When it's heating up, it's time for cooling down

As the temperature starts to rise here in the nation's capital I have decided to take a note from The Nester's book and cool down my decorating. I don't really go into the whole 'decorating for the season' look, but I do like my living room to look snug and cosy in winter and cool and comforting in summer. Especially because we have no air conditioning in our house and when it reaches 40 degrees (which it does with impressive ease and suddenness) our living room (which faces west - gee our house is sounding like a real catch now isn't it!!) often gets above 30. And because we spend so much of our time at home, I need for it to be a cool place where we can chill out. Literally.

There are things in our living room like the green lounge and wooden furniture that I couldn't afford to change so most of my changes were for the 'sitting area' and were either cheap (as in 7 bucks for a can of white spray paint) or free (as in from my own home and garden).

So, based on The Nester's tips, I did the following:

Chose a cool colour palette - blue, white, green.

Grouped like colours and items.

Remember that old red chair from the garage sale that I blogged about? Well here it is again, in case you forgot:




And here it is now, new and coolly improved:


I just have to find the ideal place for it.

Then I shopped around my house, gave a couple of other pieces a quick touch up with my white spray paint (I love the stuff - so addictive and quick to use) and put it all together. This is the result.






And I have to say, I'm very happy with it. Except for that blank spot on the wall above the wooden table. Still hunting for the perfect thing to go there. (And in case you're wondering the recliner hidden under the bedspread does only have one arm!! It's twin is behind me - you can see it's brown arm in the corner of the photo!!)

Now all I need is for the rain to stop and the hot weather to descend.

Happy Halloween all.

Kirsty x