Spotty DIY Living Room Makeover.

While I was decorating the living room last week, I found out something I never knew before (and it wasn’t that I don’t know how to decorate, I knew that already).

I thought I’d try something a little bit different with some spots – just to liven things up a bit.

Now, when I first mentioned to Mark and my parents what I was going to do there was a mild look of horror on each of their faces and I could almost see them thinking “here we go again”.

I’ll admit there have been some unfortunate decorating choices, including one that meant painting over a colour that clashed so badly with the carpet (who knew cream was difficult to match?) that it actually made me feel sick every time I looked at it – which is not ideal in a living room.

Anyway, it looked like they were right to have their doubts because when I tried to paint the spots on using a cardboard template I made from a cereal box…let’s just say, it wasn’t quite the look I was going for.

Undeterred, I ordered some vinyl stickers in a light and dark grey (to match the curtains and the sofa) from the internet.

The two colour walls (the other two are now white) were supposed to be a light green but actually turned out more a bluey grey, which thankfully works rather well with the soft furnishings. Mark wanted blue in the first place but I thought it would be a sad colour. I’m wondering if he swapped the paint when I wasn’t looking?

I was going to try and work out exactly how far apart the spots should be placed using maths but, as you may know, maths is not my strong point so I sort of guessed using frog tape. I don’t think I did too badly. I did use a spirit level #proud.

When he saw it, Mark’s actual words were: “When you first mentioned it I thought it would be something else that I would have to pretend to like and then just put up with it but actually it’s awesome.”

When questioned tied to a chair with a spotlight in his eyes he said he was joking about the “something else”. Hmm.

My mum and dad have been helping out and it was my mum who said: “I’d never have thought of doing something like that.” (I clearly need to introduce her to Pinterest.) “You must get it from your grandad, he was always trying new things. He once did patchwork paint squares in our hallway.”

My grandad died 20 years ago when I was almost 21 and my memories of him are like little pieces of film playing in my head. The earliest is of him taking me to the park (via the betting shop which was strictly forbidden) and collecting frog spawn in a jam jar. Then I see him standing in the amusements when we all used to go on holiday together smoking a cigar at the slot machine (which tells you how long ago that was). As I got older, he was often poorly and my memories are of my mum being called out in the middle of the night and then visiting him in hospital. It was lovely to learn something new about him after all this time.

I’m really pleased to have the living room mostly done. It badly needed repainting and it was almost embarrassing having people visit (not that anyone ever said anything). We didn’t really have the budget to change loads of things but it feels like a welcoming place to live again.

Have you ever done anything a bit out of the ordinary in your house?