LIVING ROOM: MIRROR

The Living Room gets a mirror!  It's a great way of bouncing light around a room and making it brighter which is always well appreciated in the Winter months.

The Chambery mirror by Gallery is three stepped & bevelled mirror that isn't too fussy and has a slightly vintage Art Deco feel.  With around one inch of thickness it is quite slim as well.    

Chambery Mirror by Gallery

Does not come with a Pepper kitty

Slim & stylish

It seems to have been a month for mirrors as I also purchased the one to be hung in the lower hallway.  Slightly similar in design but with a stainless steel frame.  For some inexplicable reason this style of mirrors always reminds me of an old Parisian bistro... but maybe that's just me.

LIVING ROOM: THE ALCOVE PROJECT COMPLETED

It was completed some time ago but I've been very bad at keeping the blog updated. 

Below is the room as it was photographed by the estate agents, and as it is now.  It is quite a transformation and hopefully you'll agree for the better!  

In addition to the alcove units at either side, another six door cabinet was built below the TV to house my hundreds of DVDs and 360 of them are now hidden away.

There is still some finishing that needs to be done as the skirting boards still need to be attached around the room.  I'm just so happy that I now have a library for all my books.

 


















I wanted a coffee table that could be easily moved around and the Boksel coffee table from IKEA was a perfect find.  A glass top table that is easily wipeable, with plenty of storage compartments, including a drawer to keep all those remote controls from getting lost.

Bookshelf speakers with the HiFi concealed in one of the alcove cabinets.

A couple more jobs to do in there as I would like a gallery picture ledge on the wall opposite the TV, and at the end of September a large mirror arrives to be hung above the three seater sofa, but more on that later...

BEDROOM ONE: BOOKCASE

A part of the Alcove project was getting the MDF cut at the same time to build a bookcase in my bedroom. I knew I wanted something floor to ceiling but ended up following the same design as the alcove units - but with a slight difference on the shelving supports, which in the final version below, I reversed the design.

   




















There's not much depth to this unit around 10 inches.  It's enough space for a layer of books with about 2 inches in front for a picture frame or slim ornament.  I find a lot of the shop bought bookcases the depth is often too deep and there is a lot of wasted space.  

I wanted to get a picture before I started filling it with books, although a mini hifi unit has already been cabled in.  Above the unit was enough space to install a pair of IKEA bookcase lamps.  Since the mirrored wardrobe doors are at a right angle to the bookcase the lights will also be useful for dressing.

LIVING ROOM
Still in progression but a little more work has been done:  The Venetian blind has been hung and the chandelier installed. 

All that's left now to complete the alcove units is to order the custom made doors.
 

LIVING ROOM: ALCOVE PROJECT UPDATE

It's a grey rainy day today, and another weekend where we can't do any work outside which is very frustrating.  Is the summer truly over?  It seemed so sudden.  Nevertheless, indoors there is plenty of work to be getting on with...

Not a great day to take photographs due to the light or lack of, but I thought I'd post some on where we are now with the Alcove project.

Finished Shelves

Just the doors to complete

Torus architrave was used to trim the sides and top to the walls, which concealed the gaps as the wall wasn't perfectly square - as is the case with old houses.

Torus Trim

  






















Just barely detectable in these terrible photographs is the two colour contrast.  The walls at the back of the bookcases were painted in Mellow Mocha to create a greater illusion of depth. 

Mellow Mocha was used as a feature colour

A gap of 5mm was left between the wall and the bookshelf unit so that speaker cables and any other cables could be tidily concealed behind.

Mind the gap

The window ledge has now been veneered with 3mm ply and painted.  This seemed a faster and less messy way than filling and sanding out all the scratches and gouges in the wood.  I'm really pleased with the result.

Veneered window ledge

I'm also currently working on the bookshelf unit for my bedroom, which will be posted soon.

