My living room update; new blinds, sofa & lamp!

For the past 3 years, I was living like in a fish bowl! My old blinds were absolutely disgusting! When we came to view the apartment for the first time, we walk into a proper hangover house!
Firstly, we had to wait around 15min, as the agent kept knocking and trying to open the door but it was locked from inside. At 3pm finally, we were greeted by a guy who looked like a proper mess, t-shirt tackled in his panties, hair in a mess and with a hangover face still smelling of rum. He seems to be very surprised but he let us in. Inside, we had to be careful not to step on broken glass or leftover pizzas on the floor! You should have seen the agents face! Hilarious! Well, they allowed us have cats and we were told it will be proper clean up and most broken items replaced including the blinds and cleaning of the carpets. We agreed to move in. When we picked up the keys, I noticed that yes, it was repainted but perhaps with only 1 layer of paint as you could see the stains still! The blinds weren’t replaced! These were in a shocking state! Missing in parts, dirty and smelly! I nearly begged the agency to get it replaced but it was a fail all the way with broken promises.

After 3 years, surprisingly my landlord got in touch. He, himself got quite fed up with the agency! He turns out to be a decent guy! After raising few issue’s with him, he told us we can replace ourself if we want to! Something we were banned according to my contract! You can’t even imagine my happiness! New sofa and new blinds! Previously, we had black leather 2 seater sofa, that wasn’t comfortable at all. Also, it was little too small for us as well. You can read about How to find the perfect sofa, where I chatted about it a little. You can also find picture’s of the old sofa in this post: 5 reasons to buy Habitat rug. Oh, I snatch my sofa from gumtree, a bargain for £130. It is a second hand one but still great condition and previous owner delivered it and even brought it upstairs for me with his mate! Very kind!

So, back to the blinds. We only could buy vertical blinds so, I have ordered my blinds from OrderBlinds.co.uk I was attracted by the colours and bargain prices. Before I was given a green light from my landlord to replace the blinds, we had a contractor from the agency who took dimensions and I asked him how much he is charging for it. He told me £180! Geez! After writing down all my requirements to orderblinds.co.uk website, I was given a quote £51! That’s a difference! I have to admit I was really impressed with the website. I could easily find what I wanted and even great advises how to fit blinds and how to measure blinds! After I placed my order, it only took few days and I had a phone cal with regards to my delivery. I work through delivery time, so I kindly requested if possibly I could get them delivered during the weekend. The kind advisor on the phone couldn’t guarantee it would be, but he said he will do what he can. To my surprise, I came back from work on Friday, had my cup of tea and then the blinds arrived after 7pm! Perfect! No need to chasing the delivery guys, no need to go and pick up from depot! I was so impressed and so happy!

Once the blinds arrived, I unpack and read the instructions! Everything was well packed and well organised that literally it only took me 30min to install my blinds! On my own! Can you imagine? Well, bear in my mind that I am the master of DIY ;p and designer who likes to do things on my own, so if you never do stuff like that, perhaps ask boyfriend/dad/friend for some help, especially with holding while screwing etc. The colour was also, just bang on my style! I have chosen grey owl. I knew straight away, I wanted grey blinds, as previously were cream coloured and I needed something that will last longer. Also, grey colour may mute the magnolia walls and also, would look great with my new sofa! My blinds, are dim-out made of 100% polyester fabric and is semi-opaque. I have complete privacy, yet allow some light in, so is not completely dark! I totally love it and it was a great decision!

Another upgrade is my new copper lamp! I am little in love! My lamp is from Graham & Brown company, who specialise in wallpapers and interior design. I always wanted copper lamp! This is the style, I was after for a long time now! Oversized angled floor lamp! Perfection!

My bedroom is mostly in pastel pink, wood and white so for my living room I wanted to add something different! I wanted to bring grey, copper and orange here! I will take my photos of the lamp in the dark, so watch out this space! My Angled Copper Floor Lamp, is really heavy but you can just imagine the amazing quality! The colour is beautiful! It goes so well with my orange cushion and globe from Ben Di Lisi collection of Debenhams! I still need few more cushions and perhaps do few swaps around until I am completely happy, but for now, is just great!