Our living room was the biggest headache of our two-year renovation – here's why

Strategist and content creator Francesca Swan is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on the concept of 'Everything' and what makes a home special to you. See the rest of her articles here.

It's now my firm belief that in every renovation, there is one room that acts as both carrot and stick as you wade through the often sludgy, seemingly endless weeks or more often, months of your project.

The proverbial carrot is the big shiny dream that literally keeps you going. A vision of one room so perfect for your needs, your home, your life, that you constantly think of it; quite often it will be the one room you have finished designing and maybe buying things for, long before the dream is due to become a reality.

The stick, however, is that this then acts as a measure against which all renovation progress is made or not made. Just HOW much longer before that meticulously imagined mirage can be realised and all will finally be well in the world? Well, in my home at least. You get the gist.

With this comes both extreme excitement, joy, optimism and crucially motivation. The flip side is frustration, annoyance and sheer desperation.

I exaggerate of course, however dramatic intent aside, I feel sure all renovators can or will at some point experience this to some extent.

In our case, the hallowed space was our living room, and in true carrot and stick style, of all the many rooms and parts of the project, this one has truly lived up to the legend.

Creating our forever home and Everything living room

We both have ADHD, which screams very loudly against chaos. We like space and organisation and have struggled (also argued a LOT!) in previous homes with overfilled multi-purpose rooms.

The kitchen/diner/living room also serving as an office? That was fun. The spare room which frequently and frantically morphed between wardrobe/dumping ground/office/guest room/gym. A veritable nuclear bomb in more ways than one.

We waited a long time to be able to do something about it, and moving to this apartment was our chance to create a Forever home.

Whilst it was very similar in style, proportions and original features to our beloved old apartment, it also had a large garden, which allowed us to extend and build, fulfilling our long-awaited and hard worked for ambition of a room for everything.

Well, almost everything. I’m not allowed a Christmas room. The other half very firmly put his foot down on that. Hopefully not on a box of my vintage baubles.

But we do have a primary bedroom suite of connected rooms with a partitioned room for just the bed, walk-in wardrobes, a vanity area and bathroom, separated from the main apartment.

A new extension creating a spacious kitchen/pantry/diner and connecting to a new office. A separate summerhouse annexe creating another office, a gym and a guest suite.

And the crowning glory, a living room, filled with books and art, lots of comfy seats and expansive leafy views. No desk. No dining table. Just pure relaxation and joy.

This will be the room where our beloved Everything feeling can be protectively nurtured and thrive easily. Walking in will immerse us in immediate joy, contentment and escapism, resetting our fraught nervous systems and gently pulling us into being present.

It will be a warm, communal space for us to spend time alone, together and with friends and family, as we lay around relaxing, napping, chatting, listening to music, reading, watching films, playing games. A seat or comfortable cushion for everyone, perfectly lit for every situation, art and books to spark conversation (not that it’s massively needed in our circle of exuberantly chatty characters; the other half and I probably being the worst culprits!).

That was our carrot as we embarked upon this two year project – the room we dreamt of and couldn’t wait to bring to life. But, of course, it’s been the longest to materialise and jeez, has it been one very spiky stick.

Learning the lessons from our old apartment

The living room in our last apartment was very similar to this in terms of dimensions, proportions and features, but thanks to our small kitchen, it had to double up as a dining room as well. This of course somewhat squashed the beauty of the room, its purpose and how we wanted to live in it.

I’d also made unforced errors. I didn't unify the alcove joinery; on one side we built cabinetry to enclose the TV, with bookshelves running up to the coving. However, the other alcove, with the same shelving, didn’t have the matching cabinet. This asymmetry bugged me constantly and disproportionately.

And then there was the cheap replica fireplace, which we never got around to sorting out. It stood out like a sore thumb against the craft of the original features and drove me wild.

The cased opening worked brilliantly to create open-plan living and connect the room to the central atrium of the kitchen and hallway, whilst also being sympathetic to the period property. However, the layout of the adjoining rooms meant it had to be right aligned, which obliterated any chance of symmetry and always annoyed me, even though there was no way around it. Can you tell I’ve got a thing about symmetry yet?

We took advantage of the grand bay window and its expansive views down to the sea by building a window seat, which handily served as a dining nook. But it interrupted the flow of the room and ate up floor space I would much have preferred to use for a chair I had squirrelled away in storage, waiting patiently for the perfect home. My poor chair waited a few more years before that opportunity arose…

These were all the things I held in my mind when we viewed our new apartment for the first time and walked into a practically identical living room, ripe with potential.

Two problems, one architectural solution

We approached the build and renovation in two phases. Phase one was renovating the existing apartment. The primary bedroom suite shot up in no time, creating a much-needed sanctuary from the works.

Next was the living room. Once first fix had been completed it was onto creating the cased opening. This was essential, not just for our preferred open-plan style, but also to revive the hallway.

Albeit a long and majestic space with sweeping high ceilings and intricate coving, it had zero natural light. Not ideal for both the entryway and connecting backbone of the apartment; linking the primary bedroom suite, living room, eventual home to a cloakroom, then leading into the new extension with its kitchen/pantry/diner.

The living room is southwest facing and graced with a lusciously verdant view of huge trees, through which elegant red brick mansions can be glimpsed. Every moment offers the experience and full effect of the seasons and weather. The sun may creep round mid-morning and bathe the whole room in glorious light, or perhaps a ferocious storm will lash the huge windows with rain, whilst the trees sway buffeted by strong winds. All of this can be enjoyed from this vantage point; brilliant for a living room and even better for an entry hall.

