Annie Sloan wall paint

I finally started decorating my living room!! I can't wait for the room to be completely finished and I can put my feet up without seeing all the little jobs that still need to be done. If you are a regular to this website you might have seen the look I'm going for in the living room in my book review video for Annie Sloan's work book. (If you missed that post have a look here) I want a very cosy living room, a warm space to relax in but also still be modern and on trend so I chose an urban botanical theme.

It all started with a curtain fabric my mum had left over, a lovely white cotton with a yellow and green botanical print. This fabric set the scene for my whole colour scheme. I want to introduce a lot of natural materials and green tones to the living room and started by changing the floor from a boring grey carpet to a white cork floor. You will catch a little glimpse of it in the video below but I will show you the floor in detail when I reveal the full makeover of the room. The second thing I did was build a big windowsill bookcase hybrid. A massive case that sits under the windows and stretches the full width of the room. It provides lots of storage and a place to put the tv but because it's low it doesn't take up a lot of space at all. I build the bookcase from planks of plywood cut to the wright width by the local timber merchant and I will put a building description on the website in a few weeks.

But the biggest impact in the makeover process so far has to be the wall colour. The previous home owner painted the walls a light blue and pale pink maybe trendy in the 90's but definitely not my cup of tea, it was time to drag the room back into 2016! 

I wanted to add colour to the room but also add texture to the walls to get a very natural feel and Annie Sloan's new wall paints are perfect for this! This water based paint is easy to apply but very hard wearing, spills and marks are easily cleaned off. I chose the colour Versailles as its gentle hue picks up other colours real well and fits in perfectly with my botanical feel. I would describe the colour as a beige/olive in daylight and in the evening in has a nice dusty green look.

I normally would use a roller to paint walls but this time I used a big brush and must say I really like the effect. The brush strokes give a bit more texture to the wall colour and as the brush I used is very big you have a wall painted in no time. It does take a bit more power to paint with a brush and must say painting the three walls in my living room was a good arm work out :)

Have a look at the video below to see the wall paint in action

What do you think of the start of my living room makeover? Doesn't the colour look amazing?  As said in the video the wall paint comes in 9 other colours, have a look on the Annie Sloan website for other colour options and more information.

There is still some work to be done in the living room, the wall I didn't paint will be wallpapered in a photo print paper, I'm making new covers for my sofa, I need to come up with a coffee table solution as the new sofa layout doesn't give a lot of room for a table and the whole room needs to be styled, so plenty of work for me! :) Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks to see the full result of my botanical makeover.

Next week I'm back with a special episode of Hester's Book club as I will give you a peek into my new book! See you next week

xx Hester

“Photo’s and video by Hester van Overbeek, posted in partnership with Annie Sloan, all views my own.”