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home magazine
'I mix up the decor depending on the season': Elena lets us inside her family's much-loved living room
“The shelves give me plenty of opportunities to decorate.”
EACH WEEK, WE ask someone based in Ireland with a passion for interiors to share one photo of their favourite spot in their home.
Elena and her husband bought their house in Co Mayo three years ago. Originally from Russia, Elena is a full-time mum to their three children, aged ten, seven and three.
“Though the house had good bones, it was very neglected and urgently required full renovation,” says Elena. “At the time, I was five months pregnant with our youngest child, so we had very limited time to finish this project.”
I think my long lasting interest in interiors really helped us to do the renovation in such a short time, because I already had the idea of what it should look like.
This week, Elena (@ahouseinmayo) chatted us through her favourite spot: the living room.
What do you love about this part of your home?
I love our living room because it is very cosy and relaxing. This is the heart of the house: a place where our family gathers together to sit, read or watch TV.
I personally like this room because these shelves give me plenty of opportunities to decorate. I like to decorate depending on the season. At the moment there is a coastal style decor, with blue and green hues and lots of real plants, but very soon it will be changed for autumn theme with warmer tones, dried flowers and pumpkins.
What was your inspiration when you were putting the space together?
I started saving pictures of beautiful houses long before we actually bought our own. I was collecting images from Pinterest, Houzz and all over the internet.
I love modern farmhouse style in its American/Canadian implementation, so I follow many bloggers from that part of the world. I am trying to recreate similar looks in my own home, but sometimes it can be difficult as our interior markets are very different.
Talk us through some of the objects in the photo.
The main objects in this photo are the Ikea bookcases and connecting shelves, which we upgraded slightly with a simple DIY to make it look more like a built-in furniture. I always wanted to have built-in cabinets, but we have no alcoves in this room, and building custom units along the entire wall was not budget-friendly. So we went with Ikea and got the look for a fraction of the cost.
Another focal point in this photo is our fireplace. It’s not as fake as it looks: there is a chimney behind it. During the renovation work we took out the old gas fireplace, but couldn’t decide what we wanted to replace it with.
We covered the niche with a piece of plywood and decorated it with sliced wood as a temporary feature. Eventually, we fell in love with this look so much that it will probably stay here for another while.
How well does this photo reflect the rest of your home?
It pretty much summarizes my style and the rest of our home. I like things being airy and bright, so you can find light walls, white furniture and neutral decor in almost every room of our house.
Be honest: how much tidying did you do before taking this photo?
Not too much. This is usually quite a tidy room, unless the kids decide to build forts on the couches. All of the open shelves inevitably become a magnet for papers, books and other small objects that are not put in place, so I removed the things that don’t belong there and picked up cushions from the floor.
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