New Year, New Look In The Living Room!

Happy new year everyone! I'm back at my desk and ready to kick of the year by showing you some changes that I've made to the living room over the past couple of weeks.

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

In the run up to Christmas I finally got around to framing and adding a few new pieces to the monochrome gallery wall. The additions have had the desired effect of making the wall look more finished, and the tweaks to the layout work so much better than the previous incarnation. I think gallery wall layouts are really hard to get right, and feel like we're kind of there now with this one (between you and me, it was starting to drive me totally insane). The best part, is that it's made the room feel bigger as the gallery now extends right to each end of the wall, drawing the eye along, instead of just focussing on the area above the sofa only. I love that only three new pieces have had such a dramatic effect.

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

But speaking of sofas, the most exciting, and biggest change in here, is our new sofa from

Out & Out Original

that arrived with perfect timing, a few days before Christmas, and it has completely transformed the room.

Allow me to introduce our new family member,

Slouchy

...

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

The Slouchy is a generously sized three seater sofa with a fabulous contemporary shape, that gives a subtle nod to mid-century style with tapered oak legs, stopping the overall design from feeling too heavy.

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

The super wide arm rests (which we've discovered are perfect for resting remotes, phones and ipads on - because let's be honest, sofa time in our house at least, nearly always includes some, or all of these gadgets) are the same height as the back, and the padding is integrated into the sofa, negating the need for separate seat and back cushions (though two optional back cushions are included as pictured below). These design details work together to enhance the streamlined, contemporary look.

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

The wool textured mid-grey fabric, which is not too light, and not too dark, is super soft and cosy, and I can confirm, that as I've been rather under the weather for the last few weeks, that I have spent way more time than I usually would sat on the sofa, and it's very comfortable indeed. Like, don't-want-to-get-up-and-do-anything-else comfortable. It's extra deep, meaning it's great for snoozing on too (okay, I

might

have already tested out this option a few times too), or indeed just settling back with your feet curled up.

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

I'm not sure if our old sofa which was also a three seater was particularly compact, but the Slouchy definitely has a more generous seating area - three people always felt way too close on the old sofa, but perfectly fine with our new one.

I've been hankering after something more contemporary, as obviously the design of a large piece of furniture such a sofa really defines the look of a room, and this shape just works so well in here.

Needless to say, it has a big thumbs up from the whole family, and has given the room a lovely fresh look and feel. I'm so happy with it! Can you tell!?

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog
New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

Out & Out Original, (who I'd like to add, though I'm not obliged to, have been

such

a pleasure to work with), also have a fantastic range of other furniture for both indoors and the garden. I'm totally eyeing up some of the outdoor options like the

Malibu Luxury Greywash Wooden Lounge Set

, which actually looks way too nice be used outdoors, and dreaming of some warm days when it could be used. With a cocktail in hand. Obvs. There's a real passion that drives this company, which is just lovely, so please do go and check them out.

New Year, New Look In The Living Room - French For Pineapple Blog

This post is in collaboration with Out & Out Original.

P.S You can also pop over to the

Out & Out Original blog

where I'm now a contributor, to see what I've been banging on about there.