THE EVOLUTION OF A FAMILY ROOM
I have a very important question for you… Are you done decorating your home? If you said “yes” you are in the vast majority. Maybe you are a super decorator, or work at lightning speed, or have elves. I am both happy for you and jealous of you (only in the nicest way). But if you are like me, your home is in constant evolution! I am never done with a room. I change my mind and find new and better ways to decorate. My family room is a prime example of an evolving room. So, here’s the history of the evolution of my family room and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.
I can’t show you how my family room looked before we started the family room remodel. Just think… beige rug, yellow walls, gold sofa, red and gold wing chairs, oak coffee table, oak tv cabinet, lots of pictures on the walls and red and gold balloon window treatments. I was in my Tuscan phase. Don’t snicker, it was the early 90’s!
It was time for a much needed update!
Our first project was to get rid of the berber wall to wall carpet and buy a shag wall to wall carpet. Very in style in the early 2000’s. And we were at least getting rid of that horrible, beige, worn, berber carpet in the family room!
We also bought a fabulously comfortable Smith Bros. sofa in a taupe and ivory Greek key design. The sofa came with 4 designer pillows. I chose the fabric. Two pillows were a brown and white french script print and the others were a black and neutral floral. I love the floral and use it today. But that was very serendipitous! The script pillow is long gone!
THE LESSONS:
- The pillows that come with a sofa are usually awful! There are so many great pillow sources so choose ones you love!
- Don’t go too trendy with wall to wall carpeting. You may have to live with it until you can afford another floor covering.
Another big change was going from a Tuscan yellow wall color to a goldish/taupe. I really wanted to go sorta white, but was not brave enough to make that leap then. Now I’d do it in a heartbeat!
Notice that not only my room evolved but so did my photography… and my decorating!
We also got the coffee table and round mirror and chair with script fabric (It is now in a guest room waiting to be slipcovered). You can see I used blue and white to accent the room. The picture on the wall is a watercolor of StoneGable that I had done for one of Bobby’s birthdays just after we moved in. The picture is now waiting to be hung in our upstairs sitting room.
The black chair in the background came from a local furniture store. It sold for almost $600.00 and I walked away with is for $50.00. I’m telling you I am the queen of a great bargain! The chair is now in the foyer. I’d like to recover it.
I found this unique round mirror at HomeGoods and repainted it. It was hung in the family room and then in a bedroom and back to the family room!
When we purchased the sofa we also purchased two fabulously comfortable brown leather club chairs and an ottoman also from Smith Bros. You can see them in some of the pictures below.
The lamp (Pottery Barn Outlet) was my favorite. However, it met an untimely demise by a dog! I saved the lampshade and it’s on a lamp in the foyer.
THE LESSONS:
- Shop for good furniture at bargain prices.
- If you find a piece and love it’s style but not the color, it can be painted!
- Buy comfortable chairs.
- Don’t let your dog pay near a lamp cord!
Here’s the “before” of the mantel and fireplace… (this picture also show the gold/taupe wall color)
And here’s the “after”…
That was a dramatic change!
I was during the first makeover we put the black chippy shutters on the mantel, got a large clock to replace the mirror (What was I thinking for all those years? The only thing the mirror reflected was the ceiling!), painted the brass fireplace surround, rebricked the fireplace and painted the mantel lamps. I also painted the base of a cherry table and stenciled my linen curtains with chalk paint.
It was during this time that I cleared off the shelves in my family room and organized things in baskets. I thought the numbered tags were fun!!! This cleared up a whole lot of visual clutter from the built-in shelves.
THE LESSONS:
- Don’t hang a mirror over a mantel.
- Brass can be repainted oil rubbed bronze. Use heat resistant spray paint near a fireplace.
- You can brick over marble tile. Use veneer bricks.
- Again, paint great items to update them.
- Organize!
As you can see the goldish/taupe wall color did not last long at all. I found the most magical paint color called Sonnet by Benjamin Moore. The whole downstairs of StoneGable is painted Sonnet. I love love love this color! Sonnet goes with everything!
