Paula Joye’s Lounge Make Over

Founder of The Joye, Paula Joye recently moved house. And after she unpacked all of her boxes and decorated the beautiful high ceilings, mouldings and sash windows, there was one room she felt she couldn’t get right.

Take a look at her journey below.

So This Was…BEFORE.

Let’s be honest: this room looks like I’m preparing for a garage sale.

Nothing truly ugly but nothing cohesive either.

So I brutally asked: What can I live with, in this room? What can I sell? What should I store? This cleared a lot of the noise but at the end of the exercise it was clear that the biggest issue the room faced was the lounge and the coffee table.

Wrong and wronger.

The sofas are twelve years old. I pulled them out of an office in the 90’s, re-covered them in 2002 and then shoved in a playroom around 2006. The coffee table I found on the side of the road and painted it white. Great for then but not for now.

Transforming the room meant a lounge and coffee tables that enhanced the form and function of the space.

Modern, modular and with a sprinkle of luxe was my vision.

And This Was…AFTER.


And I found exactly that! Can’t furniture transform a room?!

Suddenly all my old stuff made sense. 

Plants moved, mirrors were re-hung, ginger jars disappeared and it all fell into place because the lounge and coffee tables gave the room purpose.

The lounge is a five piece Pod Set Series from Lounge Lovers and it’s totally genius.

In the past, I’ve found modular sofas restrictive – you have to commit to a left or right arm, measure them to the corner etc. 

This system is clever because it’s made up of individual pieces – ottoman, corner and armless – that piece together in any number and configuration you want.

So it can be as big or little as you need it to be.

The covers are removable (key with kids) which allows change them seasonally. You can also mix it up within the one setting as I have here putting charcoal grey ends on the cream linen body.

We move the ottoman around all the time. Put it in front of the armless piece and two adults can recline comfortably. Or it can sit ours on it’s own for moveable seating.

The coffee tables are swoon – raw marble tops with matt copper legs. I chose two that I could nest or move around to work individually. That’s what I love about this space now -it’s fluid, functional but still unexpected.

But Wait There’s A Little Bit More.

Opposite the lounge area was another smoosh of blah space.

Space that I filled with a perfectly-lovely-but-totally-wrong-for-the-room-amoir and a rolled-up pineapple carpet.

The space was half walkway, half-room and I wanted to turn it into more of a feature to match the lounge space it faced.

Enter this sleek grey day bed (which BTW, foldouts to a full queen size stay-over bed) and these graphic black and white camera prints from photographer Anthony Nobilio who has done a limited edition series.

I found them at the Lounge Lovers showroom when I was choosing sofa fabric.  One thing led to another and before you know it my Dad was over with a measuring tape and a hammer (thanks Dad!)

They finished off the room just so.

Thrilled with my new purchases because they are great quality, very functional and were really affordable. 

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