Before and After Living Room Reveal- The Peach Palace
9 Sep 2017
What a delight we have for you today with a stunning before and after living room reveal of the ‘Peach Palace’. The 80’s was definitely the era of peach (although this house perhaps takes it a bit far), and swags and tails were the in thing. I should know, I even made a few myself! To cut a long story short, Katie (Mrs Peach) has devoted a blog, Come Down To The Woods about her trials with eradicating the colour to create a vibrant, eclectic home for her family.
This is the dining room (and now living room) before Katie began work on the house.
Katie was a self-confessed neutral décor woman at heart, so this is her first foray into the wonderful world of colour and eclecticism, and her blog shines through with her new-found love of colour and pattern. The first room to get the treatment is their glorious family living room, so we wanted to share it with you and hear a little more from Katie about designing the room.
J: Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
K: Hi I’m Katie, I live here in the Peach Palace with Chris (Mr Peach) and our four kids, twins Maxwell and Felix (7), Toby (3) and Dottie (1). We have lived here since April 2016 but moved out for six months whilst we completely renovated and extended. The lounge was the first room that we tackled as I couldn’t bear looking at the swags and tails any longer. Both Chris and I are dentists and in between working, mumming and renovating I’ve been on a one-woman mission to delete the peach.
J: What is your favourite piece in the room?
K: Its not quite a ‘piece’ but my favourite touch is the Bert and May tiles behind the fireplace. They took some guts to go for but I’m insanely glad that I did. If I’m allowed to pick 2 favourites then my second is the bag&bones pink neon sign. I spent hours practicing my handwriting which I always thought was pretty neat. Turns out years of computers and texting has made me a very sloppy writer.
J: The room now looks unrecognisable, what was the most challenging part about the whole process? What was the best?
K: The most challenging part of the process was installing the fireplace. The house has more than its fair share of fires but annoyingly there wasn’t one in this room. After an eye watering quote to replace the windows we decided it would be cheaper to install a fire. A chimney breast was built and an external flue was placed for the wood burning stove. This meant that the parquet floor had to be altered and the coving adjusted. Cue more eye water! Best part for me is that Loaf velvet sofa. There is nothing better than curling up on that.
Hicks Blue, by Little Greene makes a great back drop to the lush dark blue velvet sofa, and shows off the neon pink sign Katie had made to celebrate her blog name.
J: How long did the renovating process (on this room) take from start to finish?
K: Whole process took about 4 weeks from start to finish, a week to install and finish the fireplace and then a few weeks to decorate and style.
The fabulous Bert & May tiles are a bold choice with the House of Hackney wallpaper in the alcoves but don’t they look fab together? The mix of 2 bold oversized patterns works well.
Katie bought the zebra wall vase from Audenza, and her ingenious idea of framing him with a fancy gilt frame won her a gift voucher to spend at Audenza (find out how to enter our styling competition). Doesn’t he look majestic?
And last but not least the bar cart. What home is complete without a bar cart these days? It’s an excuse for more display surface, and to purchase gorgeous bottles, of course.
Get The Look
Zebra Vase | Claret Velvet Shell Chair | Pink Neon Heart Light | Artificial Trailing Fern | Gold Rock On Hand | Gun Vase | Faux Areca Palm Tree | Gold Metal Bar Cart | Velvet Stool with Brass Base | Aarunya Monochrome Rug | Palmeral Wallpaper
I hope you liked that little excursion into the Peach Palace transformation. Katie worked with Catherine from @mayskiesstudio on this project. To see more before and after shots, and take a look at the rest of Katie’s beautiful home, go to her blog, Come Down To The Woods or follow her on Instagram. I have serious bathroom envy for her fabulous ensuite bathroom, complete with pink claw foot bath. It’s one seriously sexy bathroom! And if you love Katie’s blog, and her dry wit, vote for her on the Amara blog awards.
