Welcome to a small part of our new house, it has the afforded luxury of two areas that can be used as a living room. This is quite common for most American homes but somewhat of a myth in a standard British one. So to say I’m excited by this prospect of an ‘adult lounge’ is an understatement. I’m happy that my boys love to relax and chill in the main hub of the home but equally there is only so many Minecraft streamed videos one can take.

The adult lounge, I’ve decided will be a TV and toy free zone, a place where I don’t have to scramble around in a last ditch effort to make it look remotely presentable to anyone who wants to have a cup of tea with me! A quiet space for working, reading and generally relaxing. I’ve created a board on Pinterest for this room and quaintly named it ‘The Snug’.

It’s currently a blank canvas, while we wait for our furniture to arrive, and there are a few essentials we need to invest in. For instance, we didn’t bring our sofa from the UK as it would have just got lost in an American home. Electrical items would be the wrong plug, plus anything we needed to replace because it was old or didn’t fit with our new house vision didn’t get packed. So here is the space we have to work with. I fell in love with the fireplace, I look forward to snuggling up in front of it!

I do have to say I’m not a massive fan of the ceiling fan but it’s serving a function for now, but later along the line I’m imagining that will change. The room opens out to a covered porch and has lots of light. That brick fireplace is a great feature but the brick is going white. I think it will make the room look bigger and more open… To give you an idea here are some inspiration pics of the white look fire I’m after. No doubt there will be a blog post in the near future covering that little project!

These are some inspirational pictures I grabbed from Pinterest. Painting it white will give it a modern and fresher look. The plan will be for the walls to also go white. It will make the space feel light and airy. As well as a great neutral back drop for our furniture.

Speaking of furniture, I will need to actually fill the space with something! Knowing we were moving, along with Kon Mari-ing the house, part of the process was imagining how I wanted our house to be, so I began over many months collecting bits and bobs for this end goal. I’ve collated a few of my favourite key pieces for you to take a look at, these are the bits I will have to wait many a month for!

 

What I have so far

So from the top! We have the iconic belly basket, this one is from Ikea. I am not sure if in the Snug this will house blankets or maybe even a big plant. You could use it for toys, but I’d rather the adult lounge stay a toy free zone. Either way it was a must have, and for only £16 you can get yours here. Also from Ikea at just £9 is the Lappljung Ruta cushion, also comes with a matching rug, but I honestly thought it may be too much, I’m not really a fan of having matching prints everywhere in a room, it just looks a little too contrived for my taste.

On to the bottom row, the little squat vase I got from Trouva, it’s a Kähler Design Hammershøj Vase, one of the more special bits and perfect for flowers! I really like Trouva so many independent boutiques there are lots of great things for any budget, I got this vase with some other house bits as I had a voucher, if you sign up here , you can save too!

The next item I have to admit was my 30th birthday present, I didn’t want anything else, back in January we stayed in a lovely Airbnb in Oslo for my husband’s birthday. It had this rug down and I fell in love, took me what felt like forever and an age to find it, but eventually got it from The Scandinavian design centre. I went with the largest size, 160 x 230cm so will work as an area rug.

The mushroom lamp,  was also an Oslo inspired purchase. This one came from Target, back in April we went stateside and I got the lamp! It was my first electrical item for the new house. I’m glad because they are now no longer available. Although do check Target out for lighting because they have some great alternatives.

I just love how all those items look together, a bit monochrome perhaps but this is where my yet to buy items come in!

On the wishlist

Cushions! My Hubby will hate me, I have a complete obsession with throw pillows, he however, would rather throw them away! I’m not wholly convinced these particular ones are a budget-friendly option, the ones above are from Restoration Hardware. These gorgeous cushions are made from Mudcloth and Shibori dyed African textiles. I’m a bit of a wiz on a sewing machine so I may need to find some fabric. I will have to get crafty if I want something along these lines.

The Koto Scandinavisk candle. If the internet could smell, it would tell you, this has to be the most lovely smelling candle, period.

For my next, another Ikea bargain, this 100% cotton throw, its buttery soft and warm without completely overheating you. I think in a room with a fire, light snuggly layers are going to be the way forward. This one is a snip at £25. I’ve put it on my Christmas list.

And finally, the last mega purchase will be a sofa for this room. We’ve decided upon a tan leather sofa, we haven’t finalized which one we are going to get, as we like one from West Elm too, but I had to share this one with you from Article. Its the Sven Charme Tan sofa, and its $1799. Their prices are so reasonable because they have no showrooms and therefore no overheads.  So its a toss up really between this and maybe finding a West Elm one at the right price.

So there we go, bar lots of green plants and nic-naks aplenty. That is my plan for our grown up space. I may even sneak a bar cart in the corner, you know, just like Emily Gilmore.