*Or “How I fell out of love with turquoise and so decided to obliterate my house of it… sort of”

Yeah that was probably too long for a post title. See, here’s the thing – not unlike most restless 4 year olds, I get bored easily. Even if I love how a room looks at a certain time, after a while, I stop seeing it – I stop appreciating the things around me and I start itching for change.  If you read my 40 Facts about Me, you’ll know that I was always itching for a new environment around me when I was younger and this normally meant me picking up sticks and moving house (which I did a lot). I’m older and more settled now and I have no intention of moving at this moment, but that wish for a change in my environment hasn’t really gone away.

brass swan trinket dish

So I decided recently to give my living room a bit of a refresh. One of the things that’s been bugging me lately was quite how much turquoise was in the room. Now, I used to LOVE turquoise and it was nearly in every single room in my house. But I have sort of fallen out of love with it recently – don’t get me wrong, I totally *get* why I liked it at the time. It’s fresh, it’s fun, it’s all around just a pretty colour. But I think the over-saturation of the colour EVERYWHERE in interiors over the last few years has sort of spoiled it a bit for me. And if you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ll know that when I gave my dressing room a ‘mini-makeover’ one of my reasons was to tone down all the turquoise. And as I’m giving my kitchen a bit of attention this year, the turquoise has also been pared back there too. So it was only a matter of time before my living room got the de-turquoising treatment as well.

coffee table vignette

With seldom-seen-on-the-blog Pablo overseeing the work, I started by just removing all the turquoise things in the room including all my coffee table books with turquoise covers – there were 6 of them! – as well as the large ceramic artichokes in front of the fireplace. I then cleared the surfaces so I could start from a sort-of fresh slate. I had recently purchased some new plants (Spring is definitely in the air) and so created a few new vignettes. Other than a couple of inexpensive plants because my maidenhair ferns didn’t last through winter, I didn’t spend a dime.

fireplace with decorative logs and plants

You’ll also notice that the hanging chair is still in the space. Now, this is not permanent and the two little vintage hoop chairs will definitely be coming back in here. Due to it’s size and weight and because we can’t yet move it into what will eventually be my new office (more on that soon), for now the chair is taking up temporary residence here in the living room and the lighter and much-easier-to-move-around hoop chairs are hanging out in the master bedroom. I figured I’d work with it because it’s a damn cool chair so I don’t mind.

coffee table vignette with hanging chair in background and vintage tv cabinet

As you might also notice, the only turquoise item I didn’t take out of the room were the curtains because at the time of taking these pictures, I wasn’t sure what I was going to replace them with. Well, I have made a decision and purchased a new set (!!) which I hope to be hanging soon. Of course, once they are up, I’ll share them.

I did, however, change the vignette on the little side table that sits aside the hanging chair as well.

brass side table vignette

I also changed the art behind the lamp on the little chest of drawers and used the vintage brass swan trinket dish that was in my dressing room. That peacock print is also destined for the new office but I like it in here for now.

white wallpapered chest of drawers with gold accessories

I had changed up the cushions on the sofa after Christmas to a simple palette of gold and white alongside my beloved Santa Maria Desert Flower cushion. Are you surprised I didn’t use my leopard print cushions in here? Well, ya never know… it could still happen – just sayin’.

living room with olive chesterfield and gold accessories

My fiddle leaf fig which I’ve had now for a year is doing SO well, isn’t it?! It’s definitely bigger and it has so many more leaves on it now. I am so damn proud of that plant – I have to say, the self-watering pot was worth every penny and I know without it, I probably would have killed it by now. (Want to know where I bought it? Check out my post here.)

colourful coffee table vignette

A fresh coffee table vignette always makes me happy and this actually changes constantly. I got that cute little watercolour box as a gift from Habitat – they have teamed up with Birchbox this month and designed it especially for them and I was literally looking for a little box for that spot when the postman showed up with this. It was like fate! Plus, there was all kinds of lovely beauty products in it so ya know, win win. (And no, this isn’t a sponsored post, they sent it to me free but I wasn’t asked to cover it on my blog – I just thought you might want to know where it was from!).

Birchbox by Habitat

It has a little bit of turquoise in it but it works really well, don’t you think? I think that’s the thing, you might have stuff that you wouldn’t think would be an appropriate accessory but sometimes you  literally have to think outside the box (see what I did there? Ha!).

colourful coffee table vignette

Need a reminder of what the room looked like before with all the turquoise? Here ya go.

So, that’s my new look for Spring – it’s not a huge change and I’m sure it’ll change again but for now, I’m happy that I got my little shake-up and things are looking ‘new’ to me again and I’m happy with the softer palette of pink, yellow and gold with the glossy greens in all the plants.

white wallpapered chest of drawers with gold accessories

And despite the look of shock and surprise that I’m actually taking pictures of him, I think Pablo approved of the changes.

IMG_0618

So have you ever fallen out of love with a colour? Have you created any fresh new looks for your home this Spring? What do you think of the changes so far? I’m all ears.


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