 

  

LIVING ROOM: ALCOVE INSPIRATION & WINDOW SILLS

I came across this inspirational photograph, which is featured on many sites, and loved how they had painted the backs of the bookshelves with a accent colour.  It's a great way for creating the illusion of depth and adding interest to a room.  I may have to try this myself!

WINDOW SILLS
I'm already thinking of the next job needing to be done after the alcove project is finished.  The interior window sills need attention as they are scratched and gouged, in some places quite badly.  The easiest and quickest option is going to be to adhere a 3mm thick ply wood veneer and then paint white which will result in a good finish.  Decorative wood moulding can applied to the front edge to hide the seam.  The other option would be to fill with wood filler and sand or plane the wood down, which I feel is going to be more laborious and messy.   I think wherever possible sanding indoors should be avoided because of all dust that is created.

Here's the Pepper Kitty modelling the window sill in the Living Room.  It may be snowing outside, but when she's stretched out and hogging the heat from the radiators, she may as well be in the Bahamas!  I'm not sure if that look means 'rub my belly' or 'bring me a Pina Colada, please'.

LIVING ROOM: THE ALCOVE PROJECT #3

An update of where we are with the alcove cabinets & bookshelves:  The right side one is now in situ and ready for painting and to have the edge moulding fixed to the top and sides.

Again we almost couldn't get the bookshelf unit in, and at one point it was jammed into the space leaning forwards and I was having visions of having to take a chainsaw and hack the whole thing out and start again.  Luckily with a lot of brute force it finally moved into place.  I just hope that walls aren't so wavy on the left side and units slide in easily.

Next weekend we should be able to start the second cabinet.  As you can see this one was commandeered quite quickly as a makeshift wine bodega.  I'm just so happy that we are finally getting some storage!

LIVING ROOM: THE ALCOVE PROJECT #2

Well after 10 days of having a stinking cold, weekend work has now resumed on building the alcove units & bookcases in the Living Room.  The carcass of the first unit has been built and was quite a struggle to cram into the space as one of the walls was crooked and slanting towards the right.  After an intensive session of wood planing (towards the back) we managed to get the unit to fit.  Luckily, we are working with 30mm (1 1/4 inch) thick MDF which gives plenty of leeway to trim the sides if needed.

We thought it might be a good idea to run through a dry run fit of the bookcase so that any adjustments could be made before priming.  This is what it should roughly look like.

The central support of the cabinet acts to hold the hinges of what eventually will be a 4 door cabinet.  The long narrow doors should give it more of an illusion of height.  It's impossible to tell from the photograph but the cabinet unit is actually 4ft wide!

The shelves of the bookcase were temporarily supported by pieces on wood on the sides which won't be there when it is finished - including the bottom piece sitting on the top surface of the cabinet.
 

Moulding will close up the space between the top of the bookcase and any on the sides.  That should give it a more finished look.

I like the way that all the TV cables are now neatly hidden in the cavity surrounding the recessed TV.

I can't wait to see it finished and painted white.

    

LIVING ROOM: THE ALCOVE PROJECT

It’s totally shameless not to have updated this blog since October, but I can assure you that since then various bits of work have gone on: The bamboo flooring was laid in the living room at the end of last year and beginning of this one.  It looks beautiful.  However, we can’t continue laying more flooring in the other rooms until we free up some space.  Since most of it is consumed by my mountains of books with nowhere to place them, the solution seems to be to crack on and build the alcove units and bookcases in the living room.  This should help alleviate the problem.

The last few weekends have been spent with measuring up & sketching out a logical way to build them.   As the final product will be painted white to match the architraves and skirting, we’ve decided to build them out of 30mm MDF, which should result in some robust units and avoid sagging shelves (one of my pet hates).  The bookshelves in the living room will mainly be for the growing collection of over-sized art books so they need to support a lot of weight.

