Family Room Renovation Reveal "the other side of the room"

 

It has been a long time coming, but I finally got a chance to take photos of our family room renovation (this really means I finally had a little time to dust and get the toys semi-picked up).  The family room is adjacent and open to the kitchen.  I featured our kitchen renovation back in May of 2012; you can read the full post by clicking here..  The family room renovation was actually completed about 5 months after the kitchen, but I am just now getting around to photographing the "other side of the room". This space is far from complete, but it has definitely come a long way!



kitchen/family room before

One of the biggest changes in this space was the ceiling and lighting.  The original ceiling had a popcorn texture and only one low..low..low..hanging ceiling fan/light combo in the middle.  At night this room was like a cave.  To the rescue was some new evenly dispersed can lighting.  After some plumbing work and the removal of the ceiling hung cabinets/sofit; we had so many holes that it just made sense to replace the entire ceiling with a new smooth version. 

 

The other big (hard to overlook) addition is the new built-in media center and mantle.  Before the room was impossible to layout.  You had to stick the TV in the corner which then made the room seem unbalanced with the fireplace.  The bump out in the corner next to the windows made it impossible to place furniture, not to mention you had to watch your head anytime you walked near the ceiling fan. This space was basically begging for built-ins.

After a couple of sketches and some "craftsman" inspiration we landed on our design for the new mantle and media cabinets.  My husband is a true diyer, but we found a cabinet maker who quoted us a better price to custom build this unit than it was going to cost for stock cabinets from the big box stores.  The cabinet maker matched the chocolate glaze finish from our kitchen island almost perfectly.

My husband painted the brick around the fireplace the same off-white as our kitchen cabinets prior to the installation of our new mantle.  We still want to get new furniture and accessories for this space (we are still using what I got right out of college), but with two small and sometimes destructive young boys in our house there is not a rush. 

For now we are enjoying tons of storage and a great open space that functions 100% better for our family.

there isn't anything fancy on these shelves...some of our favorite items are the boys' toys

 renovated family room

renovated kitchen


Family Room
Sources & Materials

• Paint:  Sherwin Williams' color-Loggia
• Cabinets:  Custom made by Chris Young
• Rug:  clearance Allen & Roth from Lowes  (I think it looks a lot like this "Henley" rug from Pottery Barn...but it was a fraction of the Henley's original price.  I just saw that the "Henley" rug is now on clearance...check out link below.) 

 

 Pottery Barn's Henley Rug

• Furniture (in need of replacement) I have been looking for pieces  all the way from IKEA to Ethan & Allen.  I am sure you will see update posts when I land on something new.