Family Room Progress

I went back and forth about 100 times on what my first post should be. Where I should start this whole thing off. A whole house "before" tour, one room at a time, or with a DIY idea. I think I landed in the middle. Let me start with this. Nothing in our house is an "after" yet. It is all a work in progress for sure. I sort of have my hand in several different rooms right now...I can't seem to commit to just one space at a time. So for now, it is just a mish-mash of progress all over the place. When you see the joint, be reminded of that. Progress people, progress.

That said, here is our family room BEFORE. This is the old owner's photo actually. The only real before shot. I seem to have a hard time taking photos before I do a project (that is changing though). I tend to do something then go, "AHH!!! I forgot a before!!". Grrrr. Ah well. So yeah, here it is world (really exciting stuff here, I know):

Mmmmmmm. Don't you just love that window AC unit? Really makes the room I think (central air going in this Summer, yay!). So the pluses. It is a great large space. Nice hardwoods (not as dark as I would prefer but still, nice). Great window. Open floor plan (this is taken from the kitchen).

Obviously we have a lot we want to do with this room, but here we are now:

Don't mind the lack of height on this wall. Gallery wall coming soon!

I don't know why, but this room looks SO much bigger in the photos and the furniture looks so much smaller. Well, I do know why, this cheapo lens I used to get the wide angle of the room, distorted everything. But whatev. Basically, my point is, the furniture is much larger looking in real life.

Some of what we've done so far:

-Twin couches facing one another

-New grommet top curtain panels hung outside the frame of the window and just under the ceiling

-Bamboo shades also hung high above the window frame

-2 area rugs combined to make one large rug (I liked the smaller scale pattern that the smaller rugs featured, as opposed to the very large pattern of the 8x10 rug)

-A couple upholstered chairs (the orange vintage one will be getting a makeover)

-Lots of colorful toss pillows (some I made, some I didn't)

-A rattan chest for the coffee table (holds our games)

-A defined desk space

-Temporary TV console with ottoman beneath

Some of the things still remaining on our to-do list:

-Paint the walls a nice gray

-Add crown molding and paint existing trim a crisp white (the previous owners painted ALL the trim in the house, the color of the walls, GAH!)

-Decide on what type of shelving we'd like to do on the TV wall. I'm thinking something industrial looking. (Then we will remove the existing bookshelf in the room which doesn't match)

-Gallery wall of photos on the right couch wall

-Paint the woodwork on the orange chair, white, to modernize it a bit

-New filing cabinet to replace that lovely light oak one (redo it somehow or replace)

-Art work for where the existing bookshelf is, once we move it

-Replace lamps with the glass ones I looove from Target (waiting for a sale!)

-Find a nicer planter for that palm on the printer

I think that will about sum it up! We have also talked about eventually converting the window into a french door to the deck (which will hopefully go in this summer) and also maybe adding a fireplace to the TV wall. We even think vaulting the ceiling would be gorgeous (since there is nothing above the family room). But that won't be for awhile.

I was going to feature our first little project tonight, but this has gotten lengthy, so I'll leave it for today. I'll get the post all set and show it to you tomorrow. I'll be talking about the framed chalkboard above the desk space. It had an interesting fate and I most certainly changed that quite a bit!

Thanks for hanging in here with me as I figure this stuff all out. Things will adapt and change for sure. My style is evolving and transitioning everyday! See you tomorrow friends.