So we ended up with a red couch and love seat. It's funny, neither Adam nor I are all that fond of the color red. But somehow we ended up with lots of it in our house. We had some red accents in our kitchen, so I think we felt like we needed to tie the two spaces together. Our kitchen and family room are open to each other and share the same paint color. After living in our house for a few years, we're not crazy about the paint color anymore and would love to change it. But then you run into the whole If You Give A Mouse A Cookie problem once you start changing things like paint color. If we paint the family room, we'd have to paint the kitchen because the walls carry on into the kitchen. And we'd have to move the fish tank in order to paint the walls behind it. And so it goes.
Eventually we'd love to move the fish tank to the wall where the love seat currently is. And paint the walls a light gray or blue. And paint the paneling and trim in the family room white. And if we paint the walls in the family room, that means we'd have to paint the walls in the kitchen. And then we'd want to change the back splash in the kitchen. And paint the kitchen cabinets. And get new counter tops. Oops...sorry you got stuck in my daydreams!
Back to our mini facelift. It all really started with the blinds on the doors. When we moved in, there were very dated vertical blinds covering the doors. (Only the left door opens, the right side is more like a floor to ceiling window.) One of the first things we did was tear those down. All the other windows in the house had white faux-wood blinds. I thought all the window coverings had to match, so I bought more white faux-wood blinds. I remember when I bought them how the guy at Home Depot asked where they were going. I told him on a door and he warned me that they would clang around every time you open the door. I ignored him and continued on my quest for matching window coverings. So I bought and installed the blinds on the doors.
Fast-forward a few years. The blinds drive us crazy, just like the guy at Home Depot said they would. Jazzy goes in and out those doors to go outside. We go in and out every time we put the babies in the swing. We use them when we grill. And the blinds bang and clank around and are super annoying! I personally would be okay with the doors being bare, but Adam wants there to be some sort of covering at nighttime. It really is very logical and safe to have some way of covering up the glass on the doors. So I talked Adam into taking down the blinds and putting up a curtain rod with curtains instead. That way they could be open during the day and closed at night.
I wanted to find a curtain rod that would be sturdy and could handle the curtains being pulled open and shut every day. We decided on an industrial-looking pipe curtain rod. It's manly and sturdy. We got ours from Walmart because it was the most inexpensive, but I saw similar ones at Target and Lowe's.
Once we had the curtain rod, we needed to find some curtains. Adam and I decided we needed something with a pattern since there's nothing else going on in that room. Adam also requested blackout curtains which would fully cover the glass at night and help with energy efficiency. I figured navy would be a color that would tie in with the rest of our house but still look good with the red couches. So I found some navy, almost gray, patterned curtains that were blackout and energy-efficient at Lowe's that fit the bill. We hung the curtains so they would hang a little outside the door trim and not interfere with opening and closing the door. The grommets at the top allow for the curtain panels to be easily opened and closed.
I absolutely love how they have instantly turned the family room into a more beautiful space! I actually want to spend time down there now. I am actually writing this blog post while gazing up at our lovely, new curtains from time to time. It also helped make the room look bigger and more open by taking down the blinds. It was definitely the right move.
In order to tie the curtains into the space, I decided to get a few throw pillows for the couches. I sold our old ones through Facebook marketplace. Since we never sat on those couches, they were in pristine condition. With our couches as blank slates, I started to add in some throw pillows that would coordinate with the new curtains. I had two white and navy chevron curtains that I had made a long time ago to go in the guest room that is now Archer's room. Adam and I took the kids to TJ Maxx to hunt for pillows and we found one almost batik-like patterned one with tassels. The tassels kept Lyla occupied while we searched for more pillows. The other pillow we found featured a panda wearing a hat and glasses. It's charming and whimsical. Besides, now we have kids and have an excuse to get fun pillows.
I found two others at Tuesday Morning. One is a floral pattern and one has a similar pattern to the curtains. All these seemingly random pillows actually go together quite well because they are all in the same color scheme. I love how they instantly elevate our space.
We also took the opportunity to pare down some of the stuff we had going on above our estate-sell find bar cabinet. We had shelves that showcased our shot glass collection. I know it's tacky, but we pick up a shot glass every time we go on vacation. Adam had made some frames with bottle caps (his first woodworking project ever!). And we also had a bottle cap map of the United States. There was a lot going on and it was starting to look very cluttered. So we took everything down, patched the walls, and repainted. Adam wants to put a new finish on the frames and I've commissioned him to build something to showcase our shot glass collection. Until we figure out exactly how we want that space to look, we decided to just leave it blank for now.
A few final changes we made were swapping and rearranging a few things. We swapped the rug that was in front of the door with the one that was in front of our garage door. It was navy and fit perfectly with the color-scheme we had going on. I moved some black cubes to our basement that were in the corner next to the bar cabinet. That allowed us to move the bar cabinet over and make room for the curtains to hang. I also moved the coffee table in front of the love seat. It helped open up the room more and not block the path to the door.
So there you have it, our family room's facelift. It's pretty amazing how some curtains and pillows can completely transform a space. It's now one of my favorite spaces in our home. And Lyla and Archer are putting their stamp on the space by putting fingerprints on the windows of the doors. Gotta love a space the whole family can enjoy.
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