We have two lounges, and refer to them fondly (and rather jokingly) as the 'Formal Lounge' and the 'Family Lounge'.  The formal lounge is anything but formal, but is the room we usually hang out in with friends and family (while we kick the kids into the other family lounge) or the place Symon & I like to spend time in together in the evenings.

This room opens into the kitchen and dining room areas, as well as our hallway.  It also has access to our outdoor porch, so is quite a central room for the house.

While this room renovation wasn't meant to involve much more than paint and new curtains, it took a while to complete!  After the re-piling of our house, there were large cracks on the walls and ceiling corners.  Thankfully my Dad pulled out his amazing plastering skills and made our walls look fabulous (thank you so much Dad!!).  

Here are a few before and after photos!

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Our main aim for this space was to keep it light and fresh with the same paint colours we are carrying throughout our home (see bottom of this post for paint details).   I had the idea of having shelving above the large wall space above the couch, but it took a while to convince Symon of my plan. Eventually he caved, and it has become one of our favourite parts of the lounge for displaying art, trinkets and our weekly letterboard quotes.

We were hoping to expose the brick in our fireplace, but discovered that it wasn't real brick and in the end had to keep it black!  I love the black fireplace now, with the fresh white surround.  Above it hangs one of our favourite pieces in the lounge, our giant black T-Rex!!  We weren't sure what we were going to hang above the fireplace and had toyed with the idea of a mirror, with someone else suggesting a large clock.  Neither of those options seemed to excite us, and while on a trip to Auckland, I stumbled into the amazing Shut The Front Door store and saw the T-Rex and thought to myself that it was so crazy that it might just work.  Symon was immediately in love with it and we brought "Neville" home with us.

Our coffee table was a Trademe find that Symon found soon after we moved into our house.  It had flaky black paint that came off, onto everything that touched it, so Symon sanded it down and re-oiled it.  I love how it looks, especially with the cow hide underneath.

I love this fresh space, and everyone else in the family seems to as well.  It's amazing how a fresh paint job and some basic styling can transform a space!

This is our 8th room that we have renovated so far, leaving 4 rooms to go (master bedroom, family lounge and 2 bathrooms), 3 large hallway spaces and an office nook.  This means we are officially halfway... not including the outside of the house (eeeeek!).

Next room... our master bedroom & office nook!