This is a post that is five years over due but I can finally say that the Family Room Make Over we started half a decade ago, is FINALLY FINISHED! Hip Hip Hooray!
Quite often I wish I could live in an HGTV world where in a period of thirty minutes a room could be transformed, but realistically that is not life. Over five years ago my husband and I decided to redecorate our family room because with my daughter's growing family, we really needed a fourth bedroom and more living space for us to gather as a family comfortably. You can see the BEFORE project HERE, where I share all the construction details of the new bedroom within the family room, and then you can see how we made small changes HERE that we lived with for five years before we completed it this year.
We began the project in the winter of 2019 before Covid arrived. We just finished the bedroom portion of our new room when we had to stop because my husband's hours were cut from five days a week to four and with all the uncertainty going on in the world, we weren't even sure how much longer he'd have a job. We lived with the room as is for five years. Eventually we did purchase a new tv stand and coffee table, but kept the same rug and furniture. Below is the BEFORE photo.
The BEFORE wasn't terrible. The rug was dated, and the furniture had seen better days. The real issue, is when nine people wanted to gather in the room to watch a movie there wasn't enough room. We knew we needed new furniture but we could not figure out how to fit it in such an oddly shaped room with only one and a half solid walls.
Finally we decided the only answer was to flip the room because all the wall space was on the other side. We didn't think we could do that because the tv would be above the balcony railing and we thought it would look odd. But out of desperation, we decided to try it, and discovered, it wasn't that bad.
Here are the AFTER photos with the room flipped and a new sectional
We could not believe what a difference flipping the room made. It created so much more space. The small room now felt open and spacious and we could suddenly fit a sectional that comfortably seats six to eight adults, and even more little kids!
This is the view as seen from the bedroom.
I purchased a new painting as my old ones were both vertical and I wanted one large horizontal painting. It turned out this landscape painting from Hobby Lobby was not only the perfect size but it contained all the colors in my new room too.
I had to get rid of my large end tables because they no longer fit in the room but now I had a lighting challenge as I couldn't have table lamps. I solved that problem by hanging a Rattan Pendant Light in one dark corner and two floor lamps in the other corners. We also have overhead lighting but we rarely used it.
I love the shadow designs my new rattan lamp projects on the wall.
The clock is also from Hobby Lobby. I keep feeling this wall needs something else, but I haven't decided what yet. Any suggestions?
It just so happened that our old Smart TV died right before we decided to flip the room. At first, we were bummed as it was not that old, but when we got a new one, guess what? It is completely wireless and doesn't require cables! That means we could put it anywhere in the room! So it ended up being a blessing in disguise as I don't think we would have been able to flip the room otherwise.
Now how do I feel about the tv not being up against the wall? I don't like that if you're downstairs and look up you can see the back of a tv. But you know how many times I've done that? Once, when we first moved the tv. I haven't even noticed it since. And another benefit was that I can watch tv during the day without the sun reflecting on the tv because the tv's back is facing the sunny windows. So it is a win win!
I recently adopted two new little kittens so I put this sticky plastic on the bottom portion of the new furniture and on the sides that I know cats like to scratch. I then covered up the sides with throw blankets, and so far, it's worked. The new kittens have not ruined my new furniture.
We decided on wall-to-wall carpeting because we have four small grandchildren and we were always worried they would get hurt on the hard tile when wrestling (three of them are boys). I chose a light grey color to contrast against the dark grey furniture and brighten the room up a bit.
The tv wall seemed kinda empty with just the tv stand, so I added a quilt rack to display some of my quilts, a basket to hold extra throw blankets, and a tall straw vase that holds tall dried flowers.
We couldn't fit all the pieces of our sectional against the wall, so we had to put one portion in the corner by itself. We knew before we bought it that this would be the case as we measured very carefully before purchasing. I actually really love this cute reading nook!
I'm able to fit two quilts on this rack, but you can only see one, the other is behind it.
If you're wondering where I purchased my furniture, I took a risk and bought it from Wayfair. I was terrified of buying furniture that I never sat on, but it ended up being one of the best purchases I ever made. We spent an entire day going to furniture stores in our town and there just was nothing that was working with our measurements, plus there were long wait times and huge delivery fees. We spent $1000 less buying from Wayfair and paid $0 for delivery. My only advice if you buy from Wayfair is to read EVERY SINGLE REVIEW and MEASURE carefully. We felt the reviews were spot on! This is such a popular sectional it is sold out in all colors but beige, you can see it HERE!
Have A Great Day! Amy
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