Anyone who reads my blog or follows me on social media will be aware that we suffered a flood from two leaks back in January. The leaks came from our stop tap and piping and literally ruined all of our downstairs living space.
The kitchen and living room floor had to be scrapped and 4 drying machines were put into our home by our insurance company for two weeks. The noise was horrendous and the air had completely dried out over this time. Something I definitely do not want to experience again! believe me.
Our home is still under construction, but we are making progress slowly! with our home decor. I had to keep digging deep to stay happy knowing that, It could only get better once the drying process was over.
I thought I would share with you what our home looked like before the leak and after. I won’t be covering everything in this post because this is very much a work in progress. Maybe you could take some inspiration from our home decor as I share this with you. It may well be that you might have some thoughts and ideas that you could share with us to help us get back on track. Seriously, we are always open to suggestions as me and my husband do not always agree on our home decor styles.
Our living room used to have a very eclectic home decor style and I loved it so much. It was my favourite room in our home. We could have replicated the living room as it was before, or have a complete change of home decor and style. We choose the latter and decided on a completely different look altogether!
We have decided to completely change the kitchen, living room, hallway and landing area’s in our home. This is a pretty big project, so lets hope we don’t get too stressed out.
On top of the upheaval we have also made the decision to replace all of the windows and external door in our home too. Let’s hope this goes well!
The reason we have completely come to the conclusion of a total overhaul is because, when we first moved into our there were things I didn’t really like. Although, no one would really tell the difference. We knew what imperfections we wanted to change.
Our old Home Decor
We have completely changed the colour and style of flooring from what was down previously. I quite surprised myself by making this change because the laminate flooring was my favourite part of our old home decor. If I am honest I was a little sad to see the old floor ruined.
I agonised over what flooring I should choose now, I visited countless flooring and diy stores for weeks and still couldn’t decide on what to get! There is so much choice since we last bought flooring.
The only thing I was sure about was instead of having the kitchen and living room in separate colours I wanted the flooring to give my home decor a flowing feeling through both rooms. This I imagined would lighten the rooms and make the overall area appear much more spacious.
Choosing our new flooring!
In this post I would like to talk about our new choice in flooring! As we progress I will keep you updated and lets see what we can achieve.
We searched for the perfect flooring and tried so many samples from very light to dark laminates. Surprisingly, we settled for a light oak real wood floor.
This was my husband’s choice and I really was not sure how I felt about it. The wood had to sit at room temperature for seven days to acclimatize to our house before it could be laid.
When fitting day arrived. The floor was laid quite slowly. You have to leave a gap around the edge of the floor to allow the oak floor to expand. I each part of the original floor had to be prepped to ensure there were no lumps and bumps underneath the new flooring. I was told that real wood floor is actually far more difficult to laye than laminate.
Once the flooring was down, I was happy with the change it has made to my home already. My living room feels like a dance studio, feeling quite spacious. I love the imperfections in the wood and how it creaks ever so slightly when you step on certain areas. The real wood flooring has given my home a little character.
So, we have started to change the whole look of the living room and kitchen and there are lots more to come until our house feels like a home again.
Please join us on our home decor journey to see what route it takes us in! Read about our very unique Bedroom makeover – The DIY Feature Mr & Mrs Feature headboard my husband made.
You can follow our Home Decor board on Pinterest to find the latest inspirations and moodboards we love.
Follow Rachel @U,me and the kids’s board Home. on Pinterest.
Verily Victoria Vocalises says
Crikey, I had forgotten you had had a leak in your house! Your lounge was so beautiful before. Great choice of flooring – we have that in our lounge too. Good luck with it all – I look forward to seeing how it all comes together. thanks for linking to #Pocolo x
George Wright says
We had a similar thing happen, the drying took forever, it was a nightmare!
Mackenzie Glanville says
I love real wood floors, great choice! We are building at the moment and doing a wood floor I can’t wait! #bestandworst linked up after you xx
Crummy Mummy says
Loving the new floor! Sounds like a nightmare – bet you’re glad it’s all sorted nowx #bestandworst
Rachel Hirst says
Thanks, the colour of the floor is growing on me now!
Run Jump Scrap! says
Oh no! This happened to my friend and she has the driers in too. She is getting a new kitchen. I love the flooring – the colour is amazing. I would be dancing all over it too.Good luck with the work and thaks for sharing with #bestandworst
Rachel Hirst says
The colour of the floor is growing on me now, I hated it at first.It is all coming together slowly. Not long now, just looking for curtains and lights.