Tag Archives: family room

Piano Planning

As mentioned in my List-O-Mania post, one “to-do” item is to have my piano moved from my parent’s house to our house.

the piano will go here, up against the stairs in our family room

But before we can do that, we need a rug to go underneath it.

I was originally planning to bind a leftover swatch of our carpeting. I figured this would do a good enough job. And it would be free. (well sort of; the carpet would be free but we’d still have to pay to have it bound). But the more I thought about it, the more I doubted that a carpet swatch was the way to go. Our carpeting is kind of a non-descript oatmeal-y color (as you can see above on the stairs). Perfectly neutral for the rest of our home, but maybe the piano deserves more pizzazz.

But now I was stumped. What type of rug should I look for? What would go best with the room? How could we add a little pop of color or pattern without overwhelming the rest of the room?

Until one day, when I found this beauty in a Land of Nod catalogue!

It’s the perfect size  (4′ x 6′).

It’s woven.

It’s purple.

… and the kicker…

It’s reversible!

And it’s on it’s way to our house now! FedEx – please get my little lavender beauty here safe and sound!

List-O-Mania

I don’t know about you, but I love making lists. In the Notes app on my iPhone. Especially when Tom & I are driving to work (we carpool; he drives), running errands, or in those moments when I can’t fall asleep because I have too many thoughts running through my head. During our 13 hour car ride back from Florida, I made a lot of lists. Tom gets carsick if he’s not driving, so he drove the ENTIRE 750 miles home. And I spent those miles reading the September issue of HGTV magazine, and coming up with countless ideas and projects for our house. The best way that I could think of to soothe my racing mind was to create room-by-room lists.

I am sharing these with you in an effort to help 1.) Turn some of these ideas into reality. Decorating is like dieting. If you tell people what your goals are, you’re more likely to follow through and stick to it. Right?? 2.) Have a back-up, just in case I lose my iPhone or accidentally hit delete!

Obviously, there are more rooms in our house than are listed here. But I’m starting with the ones that seem reasonable and realistic.

Family Room:

– Gallery wall above small bookshelf; maybe small wall of photos between TV and stairs (MUST make progress on this soon! I should probably give myself a deadline…)

– Add a basket/something to stash pillows and throws

– Buy a rug for the corner where the piano will go

– Have piano moved from my parent’s house

– Accent table needed between cream leather occasional chairs

– Paint! (this is on the books for early 2013!!)

– Crown molding

– Frame out windows or build cornice boxes

– Eventually… would love a pouf! And a new coffee table and end table

 

Kitchen:

– Add a tile backsplash

– Paint!! (also early 2013)

– Install under-cabinet lighting

– Crown molding

– Considering a fun, modern wall-paper on the wall underneath our island, that faces our family room

– Eventually… would love custom blown-glass pendant lights.

 

Master Bedroom:

– Dressing table and chair

– Armchair (and ottoman?)

– New bedding

– Art / photos for walls

– New lamps for our nightstands

– Crown molding?

– Custom closet system

 

Library/Office:

– Built-in shelving and window seat

– Window seat cushion and pillows

– Frame out window

– Crown molding

– New desk & desk chair

– Hang art

– Feature wall for quilts (my mom is a quilter; she’s made me some cute, sentimental and “inside joke” quilts over the years and I need a way to display them!)


Now, the fun part will be seeing how many of these we can actually accomplish! Is it silly to admit that I’m nervous?!!?

 

Just Call Me Mellow Yellow

I recently discovered Fabric.com… and happened upon this site just in time to browse a fabulous sale! So I went a little crazy and ordered a total of 5.5 yards in a variety of yellow patterns to add some more splashes of color to our family room.

Here’s a peek:

And a shot with the purple couch:

Love it!

Stay tuned to see how these fabrics get incorporated into our family room decor!

Color & Character(s)

Remember my color conundrum in our family room? Well, I/we (Tom sort of voted) have made a decision! And the winner is… (drum roll please)…

lemony yellow!

In addition to bringing some pops of yellow into the gallery wall I’m planning, I think a few sunny accessories will help to round things out. So, when Saturday rolled around without any plans on the books, I headed straight for the nearest home stores!

My first stop was HomeGoods. I was initially distracted by some other fabulous finds – namely a grey ikat chair that I wish I had a need for, and an adorable little pierced porcelain lamp that I nearly brought home. Apologies for the lack of covert photos – next time I will try to capture a few peeks to share! I finally made my way to the accessories section, where I found a color-coded wall of glasswares and vases. I am a sucker for blown glass – I’ve notice lately that I have quite a few pieces around the house. Anyway, I spotted the yellow section, and this vase immediately popped out at me:

And for only $12.99, I couldn’t pass it up! There’s a nice variation of yellow, from pale to bright, and the waves at the top give it a funky look.

A few shelves down from the yellow section was the purple section, so you know I had to take a look! And there I found the cutest, quirkiest piece: a purple blown-glass chicken!

I couldn’t resist. I’ve named her Henrietta, and she looks lovely sitting next to the yellow vase on our accent table!

Next stop – Pier 1. I love exploring the aisles at Pier 1 – there is always something interesting, or embellished, that catches my eye! And this trip was no different. Apparently, I am on an animal kick right now, because I left with this little character…

Well, he’s not really that little – he’s about 2 ft. tall! And his name is Edgar. He adds a fun “safari” touch to our fireplace.

I’m loving the new touches to our family room! Still on the hunt for some other yellow pieces, but I have some things in mind. Did you add any fun pieces to your home decor family over the weekend?

Inspiration for a Gallery Wall

Along with selecting an accent color for our family room, I’m also dreaming of creating a gallery wall of photos and art prints. Our walls are still pretty bare, and I’m looking forward to hunting for unique pieces to fill them up!

I’ve been browsing Pinterest, Houzz and other blogs for inspiration, tips, and tricks for how to achieve a creative gallery wall. I’m a little apprehensive about how to mix and match a variety of prints and photos, but the more ideas I find, the more confident I become about pulling this off!  Here are a few of my favorite gallery wall ideas:

This arrangement fills the space nicely, and incorporates a variety of images, frames and mat sizes.

Love how this one incorporates more than just photography and art, but mirrors, candle sconces, etc. Don’t you love how the thermostat looks like it fits in?!

This collection is very neat and orderly. Also love the incorporation of the letter!

This one is uniform without feeling too expected. I like that if forms a larger rectangle, but the individual frames are different dimensions.

Which of the 4 arrangements is your favorite?