Structural engineer engaged, plans approved, the work on our grand new cased opening commenced. This time, it centred precisely to the middle of the wall, facing the fireplace and providing the perfect sightline from the front door into the garden. The borrowed light transformed this once dingy and dark space creating a welcoming and dynamic hallway.

Restoring the dream

Then onto restoration. Whilst a beautiful apartment blessed with original features, years of neglect meant it had fallen into a sad state of repair.

Thankfully, and somewhat miraculously the huge ornate ceiling rose was in near perfect condition, however the same could not be said for the delicate lace-like cornice. Thankfully we found a wonderful local restoration expert, who magically vanished the gaping holes, making it like new.

The wooden fireplace was replaced with the original Carrara marble fireplace reclaimed from our bedroom, lovingly restored to pristine glory by yet another highly skilled and passionate local craftsperson. Finished with a woodburner and Italian slate hearth, the room finally regained the majesty of its former days, ready to begin its new chapter as the warming heart of our home.

Never forget the importance of good bones

Those of you who regularly frequent my fortnightly tales will be familiar with my obsession for good bones. Those permanent fixtures and fittings that subtly elevate a space, stand the test of time and importantly, create cohesion throughout a home.

In my case, it was back to my old faithfuls to complete the living room, bringing back the quality stars that had shone in the old apartment and already taken their place in the primary bedroom suite. If it ain’t broke…

First up, laying my much-loved Flooring Superstore Cambridge Bavarian Oak Chevron flooring – there might have been actual tears the day this went down and the sunshine brought the golden tones of my new floor to softly glowing life. This flooring lives in every room of our apartment, including the summerhouse, and in further testament to my love for it, we also used a similar version of darker oak in the old apartment. It’s a decision I take pleasure in every time my bare feet caress the soft grooves and grain of the wood.

Radiators came in the form of my favourite bronze Paladin Bartholomew from Trade Radiators. We all know that radiators can be design features, as well as functional and this one definitely understood the brief. Softly curved, yet statuesque and elegant, it lends a period-friendly architectural detail and acts as an unexpected, yet stunning sculpture.

Last but not least, bronze switches and sockets c/o my go-to Corston Architectural. An investment, certainly, but with slim profiles, elegant form and subtly sophisticated materiality and finish, one worth making.

Joinery at any cost

Restoration complete and bones in place, it was onto the joinery and my longed-for shelves to release my books from their prison in storage.

The phasing of the extension build, and therefore our kitchen, required a makeshift solution in the living room to see us through three months whilst work was completed. I refused to allow any overspill into the bedroom suite, holding fast in the belief we needed to protect one space from the creep of chaos.

So, the living room became our de-facto one room living space.

We bought two handy portable kitchen units and installed temporary shelving, which could be used as part of our setup and then finished properly when the time came. We then created two zones; a small seating area with our sofas, and a kitchen with a dining table, also acting as a desk, with numerous boxes and materials stacked in any free space. As you can imagine, I was in hell.

However, when planning our survival room, I knew one wall would remain untouched, so embarked upon a typically Francesca plan of pushing through with installation of beautiful cabinetry and shelving on either side of the fireplace. When they were fully decorated, we decided to paint the wall too. Note the singular there. Yes, dear friends, I finished one side of the room perfectly, whilst the rest of it was basically a dumpster hellfire.

It made sense to me; I rescued some of my books from storage and set them up to striking effect in their new home. When sitting on the sofa, looking at the magnificent fireplace and watching TV (neatly encased in cabinetry mirrored perfectly in the other alcove – live it, learn it), you could almost imagine the room was finished. Just keep those blinkers on and block it all out. In truth it did kind of work and I was happy to take any wins or small signs of progress I could.

I won’t bore you by regurgitating the torturous details, however needless to say planning delays meant three months turned into nine. I repeat, NINE months of our waking life squeezed unceremoniously, noisily and dustily into this one room. The motivational carrot of my dream room was a distant memory, and instead I had a very hard beating from the stick reminding me daily just how far we were from finishing.

Eventually the kitchen was completed, and we gradually reclaimed the space. The units and the table went. The sofas were rearranged. We could actually walk around the room without sustaining minor injury and a sort of calm started to settle.

It was time for the rest of the joinery. Matching bookshelves running up the ceiling on both sides of the cased opening, also mirroring the joinery on the facing wall. This creates a very pleasing symmetry, not to mention finally enough storage for our books.

I won’t linger on the point the shelves are already near full to bursting. We'll cross that bridge another day. And no, it doesn’t mean I will stop buying books.

Bringing our Everything living room to life

As we finally reach the end of our two-year project, (I know I’ve written those words many times before, however this time I actually think it’s true) the living room is within grasping distance. The boxes are clear, things are slowly coming to life, and we can finally see the living room we've imagined for these past few years.

In my next column, it’s onto completing the decoration; lighting, furniture, soft furnishings and art. All the incredibly sexy things I’ve been dreaming about for three years, which are now mostly bought, and some already in situ, such as my Vogue magazine coffee table of dreams.

In the meantime, we’ve realised that although it’s a rather wondrous experience every time we begin to complete and use a room properly, this one is even more special having been so long in the making and through so many different incarnations.

We’re falling in love with our home that little bit more. All the memories of stress and horrific never ending expense have started to fade away.

We could not wish for a stronger feeling of Everything. It’s in every single corner, every clean line of joinery, the soft curves of the marble fireplace, the view onto the autumnal trees in our garden and beyond. And there’s even more to come when we finish decorating and dressing it.

We feel like we belong here. We now know without a shadow of a doubt that we have made the right decision, and it definitely has been worth it. Phew.