Painting our lounge and adding a feature wall...

Painting the lounge took us three days to do. The longest part of it was scrubbing down all the walls with sugar soap and water to get the dirt off. We cannot tell you how a wall that is behind curtains that reach from the floor to the ceiling can get so filthy! It looked like someone had rubbed coal along certain parts of the wall behind the curtains, and the plant you can see in the below right side photo had obviously grown up the wall. We couldn't figure out what the marks were from when we were cleaning but now as I look back at the photos from the day we went to sign the offer to purchase, I see what made those marks. The only good thing about that awful plant, was the nice BIG pot it was in. 

It took ages to try and pry the ugly plant out of the pot. But now the ugly plant is gone and I some nice plants in it growing outside where plants should be.

We had already moved all our furniture into the lounge when we moved into the house, so the first thing was to move it all out again. We then started with taking down the curtain rails that were butted up against the ceiling, and taking off the very old, very rusted blinds. We found out that those blinds were still there from the previous, previous owners. Instead of them being taken off, they were just covered by the curtains. Another very strange thing we discovered was that the door (shown below) was clearly never used because the air-con power cord came straight out the wall at the bottom and ran along the wall, over the doorway and along the other wall to a plug on the other side of the room. 

It wasn't even nailed down near the door, it was just loose, making tripping very likely if you were to come in that door. When we did get the front door open we realized we wouldn't be able to use it just yet because you can't open the door from the inside because of the gate on the outside.
You would have to go all the way around the house and first unlock the gate from the outside and then open the door. AND having the door open when its a windy day isn't a particularly good idea because you can't hook the door to the wall to stop it blowing closed because the gate is in the way. Not very well thought out at all. In the next few months, our plan is to get a Trellidor or some kind of similar sliding gate and have the gate inside the door, so we can have the door open while still having the gate closed and actually use it as our front door.

This is the other side of the room. Believe it or not the side door isn't really terribly functional either, it was put on so badly that it scraps against the floor when you open it so you need a slight dose of determination and muscle power to get it open. I can rarely open the door though with out being irritated afterwards. Opening side door = instant bad mood. 

Next to the door you can see where the three not-so-lovely mirrors were. Again there was so much dirt and so many grubby marks around these mirrors. They were obviously used for rubbing up against as well as looking into. I was SO glad when they came off. I even for a short while preferred the way it looked with the old mirror tape and dirty marks, rather than those gross mirrors. 

Just next to the mirrors, the intercom had a wire that randomly ran down the wall. I don't know what it's purpose was because we removed it and the intercom still works. Replacing the intercom phone is on our ever-growing list of things to do. It is so yellowed and even after scrubbing it, it still looks grubby but enough about the intercom and mirrors, let's move on..

Look what colour this place was painted before - PURPLE!!
              
It took us a whole day and a half, nearly two days to clean walls and fill holes. While this was happening we cleaned and painted the ceiling with two coats of Dulux Luxurious Silk Brilliant White.

 

Finally after all the prep work, it was time to paint. The paint we used for the walls was also Dulux Luxurious Silk and the colour was Chalky Downs 4. This colour is the shade that is in between the colours we used to paint the stripes in our bedroom. It is only a shade lighter than the darkest colour in our room but it just looks so much lighter. We had to do two coats to cover properly, we thought we might need to do three coats but when it had all dried, it looked perfect so we are keeping the extra paint to do the dining room. 

Before we started revamping the lounge we had decided we wanted to make one of the walls a feature wall to liven the place up. The thing I was most worried about was our decision to paint it.... RED. After much deliberation in the paint aisle and a few heated arguments, we eventually agreed on the colour for the feature wall... Burnt Autumn. 

The pic below shows the first coat of red going on. We thought we would only need 1litre of red paint because we could only get it in a 1 litre or a 5 litre tin and we really didnt think we would need 5 litres of red paint. 1 litre was scary enough! After one coat, the 1 litre paint tin was half empty. Red seems to be one of those colours that needs way more coats than you would initially think. 

After not one but two more litres of red, we did another two coats of red (after having to go to at least three different stores on new years eve because no one had the base colour available in 1 litre). 

So in total we did 3 coats. We could have done another coat, making it four in total - just to make sure it covered absolutely perfectly but by that stage we figured the wall was going to be covered in our handmade wooden frames and we just wanted to get it over and done with so we left it as three coats. 

The funny thing is we probably could have saved a couple of trips and the extra running around trying to get paint if we had originally gone with the 5 litre tin.

We really liked the ceiling rose we put with our light fitting in our bedroom so much that we decided to put one in the lounge too. This one is a bit more flashy than the one in our room but with the light fitting and everything painted, we think it looks really cool. We picked it up from this dodgy building supply place in south coast road, near the Bluff. We used the same adhesive to put it up as we used to put up the cornicing in our bedroom. 

This is with the first coat of red, two coats of Chalky Downs 4 on the other three walls and the ceiling rose up. Ready for the light fitting.

The light fitting we chose is also kind of similar to the one in our bedroom. It was the only other one we liked at the light shop we went to. That and the fact it was 50% off. Every deal when you trying to get a house renovated on a normal-working-person budget, is a good deal!

I got some really nice lined white curtains from Mr Price. The really brighten up the room. I still need to get some nice tie backs and hooks for the curtains as well as some curtain netting so when the curtains are open, you cant see right in. I also just prefer the way curtain netting looks. You still get light in but it's not so bright and jarring on the eyes. Originally I wanted the curtain poles to be dark brown. But our lovely neighbour, (and aunt) already had some white ones that were exactly the sizes we needed so we made use of them. Eventually we will get darker ones.

Trying to put up the frames was such a mission. It had to be random but still look good.

 It took a good couple of hours to get it figured out and to get them up.

*Side Note: I think the red wall looks really good in this pic.

Finally got our furniture in. There are still so many things to do and add but those will come in time and as money comes in. We have some really awesome old street posters advertising art shows that came from France that we found in under the house at our parents place in Greytown. We need to make some rad frames for them first, but they will go on this blank wall. 

We also have a T.V we have been promised (we don't own one, by choice), but I think it will look really good mounted on this wall with our two posters on either side. I am also on the look out for one or two nice tall old looking lamps and some tall bookshelves.

The frames will eventually have photos in. I have chosen the pics and sent them to be printed so when we get those back, I'll get some glass cut and then we will put those up. This wall is open to new frames though and maybe even some nice laser cut wooden words or something.

Look what my husband found and resurrected. A very cool old school record player.

I always knew I had married a very handy, clever, lovely, amazing... (the list goes on) man but after our short two and half months of moving / renovating / painting etc etc. 

I am convinced that he can do / make / fix ANYTHING.

We will post more of the lounge when the T.V and other posters and photos are up.

 I also want to try and finish painting our bedroom cupboards. It seems we are always finding other things to do besides getting those cupboards done. I cannot wait for Saturday when we pick up our grass. I will update on Monday so you can all see how lovely it looks..