Project 1: A friend’s sitting room

So I’ve been given the challenge of re-designing my lovely friend Sara’s sitting room. My task is to make this room a space for the adults to retreat to. A grown-up room that exudes sophistication, style and elegance.

The design will largely be centred around her existing wallpaper which she wants to keep. It is duck egg blue in colour with gold and white flowers. The wall colours, woodwork colours and carpet are also to stay as they are. It will be the furniture, soft furnishings and accessories that I get to play with.

There isn’t really much of a design theme currently in the room. It’s fair to say (Sara, I hope you don’t mind me saying this…!), there is a bit of a mish mash of furniture pieces and a lot of inefficiently used space. I hope to bring the room to life with one cohesive style and also utilise every inch of the room for maximum use and aesthetic appeal.

In terms of design, I am working towards a Contemporary Classic scheme which should tie in nicely with my brief. The colours will be neutrals, greys, duck egg blue and brushed chrome.

As ever, my first point of call is Pinterest. Where would I be without this trusted site..?! I literally lived on this site throughout my build project, searching and saving pins that I could take inspiration from.

To start with, I created my own board which you can view here if you would like to take a look. This includes a selection of products and images that I like and wish to draw upon for this room design.

Here are a few images that have been key to my initial design ideas;

Since developing my Pinterest board I have come up with the below mood board. This has been created using Illustrator by cutting and pasting images. The clipping mask tool within Illustrator is great for neatly cutting around the objects.

I have decided to only bring in the duck egg blue colour on the cushions and some of the accessories as Sara isn’t sure how long the wallpaper will stay in situ. Should this change in the foreseeable future, all Sara will need to do it change the cushions to match the new wall colour.

One key aspect that I am hoping to introduce to the room is a bespoke TV unit with shelves and cupboards. This is very similar in design to what I had made in my living room. I have been so pleased with it as it softens the look of the TV and is an efficient use of space. Again, the below was created using Illustrator.

Below are a few pictures of the existing room so you can see what I am starting with…

My mood board and design ideas are now with Sara to review, so I’ll let you know what she thinks and how we proceed. Stay tuned for further progress!

Thanks for reading.

Sarah-Jane x