base I decided to go to B&Q and have the paint mixed to my exact specifications and as I only needed a small pot it was £11. It was the coolest thing ever!!!!! They scanned the cushion and then mixed it to that colour......I can't tell you how excited I was by this whole process.....sad I know :-) This is how fabulous it looks on the wall:
The other thing that the room desperately needed was a bloody good clean!!! I got rid of most of the toys that Chick no longer plays with although had to keep one corner of her stuff, threw away crap that was kept around for no apparent reason and scrubbed the whole thing including the couches! This is the finished room:
My total cost? Well I did go over budget but I spent....................£32!!!! Woo Hoo for having a shiny new lounge for £32. I am now saving to have shelves put up in both alcoves so will let you know if I ever get the money together :-)
