It’s Feature Friday! On Fridays, I’ll be featuring one room in my house in its current condition even if there are some things I’d like to change about it. If I do happen to improve something later, I can always revisit it when the time comes. Plus, I’d kinda feel dishonest if I only focused on “finished” rooms in my house. And if what they (the professionals) say is true, a room is never really finished anyways…you’re always tweaking it. Concentrating on just one room weekly should give me some time to tidy it up a bit, too. At least, I can throw all the toys into another room! So, without further ado, let’s tour my family room.
Last week, you saw my living room. It’s at the front of our home and you walk through it to get to the back of our house. At the back of our house is the main living area. It’s where we spend most of our time and it includes a family room, sunroom, dining area, pantry, kitchen, mini-mudroom and powder room. This week we’re gonna tour my family room but, not to worry, you’ll see the other rooms soon enough in future Feature Fridays. Let’s get started…
View of the family room walking in from the living room
As you walk back further, our family photo wall is to your right. (The white door leads to our unfinished basement.)
The view into our family room while standing at the family photo wall…again, as in my living room, I’d love to rip up all that carpet and put down hardwoods. The IKEA console behind the sectional holds my kiddos crap, ahem, I mean playthings.
Here’s a closer shot of the glass front cabinet that you saw in the first image
An image to give you the “lay” of the room
The fireplace wall has 2 windows that let the light pour in. I hung a round mirror above the mantle to soften the square and rectangular shapes in the room. The fireplace surround is actually painted marble (gasp!). The marble was too 80′s looking and had pink stains in it. I sanded, primed and painted it a shade darker than the wall color. The IKEA curtains are extra long (they still need hemmed) and hung high to emphasize the 9′ ceilings.
We have a TV and aren’t afraid to show it. I painted subtle horizontal stripes along the TV wall to give it some dimension. The stripes are fairly wide and mimic the size of the large room. (The larger the room, the wider the stripe.) I added artwork and slipcovered ottomans to either side of the flatscreen. Above the TV is a monogram decal. The console was a scratch-and-dent floor sample purchase from La-Z-Boy.
The wall opposite the fireplace has a trio of mirrors on it to bounce light around from the windows. I’ve always wondered what they would look like painted white. Hmmm…
To me, nothing says “family room” more than a sectional chock full of pillows and blankets. On movie nights, we push the ottoman right up to the couch and it feels like one big bed.
A few “for fun” shots because you’ve made it this far!
And finally the view back towards the living room from where we were last week. See what I mean about the hardwood hallway, a.k.a. The Landing Strip?
So ends my family room tour. Next week’s Feature Friday forecast is looking quite sunny, if you catch my drift.
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very nice! just my style
L.O.V.E the picture frame with the linen mat!! Totally stealing that for a future diy project
Beautiful room! I love how you balance the dark furniture with all of the white accents, it looks great. You’re totally right about not waiting to share until the room is 100% complete. I always feel like there’s more I could change in each room, but I think I’ll always feel like that no matter how much I change around!
I love your space! Absolutely gorgeous! What paint colors are on your walls?
Michelle – The main wall color in our family room is Valspar (Lowe’s) Bonsai. The lighter stripes (2 on the TV wall) are Valspar (Lowe’s) Wet Dock.
My favorites are the striped accent wall and the picture gallery. It makes the whole room feel like you spent more than you really did. Great DIYs! Also,I like the mirrors how they are now, because you need color on that wall, but if you’re going to paint something white it can be the expedite sofa table, since the couch is of the same color.
Where is your couch from….i love it
Stephanie – We got it at American Furniture in IL back when we lived there. I’m not sure where all the company has stores located but I bet you could find something similar at JCPenney or even Value City Furniture??
haha we live in a suburb of chicago….. will have to check it out….Thanks!
I love your home. Where did you get the mirror above the fireplace in the family room? Looking at similar styles for above our fireplace
Kristin – I got it at a local Ballard Design Outlet for $40. It’s meant to look like concrete but it’s actually plastic! Light on my wallet and on my wall! You can sometimes find great deals on round mirrors through Home Decorators Outlet online. Check them out.
Love your house . what is the paint color on the walls in your living room
Beautiful! I love this! Where did you get the wooden ottoman side table sitting beside your slipper chair? I have been looking for something like this for ages!
Sher – I found the wooden, scalloped side table at a local Frontgate Outlet. It was marked down to $80! Those babies go for way more in their catalog.
Where did you get your rug? Thanks!
Amanda – The family room rug is from Overstock.com. It was a great price for the large size. It’s a mix of seagrass and cotton. I’m not gonna lie…at first, it shed little pieces of wood…similar to a live Christmas tree. But after a month or two it stopped. I love the texture it adds. I’ve also found quality rugs at decent prices from naturalarearugs.com. So check them out, too.
Oh my goodness I just want to do a happy dance! My livingroom is laid out so much like yours and I have been clueless as to what to do with the wall where the tv is! Love your room. Thanks for the inspiration.
Soooooooo lovey! What size is your TV, if you don’t mind me asking? We have a 52″ and I’m hoping ours will look as great on our wall as yours does without it overtaking everything….
Jessena – Our TV is a 50″ plasma. It was a total splurge, not something we typically do but we’ve never regretted it. And it’s the only TV we own.
I LOVE all of your couch pillows! Esp the larger pintucked ones and the circular printed ones. Can you tell me where you purchased them?? Thank you!!
Molly – The large pintucked pillow cases are actually from a West Elm store that was going out of business. Remember when they shut down a bunch of stores last year? Anyhow, they are Euro-sized (meant for a bed) but I thought they would look great on our couch – not to mention pretty comfy while watching a movie. I love a couch with a bunch of pillows to sink into.
Can you explain how to paint marble? Does it look good? Enough to paint the entire wall of our fireplace (yes the previous owners put up white marble from floor to ceiling on our fire place? Not sure if painting that much marble would look okay.
Thanks!
Angie – Our marble surround was stained pink in places. No good. I scuffed it up with some sandpaper, primed then painted it. Super fast and easy and it looks waaaay better than stained marble. I think you could totally paint that floor to ceiling marble if you wanted.
Beautiful room! Love the TV stand. Where did you get this great piece?
Sarah – It was a scratch and dent Todd Oldham piece from LaZBoy. We got it and a matching side table {which we use as a nightstand} for $350! Don’t be afraid to ask for the floor model…and to bargain down if there is damage to the piece. That’s what we did and saved a bunch of money. The scratches were barely noticeable.
I LOVE the striped accent wall! I’m trying to do something similar in our master bedroom but am having trouble deciding on our color scheme. Just wondering . . . It looks (in the photo you took to show the “lay” of the room) like the darker color on your striped wall is a bit different from the color of the other three solid walls. Is it? Or is it just the way the lighting looks at the time you took the photo? (I know trying to get paint color to show up accurately in photos can be super hard so I thought I’d ask!)