How we finally got the living room layout we love

It’s crazy to think we’ve been in this house for seven years and many of you have been following along our gradual reno as we’ve saved up and completed every room. Back in 2017 we called her “the nanna house” (due to the distinctly old lady aesthetic she had!) and that stuck for a long time, but doesn’t really ring true anymore.

With almost every sixties (in a bad way!) surface or fixture replaced or refreshed, one thing we never quite got right was the living room layout and on deciding recently that we’re going to stay here at least for the medium term, we were really keen to make the house work optimally for us (my husband Damian, two sons and I).

We started looking into tinkering with the floorpan. Our biggest issue was the lack of space for sit-down entertaining. We had a table that only comfortably sat six squashed into one side of the L-shaped kitchen/dining with no way to fit a larger one. We got an engineer out to talk about removing a structural wall and going full open plan with the living room combined with the kitchen/dining. It would be expensive and involve a large steel beam but when we sat down and assessed our options, the only place that made sense for a large dining table was actually in what was our overly huge existing living room. Putting one there didn’t actually require removing a wall (and ruining the floor in the process), so we set about reconfiguring the 7-metre long living room to become a living/dining.

It was also the perfect time to close up the plantation shutter doors between the living room and the playroom. The boys are old enough that we really don’t need to have them (and their mess) in plain sight every day and we all know putting up walls is almost always a lot easier than getting rid of them! Putting a wall where the doors to the playroom were, enabled this to become the TV wall et voila, we finally had a configuration that worked! It only took seven years, people! We removed our existing built-in TV unit (hello, Marketplace!) and this side of the space would now be the living zone of the new living/dining.

With our chosen builder Lachlan Pappas from Finest Constructions (yes, we got three quotes), we chatted through the options for cabinetry across the length of the new wall which would now have the TV on it. After getting quotes for custom cabinetry, we decided to settle on a mid-price solution of IKEA BESTA units combined with Customea custom door and drawer fronts and topped with Caesarstone. Lachlan and his team then built us timber shelving to sit above the bench which we painted the same white as the walls. We are thrilled with everything about it! We kept the VJ on the adjoining wall as it tied in so well with the VJ Customea doors in Tranquil Retreat (you can choose any Dulux colour) and painted it the same white as the other walls. Brass lip handles from Kethy were the icing on the cake!

Customea are a business I’ve been following and loving for a few years and they make beautiful custom doors for the most popular IKEA and KABOODLE units (as well as custom sizes) to elevate your flatpack. Now that is my kind of high/low solution! They were a dream to deal with and also organised the Caesarstone check measure and installation (through a local stonemason).

Dulux Natural White has proven to be the perfect white for the walls and we carried it on down the hallway too. It’s just a smidgen warm but not too warm (which I’d hate, so I was nervous!) and I absolutely love it. I made sure I painted big tester patches around the room so I could get a good idea before I made the final call and it was definitely worthwhile.

Then when it came to zoning this room into two, the furniture and rugs were really important and clearly this sofa is the star of the show! It’s the Marlow L-Shape Sectional from Castlery in performance boucle (that means stain resistant and well, you know, boys and sticky fingers!) so it’s practical as well as beautiful and adding much needed soft curves. I’m in love and can you blame me?! The biggest question I get (apart from are you crazy having a cream couch, which I’ve already covered!) is whether it’s comfortable and it really is. Excellent back support!

So, remember the reason we did all this was to enable us to have a larger dining table and we are so thrilled with the Dillon Extendable Dining Table from Castlery. It has two extension pieces for either end and while we don’t need a table that big (280cm) all the time for four of us, we have the space, so why not?! It also means if someone is using it for drawing or a spot of work from home, you can still sit down for dinner at the other end without having to move everything! It seats up to 10 and it has regularly been full when friends and family come over which makes me so happy! I was honestly much more excited about the chairs (the beautiful Edith cane chairs in whitewash from Castlery) but once I got the table in situ I became really enamoured with it and the warmth it adds to the space.

The dining chairs however are worth getting excited about too. The fabric is spill-resistant and trust me, it has been tested, and it matches the sofa perfectly. I thought it was a bit of a risk but I don’t regret it. Every stain has so far come out easily and it turns out my boys don’t drop as much food as I feared!

Also talking about spillages and practicality, I won’t go near a wool rug unless it’s in the main bedroom (because my husband and I are perfect and never drop anything, right?!). Experience has taught me that a polystester blend rug is the most practical for our house, as well as actually feeling soft underfoot, and means everything can be scrubbed out, no problem. I chose the Sabbi Ivory and Cream Animal Pattern Rug from Miss Amara pretty quickly for the living zone as I wanted something in a warm (but not too warm) neutral with some texture and pattern (it’s made of microfibre polyester which feels beautifully soft). It took me a lot longer to choose the rug for the dining side (and I took full advantage of their free and easy exchanges) before ending up with the same rug again (but in a different size) for the dining zone. I think it works really well. I did briefly consider no rug under the dining table for ease but no, I just couldn’t handle it! The table needed grounding and as I don’t have pendants above it (yet!), it had to be a rug.

While we made over this room we also took the chance to get rid of the dated chair rail and brick vents (if you’re getting a plasterer in, do all these jobs together!) and to swap the gorgeous gold chandeliers for down lights on a dimmer for a more streamlined and modern look and to let the skylights have their moment.

My oval marble coffee table no longer worked with the sofa shape and I settled on a nesting set of two round ones with brass and fluted glass. I love my brass accents! The smart blinds from Tuiss Blinds Online we already had and I really love them. The sound of roman blinds opening on a chain really grates on me! Remote control is much preferable!

Last but not least, you can never have too much storage and although we used to have a mudroom hanging situation at the front door with hooks and a shoe box below, it had started to look way too cluttered for my liking with school bags and multiple jackets for a family of four. Spurred on by my IKEA/Customea solution for the living room cabinetry, I decided to do similar in the adjoining wide hallway using two PAX wardrobes and getting matching colour and profile doors for them from Customea. Lachlan then created bulkheads so they look very much built-in. The handles are from Kethy and larger versions of the ones on my kitchen cabinets.

One is for hanging all our jackets and has space at the bottom for school bags. The other is not really needed yet but we have possible future plans to turn a walk-in cupboard into a third bathroom and this would give us somewhere to put everything that currently lives in there. Yes, I’m feeling pretty smug about this excessive storage situation!

The art in here was all existing and has just been moved around. The armchair has been stolen from our bedroom (was from Life Interiors) because we just felt like it needed one and although eventually I’d like something velvet in green or pink, I’m waiting until I find the right one.

We’re excited to be upgrading to a much more aesthetic Samsung Frame TV next month. Watch this space!

Our previous main dining space in the kitchen is what we turned into our beautiful breakfast nook as part of the same reno project.

If you have any questions, please pop them in the comments!

Photography: Joe Cheng