Wading In: The Study, Part IV (The Big Reveal!)

I can hardly believe we’re through January already – it seemed to go by in an absolute flash! And I can honestly say that we’ve genuinely enjoyed our first January in Scotland. The days are getting longer and the weather is so home-y for me: for the first time in over 10 years in the UK, I have been able to enjoy settled snow lasting for weeks instead of mere days! 🤣

And it’s thanks to another typical wintery day outside that I’m finally able to catch up with some laptop work from the sofa (in the study, no less!)! This means I can finally write the final installment of the series about the reno of the study – yay!

So, just a reminder, here is what the room looked like in the sale particulars before we bought it:

And here it is after our updates:

We’ve gone for a relaxed mix of traditional and modern furnishings, which we think suits the vibe and use of the space down to the ground. Since we use this room as our main living room in the evenings, we didn’t want anything fussy – but we still wanted it to feel elegant and traditional to reflect the spirit of the house.

We already had our much beloved Sofa.com Bluebell sofa – and there was no question of replacing this – so we used that as the frame for everything else we added to the room after the main decorating work.

I’m absolutely in love with how the 18th century glazed mahogany bookcase and the Edwardian glazed display cabinet fit in the room. We bought them at auction in early January, having seen them in person in December when we picked up our first auction haul. Happily, I can confidently say that they look infinitely better here than they did under the fluorescent lights in the showroom! 😍

The rug was made especially for us from the end of a tartan carpet roll by the lovely Mill Shop in Newtyle. I was a little bit worried about it because it felt quite masculine, but in the end, I love the subtle nod to Scotland, and it turned out to be a surprisingly economical alternative to the perhaps more expected traditional Persian rug.

The various paintings are a mixture of online treasure hunting and lucky antique finds. The big oil painting over the fireplace came from the December auction haul and reminded me a little bit of my artistic Grandma Ada’s painting style (my sister will have to confirm this!). On the right side of the bookcase is an original Victorian watercolor of some ducks that I found on eBay. To the left side is a framed print we found at the Scottish Antiques Centre in Perthshire late in the summer. The star of the room, though, is the gilt framed original watercolour over the display cabinet. This is a moorland scene I picked up from Anthea’s Attic in London (online) as a Christmas present for Chris as it reminded me of Dartmoor, where he’s originally from.

We had so much fun hanging these and making use of the picture rail – I was insistent that these had to be hung with “triangle wire” (technical term) on one hook as opposed to two straight wires from two hooks. It somehow felt more grand to me and Christopher was obliging as always! 🤣

As a finishing touch, I’m especially proud, as silly as it sounds, of the new light switch and outlet covers. It isn’t something that most people think much about, but having done a few renovation projects now, I’ve learned that shabby electrical fixtures are one of my bug bears and we always replace them at the end of a room’s work.

The room had standard white plastic versions that had seen better days – and were fairly scuffed and/or paint-covered from years of use and some less than fastidious trim paintwork. We updated these to beautiful Georgian-style polished brass versions – and we also used this as an opportunity to introduce a few USB sockets at the same time, which makes the room just that bit more convenient for 21st century living. The new fittings look absolutely stunning and are just the icing on the cake! 🍰

All in all, we had so much fun doing the room, and we’re really pleased with how it came out. It is a joy to spend our spare time here, and it will be a comfortable place for our friends and family to relax for years to come.

We hope you like it too! ❤