If you're a regular reader of my blog then you'll know that 2018 has been the year of renovations for us. We've spent so much of our savings, so much of our time and so much of our energy and patience turning our house into a home and creating spaces that will suit our family for years to come. We've done so much to this house since we've moved in - we've had a loft conversion built, we've had a front two-storey side extension added on and also a porch. The boy's rooms have completely changed, we've had a brand new kitchen put in and after some initial stress thanks to the builder running off from the job with our money, we've also had our garden completely re-done, which I can't wait to share with you all soon.
Our living room is a room that had remained untouched since we moved in. On the whole, it was a room that we were happy with, although changing the paint colour was always something that we'd wanted to do, as although it wasn't awful, we weren't the biggest fans of the yellow undertone in the magnolia that the previous owners of the house had chosen. Over the years the paint had also marked easily, cracks had appeared and we'd also managed to take big chunks of paint off after trying to remove some artwork that Ethan had kindly drawn on the walls.
I actually said to my Husband about a month or so ago that I would love to have had the living room painted by Christmas as this year is the first time we are hosting Christmas at ours. Fortunately, it just so happened that a few weeks ago I received an email from leading paint brand Dulux asking if we had any paint projects that we were planning before Christmas, which felt like the perfect push to go ahead and refresh our living room ready for Christmas.
BEFORE
This is what our living room looked like before. As I mentioned earlier, we weren't fans of the yellow undertone to the magnolia paint on the walls, though we did like how bright it felt. We decided we wanted to go for something similar but something that was also a bit fresher, brighter and modern.
We came home with around six tester pots from the Dulux Easycare range - a paint range that is 20 x stronger than Dulux's standard paint. It's also washable and tough and has a unique stain and moisture repellent formulation, which beads liquids and allows them to be wiped off without damaging the surface colour of the paint - perfect for those of us with young children!
We also decided that we wanted to give the under stairs cupboard in our living room a little makeover too - it was left unpainted by the previous house owners and we'd been meaning to paint it since we'd moved in.
We had cracks that were coming through ..
And marks all over the walls, like this from when we'd tried to remove some of Ethan's drawing..!
AFTER
In the end, we decided on 'White Cotton' from the Dulux Easycare range for our living room walls and we are so, so glad that we did as we are so happy with the results. The colour is exactly what we had hoped for, we love it so much!
The room feels so much more fresh, bright and modern now. I can't believe that we didn't paint it earlier! Adam managed to paint it in about a day, he started on Saturday afternoon, stopped around 8pm and was finished early afternoon on Sunday. The paint went on the walls SO well, it was so good that it only needed one coat. I don't know if the fact that we had quite a light colour on the walls before helped with that, but the coverage was so good. The only bits Adam had to re go over was the top where the wall joins the ceiling as he'd used a paintbrush to do it.
The quality of the paint seems really good and it's really good to know that I'll be able to wipe marks off without the paint being damaged.
We are huge fans of bright, light decor so the Dulux Easycare White Cotton paint was the perfect choice for us.
As I said above we also decided to paint our under stairs cupboard door and for this we chose the Dulux Quick Dry Satinwood paint in Pure Brilliant White. It's made such a difference, the cupboard now just blends right in and is no longer glaringly obvious, which is exactly how we wanted it to look.
As with the Easycare paint, the Quick Dry Satinwood paint went on really well and just as the name says - it dried really quickly.
READY FOR CHRISTMAS
And now we're all set for hosting our first ever Christmas! I am so glad that we went ahead and redecorated, it was so much quicker and easier than I think we'd anticipated it to be.
The room feels so much more to our taste now - a lick of paint was all it really needed to make it feel more modern and fresh. This is a room that really feels more 'us' now and it's so good to be able to end the year with a home that we've modernised and really made our own, especially just in time for Christmas.
We have collaborated with Dulux for this post, however, all thoughts and opinions shared are as always, entirely our own. You can take a look at the Dulux Easycare Washable & Tough range of paint here and you can find the Dulux Quick Dry Satinwood range here.
Thank you for reading.
Alex xo
Watch us redecorate here:
**We've worked Dulux on this project but as always all thoughts and opinions that we've shared are entirely own.
Watch us redecorate here:
**We've worked Dulux on this project but as always all thoughts and opinions that we've shared are entirely own.
I love how cosy everything looks and I really like the vertical raidator x
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely looking room you have it looks so fresh and bright after the repaint as well. A real haven to spend your Christmas in!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a beautiful living room you have! I agree, the paint makes the room look so bright and modern. Love the tree too :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks beautiful. I agree with you about the yellow undertone of magnolia, it can make for an almost stained looked to the walls in certain lights.
ReplyDeleteThe bright white make all the difference, and the understairs cupboard looks so much better blended in x
ReplyDeleteA freshly painted room is always good for a clean look, and looks brilliant. The room looks fab.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, the white cotton adds even more brightness to your beautiful home! I love the colour, good choice! Good luck hosting Christmas.
ReplyDeleteIt looks beautiful, so bright and fresh. and your Christmas tree looks beuatiful.
ReplyDeleteIt makes such a difference! I know the colour change is only very slight, but wow! I also love the idea of the paint being good for cleaning up.. messy kids over here too!
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