Sunday, April 13, 2025

My Newly Redecorated Family Room

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

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

30 comments:

  1. What luck that flipping the room worked so well. We probably need a sectional, too, but really only the few times a year when my out-of-town daughter visits and my in-town comes over while daughter number 1 is in town.

    I have had good luck with Wayfair purchases, too. Glad this sofa was such a pleasant surprise. The painting is perfect. And I like the pendant light, too. How about a collage of photos of the grandbabies beside the clock. Or a small mirror and a couple of smaller pieces of art? I did a collage of sorts over our formal living room couch. Maybe photos of your beautiful yard in different seasons. You could change out the photos depending on the current season!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We only need the sectional a few times a year too, but our old furniture was in pretty bad shape and needed to be replaced anyway. I've ordered an office chair, dressers, and other items from Wayfair and I've never been disappointed yet. Those are good ideas. I don't care for collages as they often look cluttered to me and too many nail holes, but I also know now they make large frames where you can put family photos inside that really look "collagey" so I can consider that. I don't think a mirror works in the space. I was considering a small shelving unit. I like all your ideas though!

      Delete
  2. I love the look so much. That sectional looks great in the space. I think I may need to check out Wayfair soon. :) Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes, check Wayfair out. They have so many more options than a furniture store.

      Delete
  3. What a great idea to flip the room around and it looks fantastic. I love how everything coordinates so well. I have never ordered anything from Wayfair but we too are looking for a sectional sofa. I am so hesitant to order online as I don't want the back of the sofa to be too low and at the same time can't find the perfect one at local furniture stores either so the search continues. Maybe I'll look through Wayfair.
    Hard to know what else to put on that wall, I tend to have fewer wall decorations so would probably just leave it as is. An idea would be a floating shelf but then again I'd worry the grandkids would knock it over. Or what about a wall planter?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Just be sure to measure the area well, Wayfair provides excellent measurements and diagrams of their furniture so I'm sure you will get the right height for your sofa back. Thanks for the wall decor ideas. I'm leaning towards shelving, but yea, I got grandkids and kittens now so I have to consider things getting knocked over. The wall planter sounds interesting, but it is a dark room for real plants, and again, the kittens. I tend to want less clutter now that I'm older than when I was younger, so like you said, I might just leave it.

      Delete
  4. I love your room transformation and I enjoyed reading the history of the space, too! We've purchased our office and guest room furniture from Wayfair and we've been pleasantly surprises, too! We are at the stage of life where we don't need high traffic furniture so taking the risk on a few pieces that are less costly seemed worth it and it's paid off. Your space is lovely and very welcoming!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Yes, we are at that stage in life too.

      Delete
  5. Looks so spacious, yet cozy and inviting! This is a rare time that a "before" and "after" both look good!! 😏

    ❤️carmen

    ReplyDelete
  6. You have done a fabulous job! The room looks gorgeous! I love the idea of a wireless smart TV too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I didn't even know there was such a thing. We actually bought it thinking we'd have to use cables, and then realized there weren't any and said "Hey, we can flip the room now".

      Delete
  7. This looks so cozy and inviting. Well done on this amazing transformation.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great place to settle in, and relax!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This looks lovely. So comfy and cozy. Thank you for sharing this post with all of us at the Will Blog for Comments #60 linkup! Looking forward to seeing what you'll share at #61, too--it opens next week. Hope your week is a great one. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. So wonderful and cozy. The hanging lamp was a great idea.

    -Soma

    ReplyDelete
  11. Amy, your room looks great! Love it
    Thanks bunches for sharing with Sweet Tea & Friends this month dear friend.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment, I love feedback from my readers; but please don't include a hyperlink in the comments or I will have to delete it. You may include the name of your blog. If you have a blog, I always return the love by visiting within a week whoever leaves a comment.