Creating a Country House Lounge Room

Since moving to the farmhouse, we’ve had our living room as part of the larger open-plan space in our kitchen. I love the open feel of the space and the fact that it’s in one area, but there are downsides. One is the cost of heating this large space. So, over Christmas, we turned the living room into a dining room. In order to do that we had to have another place to relax and watch TV. So, we decided to transform the room we planned to be a bedroom and create a country house lounge room instead.

My Inspiration

Let’s face it. Our sofa is a monster. It takes up a lot of physical space. While it’s comfy to sit on and easy to keep clean (being leather) it’s also horrendous finding colours that coordinate with it. I’ve tried various colours. Most of them ended up looking like a furniture showroom. (*insert vomit emoji)

I wanted our country house lounge room to have a Gentlemans’ Club/library feel to it. Not the smokey aspect but ‘drinks after dinner’ and a dark, moody vibe. I would have loved to fill the voids on each side of the chimney breast with shelves and books but this was not in the budget (maybe later on down the track). So I thought about how I could achieve this look with what I already had. Which was when I came up with the idea of painting the room a very dark blue. Much to Gavin’s dismay. I wouldn’t normally head to colour first but in this case, I felt it was the only way to minimise that sofa!

How the Room Looked Before

That’s it. UGLY. The spare room was apricot and the wall with the window was covered in 70s timber veneer. There were built-in chipboard wardrobes flanking the chimney breast and the opposite wall had two holes for doors that we had covered over on the other side. Yes. A room with 3 doors. Again.

Firstly, Gavin demolished the wardrobes and cleaned off the concrete plaster that was on either side of the chimney. We repainted the ceiling, plastered the walls, added cornice and put up the old skirting we’d had hidden away in the shed. The electrician installed new power outlets to make things safer and a new light fitting. We also had our bricklayer come and repoint the chimney breast after I had cleaned it and removed the paint.

Achieving the Country House Lounge Room Look

The first thing we tackled was the painting. The walls were primed and received two coats of Taubmans Deep Water. The trims are Dulux Vivid White to match the other white trim in the house. I painted the floors to match the rest of the house too. It lightened up the room and tied it in with the rest of the house.

To create the Gentleman’s Club vibe we bought a cabinet from friends. We filled it with all our spirits, wine, and glassware. Now, if we want an evening cocktail everything is on hand. I added stacks of vintage books around the room to give the library feel and some vintage paintings that came from my grandmother’s house. I love the look of the gilt frames against the navy blue. They really pop. I also added a couple of other gold accents such as the ampersand. Our painting of the famous racehorse, Tulloch, looks very grand over the new mantel. We found the mantel on Marketplace. I sanded it back and revarnished it. It matches the other mantels in our house so nobody would know it’s not original.

Finishing Touches

A room is never really finished when you want a collected old-world feel and like moving things around. But for now, I added my father’s clock to the mantel and lots of books. An antique trunk is a perfect height for a coffee table. It’s rustic so we don’t care if feet rest on it. New DIY curtain panels made from leftover vintage paisley fabric I used for our dining chairs hang on either side of the window. They look brown in the photo but the background is actually navy. Lots of ruffled cushions and our big patterned rug soften the sofa and believe it or not, there is a huge tv on the Chinese cabinet. It’s not edited out of the photo. The blue makes it disappear which I absolutely LOVE!

Over time, I’d look to make the room even more maximalist with a large gallery wall over the sofa. But we’re very proud that nothing in this room is new. Every item is either second-hand or something we already owned.