OUR HOME - the family room

In case you missed it – Friday (March 28th) marked three years we’ve been in our house and I thought it would be fun to look back on the changes we have made since we moved in.  We still have much to do, but it’s been fun for me to see some of these before/after shots and see the progress we have made.

Our family room underwent major updates last year.  We knew we wanted to move our leather couch upstairs so we’d have something to sit on in the bonus room, but before we could do that we needed to find furniture for our family room.  Super overwhelming! 

(March 2011 - April 2013)  Our leather sectional that was almost too big in our Auburn house was dwarfed here.  And our oversized chairs from our old living room that I’ve disliked since we bought them over 12 years ago are unfortunately still around.

I can’t talk about the family room without introducing Tara.  In April of 2011, just two weeks after we moved into our house I went to the mall to look at furnishings at Pottery Barn.  A designer at Pottery Barn offered to come out to my new house for a free consultation.  Why not?  I figured even if I didn’t like their recommendations, I would at least get some ideas for space planning.  After setting up an appointment I walked around to a few other furniture stores in the area.  I asked some questions about drapery at Henredon & Schoener (H&S).  The sales lady didn’t know much but asked if I’d be interested in having someone come out to my house and give me some ideas – free of charge.  Why not?  Now I would have double the ideas.   The following week the founder of H&S came out to the house with Tara.  We walked around and while they took measurements we discussed styles and design ideas.  The following week I met back up with them in the store to have their ideas presented to me.   It was a long appointment.  I didn’t really know what I was looking for and they soon learned I have commitment issues and that I certainly wasn’t going to be placing any orders that day.  I didn’t even really love anything they showed me.  I’m sure it didn’t take long for the owner of the store to realize I wasn’t a client worth her time.  Tara and I had a few followup emails over the next couple weeks, but nothing came of it.

Fast forward six more months looking at kitchen tables and suddenly I had a ah-ha moment and realized a table Tara showed me during that first consultation was indeed the right table for me.  Fast forward another 14 months (November of 2012) when Justin and I have another ah-ha moment and realize the curved couch they showed me at that first appointment was just what we wanted for the family room.  These were two pieces that I didn’t like at first glance.  So I suppose Tara knew us better than we knew ourselves.  To say we worked with an interior designer sounds so hoity-toity.  You can go into any furniture store and they will have “designers” to help you – many will even offer free in home consultations.  We just happened to get lucky to stumble across someone who actually had some skills and we took full advantage of her services.  She was super patient with us through the process.  I remember calling her for help when I couldn’t decide which color of white to paint the ceilings.

It took us six months to select, order and deliver our new furniture.  In the mean time we ordered window treatments and painted the kitchen, family room and entry hallway. 

(April 2013) We painted the room in anticipation of the arrival of our new furniture

(April 2013)  The furniture arrived

The chairs may look stuffy, but they are super comfy.  I’d fallen in love with an orange leather chair in this style, but we could get two non-leather chairs for the price of one leather so we went with a soft teal velvety fabric and did the orange on the ottoman.  Such happy colors!

 

We were hoping everything would be done before Drew was born, but the cabinets we had made for under the windows needed a few extra days for the strong paint fumes to tone down so they were delivered a day or two after we got home from the hospital with Drew. 

(May 2013 – September 2013) We loved our built-in we had in our family room in Auburn, but I love these cabinets even more.  We had several delays and issues with ordering the grass shades for the three windows.  For months we only had the big one as seen here.

(September 2013 - Present)

So I’m a wood girl – I love beautiful wood.  The table between the chairs has a beautiful chevron inlay, love it!  For my birthday last year Justin surprised me with the orange owl on the cabinet here.  I saw it in a store and loved it (not only is it bright and fun, but it reminded me of an owl cookie jar we had growing up).  I couldn’t justify buying it even at clearance prices.  Justin went to a different location several weeks later to get as a birthday surprise and found it even cheaper – woot, woot!

Not much has changed since we installed the drapes in September.  We still need to replace an old floor lamp and find a few final accessories to finish the room, but for the most part it's done and we love it.