Photograph: www.caligaricabinets.co.uk

The various quotes online I’ve seen for alcove cabinets with bookshelves have varied from £750 - £1200 per unit so I’m hoping that building them ourselves will save us a fair bit of money.  The material costing of 3 units worked out at around £120 per unit (excluding doors & handles).  The third unit is a slim line unit for bedroom one to accommodate the smaller books with a 4 door cabinet below for DVDs & CDs.  I'd love to have them custom built but sadly my budget doesn't stretch that far, but there are plenty of pictures online (as left and below) for inspiration.

 The advantage of custom made furniture is that you can utilise the space as you want to, to suit your needs rather than trying to buy pre-made cabinets and ending up with a lot of dead space.

The motif in the living room is going to be glass so I've sourced some lovely square glass cabinet handles, but more on that later.

Photograph: www.peterhendersonfurniture.co.uk

 

LIVING ROOM: LIGHTING THE WAY

One of the useful functions of this blog is to act as a scrap book for design ideas.  Products that I like are collected and posted here and it's funny how visual trends start to emerge.   I've been looking at table lamps to flank either side of the Living Room sofa.  I kind of know what I'd like, but don't know if I can find it out there - which is the common dilemma.  Ideally, I'm looking for that 'I must have that' sensation which should accompany every purchase, but within keeping with the design guidelines: contemporary, clean, modern, stylish, etc.  In addition to this, it has to be cat proof - so delicate, glass lamp bases that can easily be knocked over and smashed are out.   

 

I think one of the obvious rules when furnishing any room is to try to stay within the design style so that the pieces don't appear incongruous: French Provincial rarely works next to Bauhaus unless you are going for that house clearance storeroom look - which I'm sure will one day be a look.  It is always useful to look at photographs of interior designs that attract you and study them to see how they've worked it out.  Most of all, I am a believer that you should surround yourself with objects that you love or that mean something to you. 

 

For our line-up of table lamp contenders so far, here are the beauties:-  

Evidently I have a thing about square shades...

A LIVING ROOM FOR COUCH POTATOES

The Living Room was plastered last weekend and is now looking very sculptural and very much like a modern shrine to television viewing.   We modified the built-out recessed TV surround at the last minute to include two alcoves at either side for CD or DVD storage.  This makes better use of the dead space.  The inside edges of the recess were slightly bevelled as well, as this looked more visually pleasing.  Bookcases and cabinets will be built at either side of the chimney breast which should lessen the impact, and balance the overall effect.

It should look amazing once the plaster has dried and the paint starts going on.  The light colour (Dulux Natural Calico) should bring out the beauty of the angles.  The plasterers also did an excellent job on levelling out the ceiling.

In case you are wondering, the black thing wrapped in cling film at the centre is the bracket for the 42 inch TV.  It's going to be like have our own personal cinema!

 

DOORS LEAD TO OTHER DOORS

Given the events of the last couple of days, the mood in London is strangely quiet as most people are choosing to stay indoors.  The bus and tube this morning on my way to work were unusually emptier and everybody is in a state of nervous alertness.  Shame has fallen on our lovely city, brought on by the mindlessness of a minority of thugs intent on reckless destruction and looting.

For most Londoners, it's business as usual as we try and continue with our lives and struggle with the horror of what has happened.

The replacement living room door was fitted at the weekend.  The orange splodges are wood filler used to fill the sunken screw heads as well as any other imperfections.  The finished doors will be painted in white satinwood.  A useful tip that was given to me by one of the stage carpenters at work was that when hanging the door the top hinge should be 6 inches from the top, and the bottom hinge 9 inches from the bottom.  Suprisingly, when seen this gives the illusion of equal spacing and he was absolutely right!

This is the first of six doors that need to be replaced.  For some unknown reason the existing doors and frames were all of different heights - which is just the type of thing that can annoy me greatly.

 

 























Between installing doors, work has started on constructing the recessed TV unit wall on the chimney breast.

Original Living Room before stripping down - incidentally, the junk is mine!

Stripped down and with sub floor laid

With extendable TV Bracket and stud work

more stud work

Example photo of a recessed TV

Recessed TV in a Kelly Hoppen interior