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 be told, I didn't like how it looked for the past several years.

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

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

When we moved in many years ago, it was a blank space, but I immediately installed wall frames and painted the walls dark green and the insides of the frames lighter green.

Years later, when the kitchen was updated, I also gave the family room a mini makeover, bringing the fireplace to the ceiling and creating a TV wall. 

Two bookcases I found on Craiglist were perfect to display and store stuff on each side of the sofa.

You can see that first makeover right Here.

Well, things haven't changed much over the years, as shown in the picture below, which shows how this room looked two weeks ago.

We loved to hang out in our family room, which was probably why this room always looked messy.

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

When I found this sideboard, one of the bookcases had been moved to another room, which unbalanced the overall look of this side of the room. 

And don't even look at the art on the walls! 😖

Whatever was removed from other rooms ended up here. 

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

The TV wall works, but I don't like that the mister never hid the cables, and I don't like seeing the mounting hardware from its side.

THE PLAN

A WALL OF BUILT-INS

Given that the main issue in this room was the lack of storage, I decided to use the left side to accommodate an entire wall of shelves.

As you can see, I have already removed everything: furnishings, baseboards, moldings, etc.

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 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:

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 won't have time to change the fireplace in the short time I'm giving myself to work on the built-in project, which is five weeks. Better yet, I want to finish this build before Christmas! 😊

I'll probably give the fireplace a good coat of paint and decorate it for the holidays.

The sofa's new position will be on the other side of the room, right where the TV sits today. 

The decorative part remains: wall art, side, and coffee tables, rugs, curtains, etc. I haven't settled on many of these items. I'm set on finishing the built-ins because that's the most prominent and messy job.

I need to find a good sofa, that's the other necessity in this room. The small loveseat 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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