Redoing the lounge - where would you start?

There are 2 wonderful websites for interior design ideas and also gardens. They are HOUZZ and HOUSE BEAUTIFUL. Hundreds and hundreds of ideas on there. I could spend hours looking at the photos.

Always always start with the carpet.
It is far easier to match the paint/wallpaper colour, curtains etc to the colour of the carpet, than the other way round.

I would ask DD3 for advice and ideas.

I could possibly help you having been in the film business, set dresser for years then years as an interior decorator but now retired. I can however point you in directions and help with discounts in most areas. Drop me a line or a question if I can help, good luck. I just enjoy helping people and still enjoy going to trade fairs and keeping up to date.

I assumed you meant dinky cars phoenix

CAT damaged, we have definitely not had any vehicles inside the house!

kitty we have a corner sofa, (now very car damaged ) as it was the best option to suit the shape and space of our sitting room, very good for sprawling!

Well, thank you all for your input.

As I said, we have chosen the sofas - we are very daring and having an Ercol corner sifa and then 2 small arm chairs. We found a curtain fabric we like in John Lewis which has solidified our choice of palette.

I have been sending photos to DD3 who hasn't said weve got it wrong yet!!

Now this I know about! One of the few things I know about!
Decide the style
Look at magazines and cut out things you like.
Decide what colours you like
Use neutrals for the big items and add colour in small touches then you can change things without much expense.
Carpet slightly darker than walls grounds scheme
Sofas are large things and don’t dominate if the are the same colour as carpet
I like plain walls because I add interest with pictures
Mirrors are magic and can reflect the garden
Find an object you adore like a cushion and then pull colours out of that to repeat around the room.
Don’t be afraid to mix patterns
Use texture
Good luck!

Buffybee

Same here, January 06 it all kicks off.
I’m not sure it was the best idea, because trying to arrange tradesmen to come in and do things in the run up to Christmas has been a nightmare.

I’ve always got an idea which colours I’m going to use, so I normally start with wall colour, which I did this time, then the sofa, light fittings, new radiators, I’m still not 100% decided in the curtains and blinds.

I hardly ever feel I’ve made a mistake, so I’m confident it’s going to look stunning!

Always the sofas first because that's the most expensive for us.
1 yellow and 1 terracotta at the moment. Our walls are always a neutral colour as I'm big on pictures and mirrors.
Carpets are darker now as I learnt my lesson in the last property with cream carpets.
Some years ago I went to curtain making classes so from that I've saved a lot of money.

GagaJo you can use patterns, but subtly! Our sofa is a plain colour, as are the floor length curtains. (The ones on the French windows draw, but the ones on the ordinary window are just there for "dressing" there is a blind on the window) However we have a few cushions on the sofa in the most fabulous fabric, it's almost like a patchwork of chenille and satin, in colours that remind me of a Klimt painting.

Hard floors, a flokati rug in front of the fire and a large wool rug in block colours at the other end of the room.

Pick your overall colour first. Then sofa/seating. Carpets come in all colours so you could take a swatch OR a photo of seating colour along with you when you look for carpets.

While you're waiting for sofa delivery and BEFORE carpets, get the walls done.

Curtains/window cover would be even easier. If you need a specific shade, there are places online that will send colour swatches and then you order by size. The old rule for curtains was each curtain should be the width of the window, but I don't use that rule anymore. I don't like the cluster of fabric.

Speaking as a minimalist, I'd say NO patterns to avoid a cluttered look but that is a very personal opinion.

I’d choose the most expensive item (sofas?) first and go from there. Let the colour scheme be led by the colour of that item. Then carpet and curtains last. Other stuff should be relatively easy once the main choices have been made.

That’s the way I’ve usually approached things anyway. I definitely wouldn’t start with choice of curtains.

I forgot to say, places like Laura Ashley & John Lewis will, for a fee, come up with a redesign for you. You don’t have to buy their products, you can source cheaper versions elsewhere!

