42 Coffee tabletop in Rust-Oleum ‘Chalked’ ultra matt Linen White paint, on Taskmaster 400mm x 10mm steel hairpin table legs, $14 each, I/N: 0038470. Bayliss ‘Cortina’ 200cm x 290cm wool rug, $399, I/N: 6670903..
Before Rachel & Rachel
LIVING ROOM/ H A L LW AY Lifestyle gurus Rachel Aust (@rachelaust) and Rachel Lee (@rachelleea) paired up to tackle the living room and hallway. As the first spaces guests tend to see, the rooms needed to make an impression, as well as being practical. The living room’s greatest asset was light. “I loved that it had a huge window with natural light filtering through,” says Rachel Aust. The room has an airy appeal that the pair capitalised on with a palette of whites, warm neutrals and coastal blue.
Living room and hallway TOTAL BUDGET
$5,000
Throwing shapes The home’s biggest deficit was character, with every team describing the original space as “bland” and “boring”. The Rachels tackled this in the hallway by using Porta pre-primed DAR pine moulding. “I liked the idea of creating texture on the wall,” says Rachel Aust. “We used a chevron design and the way the arrows are pointing almost leads you through the hall.” Painted in Dulux Jimbaran Bay, the space is now anything but dull!
Picture perfect Devoting one side of the living room to a gallery wall was particularly effective. A mix of op shop frames were spraypainted and filled with black-and-white photos for a cohesive look. The frames are attached to the walls with removable Command picture-hanging strips, making this a great styling trick for renters and homeowners alike.
AquaSmart hybrid vinyl flooring planks in Highland Oak, $90.24/1.823sqm, I/N: 0075873. Flexi Storage ‘Clever Cube’ 1 x 4 storage unit in White, $62, I/N: 2583386, and 330mm x 330mm x 360mm inserts in Water Hyacinth, $15 each, I/N: 2582736. Prestige 70mm round knobs in Beech, $5.66 each, I/N: 3962363.
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Fully furnished Furnishing a home is a massive expense for new homeowners, but the Rachels showed how you can save costs, kitting out the living room with second-hand finds and upcycling pieces, including the coffee table. “It was honestly the ugliest thing!” says Rachel Lee. “It had big thick wooden legs, which we took off and switched out for hairpin legs. We painted it white and totally transformed this old, very clunky table into something that looked really new and stylish.”
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