Jacqui x
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Image Credits: Come Down To The Woods | Melissa Photography
23 replies to “Before and After Living Room Reveal- The Peach Palace”
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How wierd! I just followed her on Instagram a few hours ago. It’s interesting how they had to build the chimney breast from scratch. Looks great now with those tiles.
* weird
Thanks for your comment, Juan! That is weird! Though a reminder just how small the world of interiors is on Insta, in the grand scheme of things. The tiles in the fireplace really just finish it off, don’t they?
Juan!
Thank you for your lovely comments, it’s means such a lot. So glad you follow me on Instagram, hope I can continue to entertain you.
Katie
I adore this place – I’ve followed Katie on IG for a few months and the transformation has been immense! I definitely have major envy over those tiles – and that pink chair!
Oh I know! It takes serious vision to create a room like that, especially when you see where it started!!
Heidi! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. It’s been such a huge project, it means so much when I hear such lovely feedback! Thank you.
Katie
WOW – what a truly amazing transformation, so much character, great design choices and beautiful homeware pieces. Love the detail in the fireplace
The entire room is stunning, but it’s the fireplace which really brings it’s all together I think. A great addition!
Hey Athina!
Thank you so much for your gorgeous comments. So lovely of you to take the time to reply.
Katie xx
I found her on Insta too a few months ago and could tell at that time that we’d be seeing more of the peach palace. I love the direction she chose and cannot wait to see more of her rooms. Is it me however or is ‘dark’ walls becoming the uber theme of Insta lately? Feels like it’s Kate Young and her white walls against all the darkness of other major Instagrammers!
You are so right. It seems unless the room is dark, it just doesn’t get the same engagement. Unless it’s pink of course! It’s funny how in principle pink walls and dark walls couldn’t be anymore different, but they’re what everyone wants to see.
I predict we’ll be seeing plenty more of Katie and the PP renovation though – her design eye is incredible!
Jenny!
Such lovely words, it means such a lot! Thank you so much for your incredible positivity and support.
Katie
What a lovely feature! Thank you Miafleur for the lovely words. Actual blood sweat and tears have gone in to the renovation of the Peach Palace so its lovely to get some recognition. Thank you!
I can imagine!! You have such a fantastic eye – it’s no surprise that your Instagram following has grown so quickly. Good luck in the awards, feels very odd for us not be harassing everyone for votes this year!;-) Hollie x
I know Hollie, I hate having to remind people to vote. I never thought I’d be too worried about getting through (I know I’ve got no chance if actually winning) but I would be so unbelievably delighted to make the short list! Xx
Love this room so much! Wish I could afford £185 a roll wallpaper or any of these beautiful things tbh x
I know exactly what you mean! Looks utterly fantastic, but it’s certainly not cheap. I’ve seen so many good ideas on Instagram lately though, where the home owner couldn’t afford really jazzy wallpaper and they’ve created something incredible with either a paint effect or another ingenious idea. I saw one where the lady had used gold tape to create a geometric design on one of her walls – it looks fab!
This room is totally inspiring! The mix of traditional ideas with modern accessories is something I think is really important in good design these days. We are halfway through our renovations and quickly running out of money so it was so nice chatting to Katie at the Amara Awards and hearing that it will all be worth it. I’m hoping to have the majority of our house finished by the end of 2018. So grateful for Insta inspiration and encouragement to help me reach my goals! x
You’re so right, it’s really important to mix different eras to get a truly eclectic look. I can imagine it feels so daunting at this stage for you, but definitely good to chat to those that have come out the other side! Good luck with the house renovations this year – will look forward to seeing it on the blog!
Great room and brilliant fire place. Did you naje the fireplace yourself or get it somewhere?
Pleased to hear you like it, John! This is a house tour, so we do not own the home. However, the homeowner has given information regarding the fireplace within her Q&A 🙂
This room is beyond stunning and so cosy! Every quirky little detail works so well! Makes me realise how boring my home decor is!!