Family Room Design Notes

If you didn't see enough of the current state of our family room on Wednesday, you are in luck because I have plenty of other pictures to share.

We won't be starting any of the physical labor until the fall. Call me crazy, but I want to enjoy my summer weekends outside enjoying the fantastic New England weather instead of spending it in our unairconditioned house striping wallpaper, repairing plaster walls, painting trim, etc, etc, etc. Wouldn't you?

The main transformation in the room will be achieved through new furnishings anyway, but it is never too soon to start planning and researching. I'm unabashedly milking free design advice from Casey of Loft and Cottage to decorate the space. Thanks again Casey, I owe you one!

I want this room to feel really warm and rich & slightly masculine. I want it to be cozy, but also have a little bit of an attitude. I want it to graduate from the frat house it currently looks like into something more sophisticated. I want the room to feel like it belongs in one of the historic brownstones of Boston's Beacon Hill. I want it to be "Beacon Hill Brownstone Chic". (Yes, I'm laughing at myself as I write this...)

So I told Casey about the elements Chris and I were already considering:

• An English roll arm sofa (in a pet friendly charcoal gray fabric)
• A worn and faded Persian rug
• Grasscloth wallpaper
• Use a pair of leather club chairs that we already own
• Have the chair I purchased at the Salvation Army reupholstered

• Purchase a new TV that can be wall mounted over the fireplace (blasphemy, I know, but it has to be done)
• Incorporate some unexpected surprise element like an acrylic coffee table to keep the room from looking like someone's grandparents live here.

Keeping my ideas in mind, Casey suggested the following:

• Windows: Keep our existing bamboo roman shades, hang these curtain panels from Ballard Design to add some height and pattern to the room, and use a wrought iron curtain rod. She said to hang the curtains all the way up to the soffit and treat the double windows as one large window using 2 panels (instead of 3). That would have been a decision I'd have agonized over for weeks!

• Ceiling: Paint the ceiling a cool, light gray to slightly contrast against the warm grasscloth that will be on the walls and to tie in the gray couch. Brilliant!

• Rug: Take a look at esalerugs for an affordable antique Persian rug. No, a rug like that won't clash with the contemporary striped rug we have in the adjacent room. Nice! Again, a question that would have kept me awake at night.
• End tables: Find something in a dark wood finish. I'm on it.
• Fireplace & mantle:  Replace the existing mantle with something chunkier that will give the fireplace more presence. We might consider painting out the brick black or charcoal. Hmmm...I'm not won over on painting the brick such a dark color, but perhaps I just haven't seen enough examples. Now I'm on the hunt for images of black fireplaces.
• The Salvation Army Chair: Hot House Flowers would be the most classic choice (of the 3 I had been considering) to reupholster it in, and also the most versatile for matching with other fabrics. For the front of the chair, a coordinating fabric in a wide stripe would be really cool. YES! I love this idea. Just need to find a striped fabric...

• Leather chairs: Move the pair of leather chairs to the wall where the TV is currently. Pay special attention to this wall because it is the first one you see when you enter the room from the front of the house. Place the leather chairs side by side or with a small table in between, depending on space. Treat the wall behind the chairs as a gallery wall or hang one large scale art piece.  I like it, I like it very much.
• The modern "surprise" element: Bring in an Arc lamp, & modern coffee table like marble, acrylic, or ottomans covered in faux snakeskin. I never would have thought of that! It's just the kind of unexpected piece I want.

So here's a preliminary mood board I put together.

side table; table lamp; floor lamp; sofa; curtains; fabric; coffee table; rug; leather chair

Do you think it captures the "Beacon Hill Brownstone Chic" vibe we're going for?

Our Family Room

If you've been following along Hazardous Design for some time now, you already know that the next room overhaul is our Family Room. I was lucky enough to get some free advice from the talented Casey of Loft and Cottage when I won a design consult from her back in April. She came over to the house a couple of weeks ago (along with Sarah of Pewter and Sage) to take a look at the room and dazzle me with her ideas.

She had her work cut out for her. When we moved, this room became the where all the furniture that didn't belong anywhere else in the house ended up. There was really no hope of making it look good, so I didn't even try. The couch is actually a sectional. I hate the way it separates when you sit down on it.  I can't stand all the floppy back cushions. Plus, all the stereo components drive me nuts! And what is that thing hanging on the wall in the upper left hand corner? We have no idea.

At one point my brother said that this room reminded him of his frat house in college. Nice.

I already had some idea of how I wanted the space to look and feel, but it was so helpful to have a professional validate, refine, and offer up suggestions for things I hadn't even considered.

The inspiration for my room actually comes from one that Casey herself designed. Perhaps you've seen this gorgeous space?

While it isn't a family room, it still captures the updated traditional look I want.

I'm also really drawn to this room, which is an extreme example that traditional and modern mix.

Elle Decor, Photograph by Tim Street-Porter

After seeing it in person, Casey also had a vision for the room.

Pinterest

Funny that this is also a picture of a bedroom :) Anyway, she said that this picture had the texture, colors, and mix of patterns that she envisioned for the space.

