Yellow and grey brightens your day

Now that the living room carpet is in place, the house is finally beginning to look like we've actually done something over the past six months. Despite the coats of paint, new blinds, apple crate bookshelves and white gloss stair banisters - if all you can see under foot is an expanse of bright red synthetic carpet, it really does retract the eye from all the progress.  Plus the cat gives you a lot of static shocks, much to his bewilderment.

 

So I'm very excited that the last of the red carpet will be disappearing this week. The dining room walls have been painted with the dark grey and white, and we're getting the laminate flooring fitted on Friday. We wanted to sand and varnish the original floorboards but after peaking under the carpet we found they're not up to the job.  Carpet didn't seem like a good option for a room that you step straight into from the front door.  We've gone for laminate in a warm dark oak finish because that's the colour we would have had with the natural floor boards and it marries in the red bricks of the fireplace. Then we'll be kitting the room out with clean crisp white dining furniture and console table.

A sneak peak of the dining room...

What I'm looking for now is a big flatwoven rug for the dining table to sit on. I love the contrast of grey with zingy yellow to brighten up what could otherwise be quite a drab scheme.

 

I've seen a couple that I like, there's this one from Next that's a chequered design of yellows, greys and lime green:

 

 

 

Then there's always Ikea of course, and I love this 60s style article of pure sunshine, even if Chris did do that scrunchy thing with his face when I showed it to him:

 

 

 

I also spotted this one from the Esprit Home range of Modern Rugs that's got a 3D flower design all over:

 

 

 

Then there's Made.com, which is a bit like Achica in that it's somewhere to buy designer homeware for a bargain, but they have perminant fixtures as opposed to flash sales.  The one thing is I've not heard great things about their customer service or ability to get orders right. But for this chevron patterned rug, I could be tempted to give them a go:

 

 

 

 

And while I'm piling up additions to my wish list, I might as well add on the Bouji chair that I've spied on Made.com that would nestle next to the fireplace in the living room a treat:

It also comes with bright turquoise legs, or upholstered in purple or blue or even red velvet... just so you have all the facts.

 

In the meantime, much excitement about the new laminate flooring that will be getting fitted in just a few days time.  I just need to decide on a rug, if there weren't so many choices and not enough rooms to buy them all...