I found a console that fit on an empty wall perfectly and brought it home from… yes, our local Pottery Barn Outlet. I wasn’t in love with it, but if filled the space! It didn’t last long in the family room.
Painting day!
THE LESSONS:
- Be bold and paint you walls the colors you really want!!! It’s just paint!
- Only buy what you really love!
It was around this time I started to fall in love with farmhouse style. Our home was inspired and built to look like a farmhouse. We lived around farmland and farmhouses and farm animals. Farmhouse style made sense in my home. It felt easy and comfortable and like it “fit”.
So, I started leaning towards a traditional, farmhouse, cottage, industrial style with an upscale flair. I coined it Refined Country Farmhouse.
By now totally white furniture and walls and… everything white…had been around for several years. I was not sold on the everything white look, at all. To me, it looked like a painter was let loose in a house with a pressure sprayer full of builder’s grade flat white paint and went crazy! I found “all white” dull and uninspiring and forced.
But, I was so drawn to a mix of whites and neutrals with a tad of black. It looked interesting and fresh and a little bit upscale. That’s when my big family room transformation began! I had a “look” I wanted to create! I could name it and pinpoint the furnishing to go with this look. I had developed my style!
It became so obvious to me that before I focused in on my decor style I was sorta floundering in my family room… not really being able to put together a cohesive look I loved. But now things were different… easier! I had clarity!
The first thing I did was to slipcover the Greek key sofa in white duck cloth. What a good move! My family room got so much brighter!!!
THE BIG LESSON:
- Making mistakes develops your style!!!!! I made lots in this room. But every mistake worked to define my look… my style.
OTHER LESSONS: Slipcovers are a great way to hide mistakes!
Laying hardwood floors came next. Bobby and the boys spend a couple days and completed the task! I would have loved darker hardwoods but it was cost prohibitive for us to strip and stain the hardwoods we already had in the house. We were lucky enough to find the same hardwood floors and bought them for all the rooms in our house.
I added small jute rug over the new floors.
During late 2013 I won Lamps Plus Blog Of The Year and got a more modern looking natural colored slipcovered sofa. We put then other white slipcovered sofa up in our sitting room. We are just about to start a total gut and makeover of that room now!
THE LESSONS:
- Sometimes you have to compromise.
- Sometimes you get lucky!
The next thing to come to the family room was my houndstooth recliner. It was December of 2013. I had knee cap surgery the month before and Bobby insisted that I get a chair that I could elevate my legs.
There was NO way I was going to put a recliner in my family room, so Bobby tricked me and under the guise of taking me for a drive took me to the Lazy Boy store. He almost had to drag me out of the car!!! I was shocked at how much I loved some of the recliners. They look nothing like the one my dad had! They were actually beautiful chairs! And Lazy Boy had lots and lots of great, modern fabrics to choose from.
So we ordered a gorgeous taupe and white big houndstooth print for a club chair recliner. One of the best moves we made!
After the houndstooth chair, I began to remove the blue accents from for family room opting for more neutral ones!
And in a bold move, I had the leather chairs covered in white duck cloth! Everyone thought I was making a huge mistake. Even Bobby! But he let me go.
In the end, it was absolutely the right move for the family room.
THE LESSONS:
- Don’t be too quick to judge. Some home furnishings might surprise you.
- Edit and update your home decor accessories.
- Sometimes you just have to go for it!
Shortly after that I found the free sofa was just too long and gave it to my daughter and her husband. Too bad for me because it was so so comfortable! But it went to a wonderful home.
I replace the sofa with a Pottery Barn Comfort Sofa in an Ivory Basketweave Performance fabric. Great choice! It’s wearing wonderfully! I just wish I would have splurged and gotten the down wrapped like the one in my living room.
I found a cabinet I fell in love with at Wayfair and bought it to replace the dark console. My daughter got the console too!
And we added this comfortable and pretty accent chair by Birch Lane.
THE LESSONS:
- Remember, only buy what you LOVE!
The most recent change to the living room has been painting the clock a chippy white with gray undertones.
THE LESSON:
- Paint is like magic!