Complete re-do here starts on 6th January. Decorators will be here for about two weeks, all downstairs and stairs being done.
Then new curtains, carpets and finally new sofas.
First thing to do, is choose your colour scheme and it all follows in from there.

Oh kitty I do sympathise.

I have actually got no sense of style whatsoever and have always been quite happy to let rooms 'evolve', but we now have to tackle the re-decoration of our dining room.

On the other hand our daughter is a natural and has added tens of thousands of pounds to the value of her own home through good interior design. I think we're going to have to ask her to help us out. Decor has always been the domain of The Wonderful Man up to now, but if I tell you that our dining room decor is orange and yellow (and has been for twenty years!) you will understand why we need assistance.

I’d start with choosing a colour scheme and then focusing on the most expensive and difficult to replace item which for me would be carpets.

Did ours last year, walls first ( colour....paint/wallpaper etc)
Then carpets or wood flooring, then sofas etc.Soft furnishings come last.

We did this two years ago, we started by collecting colour swatches of fabric and various paint cards for their shades, we also collected the furniture fabric colour swatches which were free from the Next shops or on line, a lot of the large online Carpet shops will also supply free samples to enable you to create a ‘mood board’ of ideas in total, which you can keep referring to or adjusting as you live with it in your room for a few days and get to see it in different lights.
Light colours will make a room feel larger, dark ones have the opposite effect. A neutral coloured carpet or flooring will lend itself more sympathetically to any future colour scheme changes than a fashion colour will, we made that mistake a few years ago when we bought a Chilli paper coloured carpet to go with the then fashionable Brown and Red large floral print Curtains, it ended up fading in the strong sunlight, and turning to an almost orange colour which looked horrible.
Our latest colour scheme is a neutral dark Beige Carpet, Burford Fabric seating from the Next range, and Soft Coral walls with a brightly coloured pattered rug , and toning cushions. We also replaced the lighting with some Black chrome fittings from Castlegate lighting online store.
We are very pleased with the result, and the accent colours can easily and simply be changed in the future without any major disruption or mess.

Firstly, look at how and when you use it. As an example, we rarely go into ours before about 7.30 pm, as until then we tend to be in the kitchen/dining room.

Then consider the light, natural if you use it during the day, artificial if evening only.

After that, think of colours you like. Then flooring (carpets are expensive to replace, and quite high maintenance, we now have hard floor and rugs, much easier!)

If course if there is something that you really must keep, factor that in to your plan!

We gave ours a makeover this year....mind you, it needed it!
It was like living in a 70s time warp.
Everything was changed, furniture, carpet,curtains etc. Spent ages looking at online photos of what was fashionable and chickened out of doing anything too radical.
We wanted a light and airy feel so went for blues and greens and light oak furniture.
We also wanted to replace our fake coal effect fire and surround with a woodburner so this involved punching a hole through the lounge ceiling and roof to accommodate the flue.

To start with, we sold or gave away anything that we didn't want in the new style lounge, had the walls stripped of paper, ripped the stone fireplace out and had a new skim of plaster in places.

Next job was the installation of the new woodburner, then decorating. In the meantime whilst all that was going on, we chose new furniture and furnishings.
There were a few disasters on the way when radiators leaked and our 45 year old boiler had to be replaced but otherwise it went pretty well.
Took in total about 2 months to complete.

We left the curtains.

First thing to go was the carpet. Now we have a beautiful sanded and waxed floor with a smallish rug. We repainted.

Next was the oversized bookcase which I've donated and replaced from the charity shop with a slimmer, shorter version.
Once everything was out of the room, it was easy to see how over-furnished it had become. I was careful not to put everything back although I did have my 1930s settee reupholstered, because I love it.
We have the dining table in the window now and it doesn't get used so much as a surface!
Enjoy your new room.

I am really enjoying ours.

Once the room is empty and the walls are prepped you'll see the light and space differently so dont set too much in stone before then

I would leave it to her who must be obeyed.....DD3!