Design/ style help for dated living room - pics included

[livingroom]

NC as it is so clearly my house to anyone who knows me!!

I really don't know what to do to improve our living room. I am very bad at picking out style etc.

The stone wall cannot be changed. Neither for now can the glass unfortunately - I could possibly change it to something else. Behind it is the hall with the front door.

I think around the TV/ window looks very bare though. Maybe cornice could help? I was thinking of maybe getting large pictures and nicer frames.

There is:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Safety-Security-Film-Shatter-Protection/dp/B00GC9FRE2/ref=sr_1_7?adgrpid=52303206174&hvadid=259069111668&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1007293&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=1064552724644414397&hvtargid=kwd-314448290787&hydadcr=18483_1816603&keywords=anti%2Bshatter%2Bglass%2Bfilm&qid=1695299912&sr=8-7&th=1

I would go down the light green and cream route.

Add thin curtains in cream behind sofa. Paint other walls a light sage green. Add light cream rug. Wicker baskets with lids for toys.

Get a sample for overtly olive by Dulux, I think it would look lovely in there!

Take down the photos and place them on the window sill
clear all the kids toys and clutter- can most go in kids bedroom?
you didn't ask but your kitchen is terribly cluttered too. Why is there stuff on top of the cupboards? worktop has far too much stuff
mat leading to kitchen not necc
white paint
storage stand behind the sofa should go

good luck!

This sounds lovely

On an unrelated note where did you get that kind of rocking seat for baby? I’ve a 14 month old and think she’d like something like that to relax in

@Myfabby there is no mat leading to the kitchen. DH put stuff up there years ago i never moved it.

@MonkeyMonkin it is a climbing arch. A few places do them but i got mine on etsy. He's starting to get good fun out of it. I turn it over to be an arch to climb.

I have removed another part of the couch. Excuse the mess. But I think I like having the door back. Dh is going to be like wtf when he gets home but oh well!! Def need another chair now tho

Take the handle off glass door and fabric over the lot stapling to frame

or you could hardboard over it only using panel pins so no damage to frame if you want to remove it

don't think i like the sofa at either end just makes the room even more corridor like. i'd have it on back wall in front of window and then tv hung on fireplace

much prefer the glass wall now you have freed up the doorway. I'd embrace it if it must stay rather than try to hide it with any weird curtains but def check the safety of the glass. My friend kicked bottom panel of 1960s glass door any nearly bled to death when. her artery was severed as was middle of the night.

then where tv currently is you can have some nice storage/ shelves built and maybe a smallish armchair

sofa is hideous though (sorry) so disguise it with cushions and throws
of your colours i think a darker green is nice - room is small so go cosy and seems to blend in with stone fireplace better

Definitely a rug once you’ve decided on the colour for the walls.

Dunelm have a great range of washable rugs which are fab for life with young kids and a dog-

https://www.dunelm.com/category/rugs/all-rugs#product-type=Washable+Rugs

I don’t envy you, and I don’t think some past-posters quite understand the complications of living arrangements like yours. My mum is from a farming background (we’re Irish too), and it’s not as simple as “better to ask for forgiveness than permission” with stuff like this.

When my aunt married my uncle, she moved into the farmhouse and the poor woman had to live in basically a 1970s shrine to my dead grandmother for 20 years until my granda died and she was finally “allowed” to redecorate. It’s a different world!

do you have another room where the big sofa could go? If so I’d keep an eye on market place for something smaller and a chair for this space. Appreciate why you want to keep it though!

@livingroom

In our kitchen / family room we had a red brick wall. Not a lovely old red brick wall but a horrible 1970's red brick wall.
I hated it so we got a guy to put plasterboard up to cover it and then painted it.
The awful wall is still there but the plasterboard has covered it.
It could be reinstated if some mad person wanted to do so.
We have a gas stove in the middle of that wall.

OK, still no further than deducting the size of the couch!

I like these curtains in teal https://www.oxendales.ie/shop/spencer-brushed-blackout-eyelet-curtain/lo593/product/details/show.action?pdBoUid=9019&optionColour=Teal&optionSize=

I am trying to find a paint colour, I was looking at various neutrals. Maybe a neural with a golden hew? I saw one earlier called honied cream https://shop.fleetwood.ie/products/honied-cream it looks a bit different on the laptop compared to how it look IRL.

DH is arranging for the glass to be covered with a thin layer of wood either side. It will look like deep panels in a wall. That will be white.

I also had a consultation with Ikea about storage. She bamboozled me a bit, but came up with great ideas. I think she was putting in too much storage though, I don't think we need to store too much in here.

So I am thinking of putting up some shelves on the currently bare side of the tv.