My family room went from this…
To this…
And from this…
To this…
That brings us up to date. Is my family room done? Not at all. I still have a couple projects to work on this spring and summer!
Here’s a big takeaway lesson from this evolution… pinpoint your style and what feels right for you and you have half the battle won. It wasn’t until I really began to know my style and the look I loved that I was able to create it!
I floundered for awhile until I could focus in on my style and own it!
How about you? Are you working on a room? What is your greatest challenge in its evolution?
You might like to follow me on Pinterest and see what I’m finding to pin every day HERE.
WOW! Makes me think about my place…
What a transformation, there is a huge amount to be said for white paint and white in all it’s varying forms, for no longer is white, just white, there are grey whites, blue whites and pink whites to name but a few. So much inspiration here in one room, absolutely love it, what a fantastic post.
What a wise and true comment. White done right is AMAZING!
Never done decorating! I find that when I walk into an older person’s home (I am in my 60s, so “older” is relative!– that they stopped decorating maybe a decade or two ago. Things look like they are caught in a time warp, like if one still sported a Beatle haircut or muttonchops! It says to me they have stopped caring and seeing and just maybe are tired of living! I find keeping things fresh and updated keeps me a little younger, with a little more zest and a little more “vision”. Neutral wall colors and “shopping my house” are two of the best decorating ideas ever to come down the pike! Plus pillows! Love you place!
Oh, Gayle, this was beautifully written and made me stop and think about my own home being in a time warp! My MIL (who is 83, recently widowed) just updated her living/family room and it’s definitely perked up her whole life.
I honestly love your home, and I cannot picture it any other way! I’ll be anxious when we sell our home and move to our little cottage because I have pinned so many thoughts and ideas about how you have accomplished this look. I’m taking in all in, and hoping it pays off when we get there:) Your home is really beautiful!
I like the transformation of your home it’s beautiful, but I still like wood and color. All whites and painted furniture will also go out of fashion in due time. Just make your home work for you and make you happy!
I agree. I like white but also appreciate beautiful woods and color is a personal thing with me.
Our homes should reflect us as individuals.
Great advice. The only problem with buying what you love is tastes change and you fall out of love, find a new love and the rest is history. I don’t think decorating is ever done but what fun it is. You have a beautiful home.
Love your home. What is the color of your hardwood flooring? Thank you
It it Colour De Decor and the color is Gunstock.
Thanks so much for this post as I’m getting ready for a full renovation of my kitchen and dining room (getting estimates next week). You have helped me rethink my approach doing things.
Also THANK YOU sooo much for yesterday’s post in this year of Mercy our country needs so many prayers for forgiveness. I pray daily for our “leaders”.
Have you ever have any consideration to bring back your menus on Monday. They were a big help for me to plan my week. I go back to prior years for ideas.
As always you are such an inspiration.
God bless you
Amen to the prayers for our countfy ,leaders, and the whole world.
I love your style, so pretty. Great to see how it has evolved.
I loved looking at the transformation….one of my favorite things you did was a the addition of the baskets and numbers to your built ins. I thought it was so tasteful and modern. I searched for some time for baskets to add to my built ins. It’s one of the many Yvonne touches in our home! Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE how it turned out! Thanks for sharing the transformation, it’s encouraging to know that I’m not the only one with an ever evolving living room! 🙂
The timing of this post was perfect for me. Yesterday we went to our cabin that we have had for about 14 years. We haven’t been for awhile and I saw it with new eyes! So much stuff and and dark colors! Big changes are on the way. Loved this post and your wonderful home. Will you share with me the name of the brick you used to recover your fireplace. I want to put it on a wall in our kitchen but I’m unsure of what brand would be the best and I love the look of yours.
Hi Suzanne, Oh I’d love to makeover a cabin!!! I really don’t remember the name of the brick veneer, but brick veneers are common.
Did you paint your Fireplace?
Hi Tanya, I spray painted the bronze embellishments with a heat safe paint and put a brick veneer on the over the green marble tile.
Absolutely stunning!
