My DFS Room Styling Challenge

It was so exciting to be invited by DFS to take part in a recent style challenge. Along with three other home interiors bloggers, I was tasked to style a room featuring a sofa range from the French Connection collection, exclusively designed for DFS and landing in stores this Autumn.

This special collaboration is a celebration of quality and British heritage, with all pieces being hand-made in Derbyshire. The four stylish ranges available are ‘Chalk’, ‘Coast’, ‘Slate’ and ‘Flint’ in lovely muted New England shades. My sofa for the shoot was the sharply tailored ‘Flint’ in a light grey fabric – very modern, yet elegant.

I loved the design, colour and comfort. My challenge was to cosy up a space and create a winter living room, using approximately ten reasonably priced high street accessories.

Deciding that I wanted to introduce some naturals and berry tones, with metallic highlights and a little ‘woodland nature’ feel, I got busy creating a mood board on Polyvore. I started off with a gorgeous mirror I spotted online at Dunelm Mill – a champagne metallic leaf design, which I thought would look good above the sofa.

All the items I chose were from Dunelm, Matalan or BHS and I was able to bring a few props of my own with me, too. When I arrived at the studio, my chosen pieces were ready and waiting, which was exciting!

This was how the room started out, a totally blank canvas…

And a couple of hours later, with the furniture brought in and the space accessorised…

It turned out that in my room, less was definitely more. The studio’s stylist was on hand to offer advice and we agreed that the owl cushion worked better as a statement piece on its own, rather than scattered in amongst other cushions.

It was fun to experiment and I picked up some great styling tips from Anna and photographer Greg, too, so it was a learning experience as well. Thanks to all the team involved in making the day so fantastic!