Lounge rooms can be the most challenging spaces in the house to style. In our Styling School, we refer to the lounge room as ‘the Mount Everest of styling’! It’s often the biggest room in the house, and there are so many elements to coordinate and things to consider. From seating to heating to entertaining… that said, when a lounge room is styled well, it’s worth every bit of hard work because it’ll be a space that the whole family love to use.

Let’s look at some of the noteworthy features we’re lusting after in our latest lounge room at House 15…

SET THE TONE WITH TEXTURE

With our #ModernMallorca vision in mind, beautiful textural stone features throughout the property were always a must. It goes without saying that the Veneer Stone feature wall in this lounge room needs special mention because this beauty sets the tone not only for this room but for the entire home.

Veneer Stone cladding is a beautiful way to add the texture and charm of rustic natural stone to your home, without the complexity because it’s made from a blend of crushed sandstone and comes in tile form so it’s easy to install to turn any wall into a feature, inside or out.

THE STATEMENT CEILING

We’re big fans of a statement ceiling. In the past, we’ve used colour and wallpaper to make a statement of bedroom ceilings, but this beautiful lounge room deserved extra special treatment. The folks at Intrim are the pros at all things moulding and trims, so we knew that they’d have a solution to create the ceiling of our dreams. The new Intrim Casa two-piece batten system that are combined to achieve the look.

And voila! Decorative ceiling goals. Just like a vertical striped dress, striped ceiling panels work wonders to elongate this lounge room… and who doesn’t want that?!

FABULOUS FURNITURE

It was a no-brainer that the wall with the triple threat of the Lopi gas fireplace, TV and gorgeous stone cladding would be the focal point of this space and we created the furniture plan around this.

It’s a family home so there needed to be a comfy sofa for everyday lounging and TV watching and plenty of occasional chairs for when friends join them for drinks and chats around the fire.

You’ll know by now that we’re partial to sofas with washable covers because when ‘life’ happens, they’re easy to pop in the wash and come out as good as new. But when Bonnie set her eyes on this stunning leather sofa at Freedom, we knew that there was no going past it for this room. The simple design and contemporary low-slung profile suits the style of the home and plush wide seats in the perfect sandy-beige colour (and family-friendly leather!), scream #ModernMallorca. Tick, tick, tick!

Mixing materials, colour and textures was key to creating warmth and interest, and we did this by selecting furniture within the same colour palette but incorporating many different textures. We went wild at Freedom, and in addition to the buttery soft leather sofa, we chose cute and cosy boucle armchairs, a plush floor rug, a console table that combines marble and timber to add warm tones to the room and plenty of duck feather-filled linen cushions that are just begging to be karate chopped.

AUTOMATION STATIONS

We’re novices in the smart home space, so we call on the experts in the field, the Optus O-Team, to recommend which smart devices we can integrate into our homes to create routines and enhance day-to-day life. Smart devices can range from home security options to everyday items like lights, speakers and household appliances, but if you don’t have the knowledge, time or energy it takes to decide what’s best for your family, the O-Team can do all the hard work for you.

In the lounge room at House 15, we started with an Amazon Echo, and not just for the fact that the sleek black design looks more like a sculpture than an electronic device. It’s a smart assistant and speaker in one, so you can use your voice to ask Alexa to play music, answer questions, make calls, and tell you the news, sports scores, weather, and more.

We also chose a Fire TV Stick which simply plugs into the TV via HDMI (it can make any TV a smart one!) and can sync to compatible Echo devices in the house. It’s super easy to control all your entertainment, hands-free without needing a remote control. Just sit back and say “Alexa, play me a scary movie” and she’ll do all the hard work for you.

And how’s this for smart? The ECOVACS DEEBOT T9+ smart vacuum will clean this home without the owners breaking a sweat! It not only vacuums and mops but also empties itself and can infuse the home with a delicate fragrance as it works. If that’s not amazing enough, the owners won’t even need to bend down to turn it on! Just say “Alexa, start vacuum” and off she goes.

SHADES OF SOPHISTICATION

Sophistication probably isn’t the first word that jumps to mind when you imagine the lounge room of most family homes. This one, however, oozes it. We put it down to the pops of black we’ve incorporated throughout the space which provides a striking contrast to the overall colour palette of warm whites and neutrals.

The black coffee table (also from Freedom), the black fireplace and even the black TV (which we don’t usually like making a feature of) all work together with the handrail of the stairs and the lamp on the console table to create this air of sophistication.

SEEN SOMETHING YOU LOVE? SHOP THE LOOK

We’ve listed all the details of this lust-worthy lounge room to make it super easy to shop the look for your place. What would you choose first? We’d love to know, tell us below!

SHOP THE LOOK