You might have noticed that I’ve been a bit absent from the blog lately and for good reason. I’ve been hanging with my kids during their last week of school, going on outings, hosting sleepovers, playing games, and well…lounging. All of my time over the last week has been spent in my family room and for those of you that have taken my home tour, you might have noticed that photos of my family room are nowhere to be found! You may have seen parts of it when I showed my gallery wall, my cabinet display, and more recently, my ’80s wet bar, but I’ve never shown the entire room before. The reason? Well, this room gets a lot of use as the kids’ playroom so it’s always messy! But now that the kids are back in school I did a quick clean and snapped some photos so that I could share with you today.
Some homes have basements and some have playrooms, but I have neither, so my family room is my children’s play area. This is a very casual room where they play video games, watch TV, race on jumping balls around the room, jump on the sofa {yes really}, host sleepovers, and eat all sorts of snacks! I am super relaxed when it comes to this room so my kids pretty much have free rein, which is why there is popcorn ground into the shag rug and stains all over the sofa, but honestly, I don’t care. This is just our snuggle up and hang out room that is a mishmash of furniture.
I don’t have windows on both sides of my fireplace, so I’ve balanced out the one window on the left with a tall, glass-front cabinet on the right.
I am constantly rearranging and shopping my own home, so items move in and out of the cabinet on a regular basis, but here’s what it looks like today. It’s a mixture of ironstone, white ceramics, vintage items, and books.
The fireplace surround is outdated, but I have no plans to replace it. Someday I would like to put a fresh coat of paint on it, though. In the meantime, I have a large clock above it that my husband gave to me many years ago and I’ve flanked it with a series of frames, some candelabras, and a bit of boxwood for color.
I was originally going to put family photos in the picture frames that flank the clock, but since I have a gallery wall around our TV, I decided instead to just frame decorative papers that I recently picked up from Hobby Lobby.
I also put my vintage olive bucket to good use holding some decorative firewood, which added some texture to an otherwise empty corner.
My collected gallery wall hasn’t changed much since I first installed it, but I like that it’s now been softened a bit with the addition of my new stripped drapes.
To the left of the gallery wall is my outdated 80’s wet bar that I have yet to do anything with, so for now, it houses a collection of decor that I rotate in and out every couple of weeks.
This fishing basket is one of my favorite finds in recent weeks. Thank you, HomeGoods!
One thing that I’m not showing in these photos is the five feet of space that runs the length of the room behind the sofa adjacent to my kitchen. Currently, my Hubby stores his astrophotography equipment in this space and let me assure you, there is no way to decorate around giant telescopes, mounts, and the various equipment that accompanies them!
My {Someday} To Do list for this room includes:
- A fresh coat of paint
- An updated fireplace surround (but I’ll be happy with even just a fresh coat of paint on the existing one)
- Refinished floors
- Crown moulding
- A new sectional (but this is a LONG way off since the kids still have pillow fights with the pillows and the cat uses it as a scratching post!)
Until then, this is where the kids play and my family relaxes!
Related posts can be found here:
- 10 Tips for Creating a Collected Gallery Wall
- The Easy Wang to Lay Out a Gallery Wall
- Easy Picture Hanging Tip
I hope you enjoyed the tour!
;
Sharing At: The Dedicated House – French Country Cottage – Best of the Nest
Would you like to receive my posts via email? Enter your email address below. You will instantly receive an email from FeedBurner and you will need to click the link to activate your subscription.
Join the Community
Let’s keep in touch! Get exclusive artwork plus the latest news delivered directly to your Inbox!
Such a great space! Thank you for sharing. You are one of the features at the Anything Blue Friday party at The Dedicated House. Here is the link to the party. http://www.thededicatedhouse.com/2014/09/anything-blue-friday-week-69.html Hope to see you again at the little blue soiree. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
Hi Kathryn – THANK YOU!!!!!! I love your Anything Blue Friday party and am so excited to have been one of the features! :) Kim
Oh this is lovely! Casual and cozy but elegant and beautiful. I love how you did the TV wall with all the wall pictures around it -it really helps to minimize the look of the TV! I am redoing our family room too and you are inspiring me to get it done in time for fall and to have a cozy spot of our own!
i love the tv gallery wall!
b
Thank you!!
Kim, it’s so inviting and casual, but still a bit sophisticated! What a great spot for your kiddos, and I love that you let them live in it! :) Great idea to balance the window, too!
Hi Pam – Thank you so much! I’m glad I took the time to take the photos because I fear the room will never be clean again! Within five minutes of the kids coming home from school, there were snacks, homework, and games everywhere. Ah well…. :)
This has to be the prettiest “mish mash” I’ve ever seen, Kim! : ) It looks like a great family room. I love that you actually live in this room. We did in our old house, too, in both a great room and a small den. The small den was really the kids room to hang out in with their friends, but as they got older and left, hubby and I took it over as it was cozier for watching television (it also had a fireplace) than the 26 x 26 great room.
Kathy – Thank you!! For real life, having a room in which we actually live is great, but as a blogger, it can sometimes be difficult!!
Beautiful room. I especially love the gallery wall around your tv.
Thank you, Kristi! The gallery wall is my favorite part, too. :)
Your home is lovely and it sounds and looks like a place where love lives. I really think it is beautiful!
Thank you, Helen!
So warm and inviting!
Thank you!
What a beautiful room! You do such a wonderful job with layering and I love that it’s a room that the family can do whatever they want in – we all need at least one of those!
Hi Kris! Thank you so much!
I love that you decorated this room with love. Love of your kids. Love of the family that plays together, stays together. And even love of your imperfect housecoat. YOU are a very wise woman and probably a great mom and wife. God Bless. Oh, and you’re a really innovative designer, too.
Hi Lyzz – I love the expression you used…”imperfect housecoat”…too funny! Thank you so much for your kind comments. Have a wonderful week!
Kim,
It looks very comfortable and inviting. I think we used to have that same leather chair, or one like it. It sat too close to our fireplace and the leather eventually dried and cracked. It was called the Morgan chair from Restoration Hardware long before they became famous. :-)
Great room.
Karen
Hi Karen! I spotted the chair on clearance at Macys one day and fell in love! It’s such a fun chair so I’m sorry to hear that yours didn’t make it. I never even thought about its proximity to the fireplace so I’ll have to keep an eye on that. Thanks for the info!
Love the styling of your cabinet…….it looks like you have covered your books with something………….can you tell me what you used?
Hi Karen – I did recover all of them. Some of them are covered in brown kraft paper, which were leftover props from my Halloween mantel (https://www.tidbitsandtwine.com/diy-stamped-kraft-covered-books/) but the majority of them, and the ones I’m guessing you’re asking about, are covered with fabric. I used interlining and followed a combination of the instructions in the tutorials listed here: https://www.tidbitsandtwine.com/how-to-create-filler-books/. I recovered reading books as well as all of my photo albums. :)
Beautiful!
Thank you!
Just luvly!
Thank you, Gee! :)
Oh How stunning! I love the neutral tones you used in here…and that cabinet is soo gorgeous! Love it all!
Deb
@Seeking Lavender Lane
Hi Deb – Thank you so much! BTW – I love how Gemma’s room turned out. STUNNING!!! Fit for a princess for sure! :)
Great room, I love it. It looks pretty fabulous to me and I adore that gallery wall.
Thank you, Marty!