Updating the Sun Room | Home Renovations

Did you know..? We bought a house! If you've seen the “before” post which was the start of my renovations content, you'll know that it’s in pretty rough shape. As we've decided (mostly for financial reasons) to do the majority of the work ourselves, we decided the best place to start was the sun room - a.k.a. the playroom. So, here’s how it went.

Before

Making a plan

I started a mood board for each room in the house as soon as we were at the point of having an exchange and completion date. These contained a mix of things we already have and we’re going to move from our current rental home, and things we are picking out for our forever home. The main purpose of starting with the sun room was to ensure we had somewhere safe and secure for the children to play whilst we get the rest of the house liveable. I'm so glad we did, because it's been an absolute blessing.

We wanted a theme that matched the views both of the garden and the land beyond; however mostly we just wanted to brighten it up a bit. We went for green, white, natural wood, and bamboo styling - knowing that whatever we did the white bookshelf, toy boxes and more would fit right in. It's so far been a hit with all the children and I can't wait to get the rest of their stuff moved in when we're ready.

Getting started

Painting

Brand: Dulux

Base coat: Pure Brilliant White Walls and Ceilings

Ceiling Colour: Pure Brilliant White Walls and Ceilings

Main Colour: Emerald Glade Walls and Ceilings

Skirting: Pure Brilliant White Gloss (Non-Drip)

The artex swirl made the walls in the sun room a less than ideal surface to work with but we got there in the end. We base coated the ceiling and walls in white to start with. The ceiling needed a second coat of white, but the walls we moved straight onto the green after the first base coat. Some areas needed a little extra top up paint, but the majority of the walls only required one layer of green to achieve the coverage we were after.

Laying the floor

Brand: B&Q

Type: Peel and stick vinyl tiles

Colour: Natural parquet effect

This was the one job I thought would be nice and easy. That was far from the case. I did get there in the end though, and I’m actually really pleased with the final effect.

Pros

• The peel and stick was plenty easy to use, as long as you are careful when you peel not to tear the paper.

• Lining them up wasn’t too hard to do, the backing paper has arrows on it.

• It was quicker than putting down real parquet or laminate flooring.

Cons

• The walls were not straight, or aligned at 90° angles.

• The floor was not level.

• The tiles were not very easy to cut so when it came to adding in bits to fill around the edges it took a while.

I also miscalculated how many I would need based on the square footage of the room, as I didn’t account for the cutting of tiles to make them fit places such as where the patio doors sit. I ended up having to go and purchase another box to finish up!

Adding the finishing touches

To the left we had an ugly a lovely (!) view of our neighbours trampoline and unfinished, unrendered extension wall. We decided to cover it with window film I picked out on eBay, complete with a bamboo design to fit the room theme. I would not recommend the electrostatic style - it simply didn’t work. In the end I had to use double-sided tape to hold it in place, but it does the job and doesn’t look too bad (although it could be better!)

As for the rest of the room we added some macrame, houseplants, family photos and even some voile to add a bit of privacy. Each thing make it feel more and more like home, and the children love having their own space. Best of all it means that when they make a mess it is contained to one room!

After

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It is so nice to finally have the first room finished and usuable… and we are all loving it.

For more blog posts on buying and renovating our Cumbrian home, check out my house renovations on my blog. Have you got ideas of house and home content you'd like to see? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below.

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