Thank you for sharing the steps of this beautiful transformation. It gives me hope and inspiration. We moved to the family farm and the last remodel was in the 1970’s. Green shag carpet and dark paneled walls. I need to start visualizing the little steps to a home that makes us feel comfortable and joyful. Wonderful post!
Thank for sharing your never ending talent so many good tips and beautiful ideas. We are anxiously waiting the sale of our current home and have just recently settled on our new “downsized” home that will be our transition home until we retire in few years. It has been exciting to pick everything from the floor up. What is giving me the most anxiety is when it comes time to pick a new sofa for the family room – sectional, slipcovers ??? I’ll need to live with what I pick so need to choose wisely. My best girlfriend can never make up her mind on anything so it maybe years later and nothing has changed, needless to say I don’t want to go that direction. I’ve definitely decided on a neutral color and will add color and accents through pillows, etc. Love your look!
Your transformation is beautiful, but I miss your leather chairs and darker clock. There is just something about touches of leather that warms things up. But that is why our homes are all so different…I read your blog everyday and love all your farmhouse touches, and all the dishes. Could you please do something on storing all those dishes? I seem to be running out of room.. Help.
Love your style! Loved your paint color so much ,I recently painted my 95 year old aunts entire house in Sonnet. That was a big job, but it turned out great. Sonnet looks like a very light gray in her house. I know colors vary on computer screens, but in your house Sonnet looks more beige. Is your color a light gray or a light beige?
Hi Michele,
What a labor of love!!! How sweet. Sonnet in my home is a beige/cream. It’s just the nicest color!
I really enjoyed the journey back in time and brought up to today with you in your beautiful family room.
The room is just beautiful and inviting.
Thank you for sharing.
Yvonne, did you make your own slipcovers or did you have them made. I am dying to slipcover my leather sofa and recliners in my family room.
Hi Judy, I had them make by a local slipcoverer. You will love slipcovers!
Love your blog and always drawn to you on pinterest. Where did you find the pillow on the couch that is beige and looks like a basket weave? I am search of some.
Thanks
Becky
HI BECKY!!! I found that pillow at our local Pottery Barn Outlet.
I had feeling it was some where like that, thanks so much for taking your time to reply 🙂
Heh. Did you write this post for me, Yvonne?
You nailed it. And I guess we just have to sometimes make mistakes and not get too worked up or upset about it. Life is short.
First World problems are nothing in the scheme of this big ole world, right? All in perspective is how I am dealing.
Enjoyed this post – really enjoyed your befores and afters – B and As are my favorite posts ever.
I love seeing how everyone’s rooms evolve over time as our tastes and trends changes….the room is so fresh and beautiful…you have succeeded with the beauty and function rule!….Even though the photos of your family room are truly beautiful…I can say that it is more beautiful in person!!! This room and your home depicts a very loving family lives here!
You are so darling, Shirley!
Hi Yvonne, I’m never done decorating my home. I love changing things up, but for the past few years I’ve been so busy, I haven’t been able to do much, but that doesn’t mean the ideas stop. Being in the wood working business ourselves we come up with tons of ideas but it’s not always easy implementing them for our home as we’re busy doing it for everyone else, LOL!
The great thing about some of your ideas is that they’re fairly simple. And sometimes all you really need to do are the simple things. It’s oftenthe smaller things that make the biggest impact. Guess I need to remember that 🙂
Blessings,
Elizabeth
So beautiful and so much great advice. Can I ask where you found your numbered tags for your baskets?
Yvonne – have you done a blog post about the brick veneer on your fireplace? I would be interested to learn more about this! I have some AWFUL tile above my fireplace that I have wanted to do something with for years! Thank you!
First off let me complement you on your sense of style! I really enjoy your blog. I was wondering who the artist is of the black and white picture with the green trees is. I would love to see more of their work.
Hi Kim, you can read all about the artist here: https://www.stonegableblog.com/7-foolproof-ways-to-choose-art-for-your-home/
Great ideas! Love your style and decorating ideas. I always get something new to redo from your blog! The green tile around your fireplace is very familiar. We bought our house and that same tile was everyplace except living room, dining room and bedrooms. We have totally rehabbed and it is gone!