Help me accessorise my barn conversion!

[Purplehonesty]

We converted an old barn into a lovely family home.
It's all painted white as we couldn't decide how to decorate and thought we should live in it a while first.
So the kitchen dining and living areas are all open plan.
I have solid oak floors, brown leather sofa and some reddy and neutral tweed type cushions and rug in similar colours.
I made some bunting in these colours and have it on a huge wooden mirror. Our furniture is all mainly farmhouse antique type stuff.

But the house just seems empty and white. I need some ideas (cheap ones please) to make it more cosy and homely. Curtains are neutral linen type and can't replace those as some windows are 4m wide.

I have bought a big lintel to go above the fireplace. So more wood. But I need inspiration that won't break the bank. Help!

Have you tried adding twigs and pebbles?

(Sorry couldn't resist).

That's where I am going wrong!

I bought a clock like this today to hang on one of the walls - ceilings are very high so it's a good scale being so large.

Dh said oh good more black and white....oops

www.hitboxcentral.com/roman-numeral-clock/7/clock-with-roman-numerals/

Unfortunately you need to bite the bullet and just paint it. It's what we're currently doing to the swathes of white walls in our barn. No matter what I bought I just couldn't get away from the white walls. Even if you just do feature walls in colour it will soften up the rooms.

Sounds like a few large paintings wouldn't go amiss!

Oh no I suspected as much. We've just had our cafe painted and the guys were really reasonable so I might just have to do that. Not that I can afford it really :(
I've no idea what colours to go for tho! My kitchen is white with oak tops. Maybe some coloured tiles around that would help.
I can't paint the walls a creamy colour as the kitchen would look an odd colour.
I really am clueless

Stars you would think but funnily enough we don't have a huge amount of wall space!
We have one wall all glass, one wall has kitchen on it, one wall has window, kids art bit and fireplace with the mirror I will get around to buying and other wall has built in storage cupboards (with white doors )
Maybe we could hang them on the ceiling?!

How about some large rugs and some lamps with shades to match in with the cushions?

Yes nice lamps and shades sound good.

The more I think about it the more I realise it's the white paint. It's really cold looking.

I'd like a new suite really but there is nothing wrong with the leather wipe clean one so I can't justify a new one.

A few well chosen and well placed lamps will help then, look at all the different bulbs you can get too, perhaps low light or coloured bulbs will help with more ambiance in the evenings?

With it being nutural, go and find a lamp shade, or rug that you really like. Use that as a base for wall colour, go a shade lighter as it dries darker. Also look for posters,some thing quaint, and buy a cheap frame, adds interest. Think old cinema or seaside. Or a collection of black and white family pics, or village you live/visited. Keep the colour in mind.
Something multi coloured would work, if you fancy different cushions

We've got a lovely vintage Steve McQueen on a bike poster but it's black and white again! I like that idea of vintage posters thanks.

I'm so scared of choosing the wrong colour. Must go and get some samples and maybe paint the fireplace wall. Or is that a bit lame?

With your walls being white, have you tried looking at the Scandi styling for inspiration?

Some large plants in big containers??

I second the ideas of lots of pictures and lots of lamps. Have you got beams you could hang pictures from? You could put up a picture rail across the beams and hang pictures off it. And lots of low lamp light always looks cosy.

You buy paint pots, and dot them around, so you see it at different angles. Pick a few shades. Paint is cheap, and you could easily do it yourself. You can get colour charts, and follow the row, there were colour wheels, which showed you x went with y. But why not find a wall paper sample you like and pick the colours out that a professional has already decided works. Say you found blue flowers on a cream back ground... thats 3 walls, and the fireplace. Or find a bright tea towel, and use that to hunt for kitchen accessories?

Going to look at Scandi style now. We did have beams but had to enclose them as they were really really high up and we didn't want the ceiling which is already about
15fr high to be any higher. It's freezing in winter as it is!

I would like some more artwork, will go and look now for inspiration.

That's a good idea about the wallpaper trick.

I think if I had some more expensive coloured Curtains that would help. Everything is minimal and I think I need it to be more rich and cosy.

Can you add shelving In the kitchen and some second hand crockery finds?

Ooh I love Scandi style. So it's ikea really?

Sally yes a dresser top or shelving on the wall at the end of the dining table.

At the moment I have kids art work there but it's all out of date really.

Crockery would look lovely. I do
Have some nice bits already and could go charity shopping for more!

Look on zazzle.com for posters.

We have painted a huge desk in the study in Elephants Breath and covered our box files in floral material and it looks lovely. It made a very plain room in our barn have character back.