That escalated quickly!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Nathan and I went to check out the new Jysk shop at Yas Mall two weeks ago, just to have lunch. While there we got talking about the nice stuff they had in the shop, about how our sofa keeps hurting his back and so on.
One thing let to another rather quickly, and now two weeks later we have a completely refurbished living area downstairs, with green walls; and the kids have freshly painted rooms and a bunch of new furniture as well..! Yeah, that escalated quickly!

It all got accelerated by the fact that our friends from Brunei were about to move into their apartment, so I messaged Peta - "Do you need a sofa, or a TV?" And yes, they did! As they have two toddlers, they were more than happy to get their hands on a 2nd hand sofa. They also got an old office chair, one of the kids sofa beds, two armchairs and a table, some wall shelves, two big cubical shelves, plus some loose stuff such as a safety gate, a framed poster, a standing mirror, a rug... ha ha, the list goes on!

So, we had to get some new stuff (took advantage of all the Ramadan offers!), and as we were getting new stuff, we decided to do a bit of a reshuffle at the same time. And as we were doing a reshuffle, we decided to have the whole downstairs painted too! After seven years in our black, white and beige living room I craved some colour, so behold our new living area - now in soft greens, blues, pinks and sandy hues:

We moved my "office" (there will be another, smaller, desk and wooden storage here) to the previous dining room area, and created a bit of a home library feeling.

I got a reading chair again, which I have missed since I lost my reading corner in Brunei when the bar got installed, yay!

 

Our dining table went down the end into the big space, brighter and a for something different:

And the new (!) TV went on the short wall by the door which made for a cosier TV-watching space. New sofas there, with new cushion covers and a new rug. Still a bit unsure as to how to place the sofas, we have tried three different ways already...

The new TV is a whole thing by itself, it's a Samsung The Frame, by my wishes. This means that when it's turned off it's not just a big, black blob - it turns into a piece of ART, and I LOVE it!!! (The actual frame itself hasn't arrived yet, but it will make the TV look even more like a framed painting.)
I can change the artwork with an app on my phone, which also tells me more about each artwork. It has everything from photographs, graphic art and abstract art to well-known artists and motives. I love, love, love!

Finally, as we were painting downstairs, we decided to have the kids rooms painted too. Lucas room got a fresh coat of slightly broken white, a new much bigger rug and some bean bags to replace the sofa bed. Being a 17-year old boy, he doesn't need much more furniture than this.

Linnea got her room painted only on two walls. I had my doubts the colour she had chosen would be too dark, but I actually love it! She also got new curtains, a new armchair, a new shelf and a new mirror on the wall and she is one happy girl!