Autumn Home Updates with Habitat

Come and join me as I show you the Autumn home updates I’ve made to my living room with the help of Habitat

Does anyone else feel like the seasons changed overnight? One day we were enjoying warm and balmy summer days and the next we were layering up the clothes and putting the heating on. I don’t remember the last time the change was so noticeable. But I’m not as sad as I thought I’d be about saying goodbye to Summer. In fact, I’m actually looking forward to it. I think that’s because I have some exciting plans to decorate our living room and I can’t wait to get started.

I’ve already made a start on some Autumn home updates thanks to a project I have been working on with Habitat to revamp my home. As is always the way, once you start making small changes it makes you realise how much more you could do. So now I have bigger plans which include painting, flooring and new blinds.

So let me take you through the changes we’ve made so far and the new Habitat products that we’ve added. If you need a reminder of what our living room looked like after the last updates we made in 2017 you can take a look here. I think you’ll find it quite surprising how different it looks after spending just £400.

First up is this absolutely exquisite coffee table. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have found this. I had been looking for the perfect coffee table for so long. Before we bought our flat, we lived in a much larger 3 bedroom house that we were renting so a lot of our furniture was too big for our new home. We had a large square coffee table that was lovely and really practical as it had plenty of storage in it, but it was just too big for the space.

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I decided that a round coffee table would be a much better option, but I really struggled to find one that was the right size. It seems that the standard size for round coffee tables is 80cm diameter and this was larger than I wanted to go. But it was a real mission to find something smaller. That was until I happened upon the Sona coffee table. It’s made from hammered aluminium and is a beautiful rose gold colour with a hand-etched design.

It’s only 70cm diameter so it’s the perfect size for a small living room. The removable lid for storage provides a great hiding place for extra throws that we don’t necessarily want to have on display. Although storage furniture is also great for stowing away kids toys and other paraphernalia.

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I can’t tell you how much difference this has made to the feeling of space in our living room. We have a lot more floor space now which is great for the girls who love colouring and playing board games on the floor. Plus hoovering is easier as we have more space to manoeuvre around.

All this for just £250. Because a coffee table is a statement piece, I decided to spend the larger portion of the budget on this one item. Furniture is always worth allocating more of your budget to, because you won’t be changing it very often. For us, £250 was such a great investment as it not only looks great, but it is practical and has changed the way we can use the space.

Next up on my list of Autumn home updates is lighting. We all know that to create the best atmosphere in a room, lighting is key. And it’s not enough to just have a “big light”. What we need is layered lighting. Well, we didn’t have this in our living room. We have a ceiling light and a table light in the dining area but that’s it. What I wanted was a cosy atmosphere in the evening and also a source of light near the sofa for reading.

I specifically wanted wall lights, because in a small room it’s important not to clutter up surfaces. So I didn’t want another table lamp. But I also really didn’t want to have to get an electrician involved to install wall lighting. I’d been looking around for wall lights that could be plugged in but I wanted something quite subtle that wouldn’t take up too much visual space and preferably with copper accents. When I found the Ivar light, I knew it was the perfect option. I love the shiny copper and how it ties in so nicely with the coffee table and the copper picture frames. And the glass shade is just so understated.

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I was actually really surprised by how good value this light is. The Ivar light only costs £50, which I think is an absolute bargain. It didn’t put too much of a dent in the budget either. I think lighting is definitely worth allocating more of your budget to in order to get it right, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune as I’ve shown here.

The final change I’ve made and the one that probably adds the most impact for the least amount of money, is the new cushions. I am all about natural colours and textures, but after living with this space for a few years now I really felt like it needed an injection of colour. Something a bit more uplifting and bright.

I adore the colour combination of the dusty pink and mustard yellow with the moss green. It gives me a real sense of harmony and calm but in a happy and energizing way. I opted for the Regency cushions which come in pairs for £50, which I thought was an absolute steal. They are soft plush velvet on the front with a 100% linen fabric on the back and they come with feather filled pads. This was really important for me as I need to be able to plump them up and reshape them after my husband and kids have squished them out of shape.

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I know that £100 won’t seem affordable for some people when it comes to cushions, but I have scrimped on cushions in the past and I can tell you it’s not worth the savings. You will need to replace them twice as often so it’s much more economical and better for the environment to spend more in the first place to get something better quality. Given what a big impact these beautiful cushions have made, I think it was £100 well spent.

So there you have it! My Autumn home updates with Habitat all for £400. What do you think? Do you like the added splash of colour and the extra copper accents? I am absolutely made up with this little revamp and it’s changed the way I feel about heading into Autumn/Winter 2020.

Have you got any plans to revamp your home this Autumn? If you have, I’d love to hear about them so leave me a comment below.