New Living room tour

Let’s do a living room tour. And seeing that my open plan kitchen is also very much part of the living room, let me show you around these two areas where we spend most of our time together as a family.

Living room

Since moving from our previous home, we kept most of the furniture, which were largely that of black/ dark brown tones. Also, most of the furniture you see is from Ikea, although we’ve only really assembled one piece by ourselves. Oh, did that take longer than expected! Once we got the keys to our new place, we drew up the floor plan and measured up all our current furniture that we wanted to keep. After that it was a simple case of putting the furniture pieces together in positions to maximize floor space.

We wanted to make a kid-friendly living room, which meant we wanted to include space for their numerous toys. This TV stand with the black boxes do an excellent job to hide all those toys, that are easily accessible and yet keep the living room super tidy. The boxes are organised, so there’s one box for lego, one with animals, one with baby toys and so on. The chest of drawers on either side, again add lots of space to store electronic devices, craft items, stationery and party supplies, and so much more. Yep, it’s all there. Large monstera leaves in clear glass vases on either side complete the look.

The feature wall on the right is my favourite and my husband’s idea. The frames, the clock and the little shelf all seems to flow together.

The comfy grey sofa seats us all together and doubles up as a guest bed. A little DIY magic and this plain throw now has tassels. We wanted to bring some green into our living space, and as much as we’ve done that with a few potted plants, we’ve also made use of leaf printed fabrics around the living room. The cushions do just that. A beautiful Arabic mirrored wall art above the sofa looks lovely as it reflects off the sunlight from the balcony. On the floor is a large print rug, a place where the kids love to play together and read books too.

These large wall stickers can be seen in the living room as well as the kitchen, tying up both rooms together, making it appear as one large complete living space.

There’s a few easy maintenance indoor plants strategically kept on top of the chest of drawers to keep them away from the curious hands of my little one. We’ve added shiny black stones in the pot, which I think look beautiful and again go with the room’s theme. The indoor plants stand out against the back drop of a large wall mounted painting. Next to it, is a glass cabinet filled with memorabilia from our holidays. There’s also a shadow box frame above the cabinet in where we’ve collected tickets to some of the places we have visited. Always nice to open and look back at and remember our travels.

Lastly, there’s a large six chaired dining table that completes the living room. We’ve included a table runner with images of large monstera leaves, which was yet another way to tie the room together.

Kitchen

Moving on to the kitchen, which isn’t a large space, but we’ve managed to utilise every bit of it. It definitely helps that the appliances are fitted. We’ve made it functional, yet beautiful. The magnets on the fridge again are there to remind us of our travels. Although some are return gifts from my family member’s holidays.

We’ve tried to keep wood and metal around the kitchen, as you can see from the wooden dish drying rack, the chopping board and the knife block. The metal finish can also be seen with the toaster, kettle and towel rack.

The books you see on the counter aren’t really books! They are disguised boxes which hold in my handwritten cook book, notepads and post it notes. Yep, kitchen essentials.

A non-slip, water resistant black mat fits perfectly in the centre of the kitchen floor, helping me to keep it clean. And scented candles from Bath and Bodyworks to light up during the day and specially at evenings to keep my kitchen smelling lovely.