I like where this is going...

Stay tuned. In the next post I'll share our plan for how we're going to pull the room together.

Quick Fix

As we're slowing watching our powder room transform, it occurred to us that the mudroom could use a little sprucing up while we're at it.  Our original plan was to hold off on touching the mudroom until we do our kitchen renovation, but that is still years away in the budget.  As you'll see, it wouldn't hurt to show the mudroom a little love in the interim.

***Warning! These pictures aren't pretty!***

Here's the plan:

Lay $60 worth of peel and stick black and white vinyl tile over the existing linoleum.

Repair peeling walls

Paint beadboard, walls, and trim bright white and remove the antiquated alarm system. 

Figure out a more organized solution to hang our coats. 

Hopefully the result will be a cleaner, brighter, and more organized space for about $100 and   just a few days of labor.

Would you take the time to fix up a room if you knew your changes were only temporary?

Pane in the Glass

So maybe that's a little harsh. Replacing the solid wood doors to our home office with french doors wasn't that difficult. It was just tedious and repetitive. 

Original door

New door

Sand, paint, sand, paint, wait a day (okay a week, we're busy people with day jobs) for the paint to dry.

Flip.

Sand, paint, sand, paint.

Multiply all this fun by 2.

Hang.  We cheated and had our contractor, SuperTony, do this part. Lessoned learned from our first house that there are some tasks worth hiring out.

Tony was able to reuse the original glass knobs from the old doors on the new ones. 

Then I added another coat of paint to both doors. When the paint dried, I began the tedious process of removing the plastic film off of each pane. First I scored the edge of the glass to break the paint seal, then gently peeled it away. 

Two panes down, only 58 more to go...

Ta Da!

This wasn't a project that needed to be done, however, they make our recently renovated home office a little more interesting. 

Linking to

Choosing a Paint Color

Some of the materials that we purchased for the main floor powder room were easy decisions, but there are others that we're still on the fence about. The decision making process can become daunting because we know that whatever we pick out today is going to be what we'll need to live with for years and years. Naturally, after spending all this time, money, and energy, we want to love the finished room!

Luckily, the decisions left to be made, like the wall color and window treatments, aren't permanant fixtures. But they'll still be a hassle and incur a cost if we want to change them. In a house that has plenty of rooms needing attention, I don't think either of us will be excited about repainting a room that we already crossed off the list.

So...sometimes it helps to have a visual to lay out the options.

Chair rail, charcoal gray walls



White walls, picture molding

Black walls! 

Navy walls

Decisions, decisions...which is your favorite?

I'm Dreaming of a New Kitchen

The kitchen remodel is going to be the mother of all projects that we tackle in this house. Even though the renovation is still YEARS away, we talk about it constantly. We discuss cabinetry colors & styles, countertop materials, flooring, appliances, lighting options, and most importantly the general layout of the kitchen and how it will flow with the rest of the house. Up until this point, when Chris and I talk about making changes to the kitchen floor plan we've had to rely on lots of scrap paper or the occasional paper napkin if we're out having dinner. As a result some of our best ideas have gotten lost in translation. 

And then...Chris discovered some software and created some almost to scale renderings of what we want our kitchen to look like someday. 

We took out a wall between the kitchen and dining room (right side of drawing) which expands the space and improves the flow.  A kitchen island is something we've been dreaming of and it looks like we'll have enough space to make it work. We also added a door and some stairs down into the backyard. 

Bird's eye view

Viewing the kitchen from a backyard corner, you can see a built in china hutch that I've been dreaming of. 

This will be the new view from the dining room. 

By the way, this is what the current view is from that same angle. Once the wall is gone (where the mirror is hanging), we'll be able to sit in the living room and see clear through the dining room and kitchen into the backyard. 

Now, we're no professionals when it comes to designing kitchens or working with this software, but man, we're having fun. 

DIY Reupholstery

Shut UP. Is this not the best idea ever?

This old chair went from looking like this:

to this

With a little help from some decorative nails and JC Penny.

Full instructions at Three Boys

We've Been Framed!

Things have been progressing in our downstairs powder room. Chris finished framing up the dummy wall that will hide the plumbing for the sink and wiring for the lighting.

This picture looks like it was taken inside an outhouse, but once the sheetrock is up, it will look more refined. Chris enlarged the casement so that our contractor, Tony, will have more surface area to nail the wallboard into. Chris will also add trim molding around to door to make it look more consistent with the rest the house. 

We Made Another Decision

Chris and I agreed on a sink for the powder room. If you read this post, then you'd know why it was a such difficult decision.  There are so many options to choose from! This is the style we ended up purchasing from Renovator's Supply.

We've accumulated a nice little stockpile of bathroom goods in our living room. Ugh. It will be really nice when this project is finished! 

So now that we have the sink taken care of, we'll need to pick a faucet. I'm still hunting around, but this is the short list so far

Overstock

Overstock

csn stores

Which is your favorite? 

Home Office After

If you've been following along as I was renovating the home office last week, then this is the moment you have been waiting for...

Our home office went from looking like this

To this

From this

To this

What do you think?