My original intention was to share a post on how I basically swapped lots and lots of things around in my home over my break. I often shop my own house when I’m itching for some change and the start of the new year, after the Christmas decor has come down, is normally peak itchiness (well, that metaphor has gone horribly wrong.) Anyway, that was what I wanted to do but it’s just so dark this time of year and trying to get nice bright shots in every room was pretty much impossible.

pale grey living room with large gold starburst mirror decorative wood in fireplace and cowhide rug with yellow velvet loveseat

So, instead, I’m just going to share the living room today. Sorry sorry. This is what it’s sometimes like blogging in the North of England in the middle of winter. The sun rises at around 8:15am and sets around 4pm and in between, it’s just about barely over the horizon before it starts making its way back down again. Meh. But hey, perhaps my living room will give you the impetus to give your home a little shake up this January too?

black and white cowhide speckled rug in living room with marble and gold coffee table

I told you the other day that I woke up one morning at some ridiculous hour and suddenly thought about swapping the rugs in my living and dining room. I have had the white cowhide in my living room for something like 5 years (!) and it’s still in amazing condition. And yes, that’s with us using the room almost constantly along with our gang of furry children. The good quality cowhides can really take a beating and they are so easy to just hoover up. On the odd occasionΒ that it’s needed more than just a vacuum (hello sick animals… yeah, that happens), I use a tiny bit of washing up liquid with warm water and a sponge, let it dry, vacuum and it’s perfect again. So I knew the white one would be fine under the dining room table where it may be subjected to slightly more abuse.

eclectic boho glam living room from swoon worthy blog www.swoonworthy.org

I love the way the white one brightens the dining room and I’ll share that with you hopefully if we get a sunny enough day soon to take some photos but the darker black and white speckled one that had been in the dining room just totally changed the look of the living room, making it a much moodier, cosy space, perfect for winter. It was so easy to do as well and it didn’t cost a thing – these are my favourite types of room refreshes – the ones that are super quick and FREE!!

After that, I decided to swap out a few things, refresh the vignettes in the room and I added a gorgeous cushion that I got in the Boxing Day sales from Anthropologie. That plus a book I’d received for Christmas were the only things I actually added to the room – everything else was either already here or from somewhere else in the house. You might remember the deep burgundy cushions and goat hair throw from my Christmas living room but I decided to leave those in placeΒ as they look so lovely playing off the pinks and burgundies in the wallpaper.

vintage hoop chair eclectic styling living room

Now one thing to bear in mind when you are mixing patterns is that it’s always best to pay attention to the scale of the pattern itself. The rug has a lot more ‘movement’ in it due to the speckled pattern so I needed to calm down some of the other patterns in the space to make it all gel together. The wallpaper is fine in here because it’s a really large pattern so the comparatively smaller pattern in the rug doesn’t fight for your attention. But the smaller pattern on the Halsted cushions I had just didn’t really work as the size of the pattern was so similar to the rug. So instead, I used my gold sequinned cushion (purchased years ago from H&M Home) on the chair.

fiddle leaf fig with vintage brass and glass table and small table vignette styling

I also wanted to open the room up a little bit so I moved one of the hoop chairs to my office (to replace the hanging chair temporarily while I look for something suitable for that space) and this whole area under the bay window just felt a little airier with my fiddle leaf fig and my vintage glass and brass table.

marble and gold coffee table on black speckled cowhide rug with vintage brass - coffee table styling

Of course, the other vignettes got an update. On my coffee table, I added one of the books I’d received for Christmas called The Finer Things by Christiane Lemieux* It’s a beautiful tome with a gorgeous gold patterned cover (and so much glorious inspiration within its pages – yes, I’ve already read it nearly cover to cover) that worked perfectly with the warm brass that’s everywhere in here. A plant, a few other bits and I called it a day.

coffee table styling with brass cranes

On the wallpapered chest of drawers (see the DIY of that one here), I added a faux plant and faux flowers because ain’t nothin’ growing in that alcove at this time of year. So I make do with faux. Actually, has anyone else had all their plants seemingly committing mass suicide all at once? I have so many plants right now on their last legs and I’m not sure they are going to survive the winter. It seems to happen every year. The lack of light has a lot to answer for!

wallpapered chest of drawers with tropical print and leigh viner print

So that’s my living room this winter. It’s a little darker, a little moodier and I quite like it.

eclectic boho glam in deep claret and olive green chesterfield and tropical wallpaper

Have you had any room refreshes for winter? Do tell.


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