Bringing Change to The Family Room

My last post ended with a wide shot of our family room. A picture I hardly ever take, because truth is, I didn't like how our family room looked for the past several years.

The fireplace is the area that I'm always changing and it's the only spot I like to decorate in this room. Of course, that's all you usually got to see of this room.

But, let me tell you a bit more about this room:

It was a blank space when we moved in many years ago, but I immediately installed wall frames on all the walls and painted the walls a dark green and the inside of the frames a lighter green.

Years later, when the kitchen was updated, I also gave the family room a mini makeover bringing the fireplace all the way up, creating a tv wall and two bookcases I found on Craiglist that were perfect to display and store stuff.
You can see that first makeover right Here.

Well, things haven't changed much all this time, as you can see in the picture below, which is how this room looked two weeks ago.

The thing is, our family room is the space where we love to hang out and I thought that probably was the reason why this room always looked messy.

However, as soon as I sat down to see how to update this room, I noticed that the biggest factor in the overall messy look of this room was the lack of storage, followed closely by not having a cohesive plan with the furnishings.

I had two bookcases, one on each side of the sofa. But, when I found this sideboard, the bookcase went to another room and the sideboard stayed here making the overall look of this side of the room unbalanced. And I'm not even talking about the art on the walls! Whatever is removed from other rooms, ends up in here. :/

Instead of books, the bookcase held china and ceramic pieces I use to decorate around the house. The collection keeps on growing and I'm running out of space!

The tv wall kind of works, but I don't like that the mister never hid the cables, and neither I like having to see the mounting hardware from its side.

THE PLAN

A wall of built-ins.
Given that the main issue we were having in this room was the lack of storage, I decided to use this left side to accommodate an entire wall of shelves.

As you see, I already removed everything, furnishings, baseboard, moldings...

And this is the plan I drew for the roughly 17 x 9 feet area.

The tv is gonna take center stage here. The four other shelves are the ones to contain all the vases, ceramic pieces, and all the stuff that kept on lingering around the room.

UPDATE: This project was crossed off the to-do list and here are the links to all the work done to bring that built-in unit to life:
Here are the links to all the work done for this project:

1. The Doors and Final Reveal
2. The Tools That Made It Easier
3. The Door Knobs
4. The Painting Process
5. Installing the Top or Header
6. Building and Installing the Shelves
7. The Countertop
8. Building the Base Cabinets

The Fireplace

I don't think I'm going to have time to change it in the small amount of time I have...  I'm giving myself a timeline of about 5 weeks or better yet, I want to finish the built-ins before Christmas! :)
The only thing I'll probably do is give the fireplace a good coat of paint and decorate it for the holidays.

The other side, where the tv used to be, it's going to be the space for the new sofa.

What remains is the decorative part... Wall art, side & coffee tables, rug, curtains, etc. I haven't settled on many of these items. Right now I'm set on finishing the built-ins because that's the biggest and messiest job.

I need to find a good sofa, that's the other necessity in this room. The small love seat we're using was a quick solution when our big sofa got damaged. Ha, we've been living with it for almost a year now!
I would love to hear your suggestions for an 85" long sofa.

Thanks in advance!

Now, back to work. Happy Halloween!


For more Home DIY decor ideas check these out:

DIY BOARD & BATTEN

BUFFET MAKEOVER

ADDING MOLDINGS TO KITCH CABINETS

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