When I went abroad to the Holiday House in seaside Portugal this year, I wasn’t expecting to complete a living room redecoration project (in fact I was hoping to come back solely for this). However, with a signed off plan by the homeowner and my assessment that wall redecoration wasn’t needed, I couldn’t resist to give it a go and estimated two days for everything to be completed (which turned into 3!) So how we did it ? Please keep reading.
If you are curious about the products, check out the below picture, I have included all the links.
A much needed update
The living room layout and furniture had not changed in thirty years. Only the Sofa has been reupholstered about 5 years ago; I decided to kept the cushions in the new layout as I love this high quality fabric and I wanted to keep some of the old, here and there.
Very art deco style of furniture which is too bulky and too strong for a calm relax living room environment (not mindful in my opinion!)
Making a floor plan and 3D visuals (in my head because I had no computer with me)
To start with I took the measurements of the room and we decided what had to leave and what needed to stay with the homeowner (my Dad by the way). I kind of like to work with family because we are very honest and upfront and don’t mind stating our feelings so actually we made progress very quickly on that front. I could see what was negociable and what was not. The black shelving units had to stay as they are collection object and some boats my Dad did himself (his favourite hobby). The little one in the book shelve was his first one he did in 1968! (I know me neither I wouldn’t have the patience to do this), his most recent piece is doing a 1/144 scale reproduction of the Titanic! (Picture at the bottom!)
So after taking the dimensions, knowing what I could buy, I looked for inspiration and d the selected pictures on my instagram.
We decided what to do with the existing furniture and how to dispose of it.
Then I sourced for furniture items, mostly finding them online, and showed the look and items to my Dad (however he trusted my judgement over his but I still wanted him to be happy so I made him choose between a few options, I didn’t want him to live in a space that he had not chosen the items for) . I made sure they would fit the space, allowed for storage, and could display all the family photo frames we had before.
With my signed off shopping list, we took two cars and went to Porto and Matosinhos, an area with several furniture shops.
It took 2 hours to find a Sofa, but the rest was a breeze (ok It wasn’t like a walk in the park but was not like we tried all the chairs, or coffee tables in the store).
With the car loaded up, we came back home and rested. The next day, we had to actually go again and pick up other items.
We started building the furniture up the second day and finish it all on the third day.
I was really impressed with the new IKEA assembly system on this STOCKHOLM Storage unit which saves you the use of screws/wood bits and is easy to understand. See video above.
In a nutchell, my Dad and new partner are happy with the new refresh look, I enjoyed styling it, and he is already talking about needed some help too in other parts of the house! I think it was long overdue but he didn’t know where to start and the fact I manage all the choices and planning for him made a real difference. He can focus on doing what he loves, which is not styling but building boats. Oh ans before I forget here is the titanic replica he made:
Hope you liked the tour!
Living Roomliving room, styling
