The Family Room (Redone)

Well folks…I’ve made a few changes to the family room over the past few weeks and I’m over the moon about them. I can finally say…

I LOVE OUR FAMILY ROOM!!

First time in seven years peeps. First time.

I showed you here how this space has driven me a bit batty for all that time. Many of you offered suggestions on furniture placement, and when I say we tried them all…we tried them all. ;)

The open layout and the location of the cable and surround sound stuff made it hard to make the layout (with enough seating) work.

So first up was a new sofa – a sectional to be exact. When we became debt free earlier this year, it was the one thing I was SO EXCITED to buy. We hadn’t paid for (I mean, PAID for) a piece of big furniture in seven years. And the sofa set from seven years ago just plain sucked. ;)

So we were going to splurge…but I wanted to make sure this splurge was going to last…well, FOREVER. So I did a ton of research. You can see the process here and here.

We decided on an Arhaus sectional, and I went against two of my original plans – one was I wasn’t going to get a microfiber sofa. But I did:

It’s actually called micro denier and it’s a soft as a bunny’s bottom. For reals. I have never pet a bunny booty, but I’m guessing it’s pretty darn soft. As soft as this sectional. ;)

It’s all polyester, so it repels liquids and stains like a supastar. Arhaus had fabulously large samples that I took home, and I may or may not have tested out said sample with some spills. Shhhhh…

All I knew is I didn’t want to deal with stressing over the sofa all the dang time. And I don’t.

All along I had planned on a slipcovered sofa, and then one day it hit me – what in the HUH was I thinking? I know me…and I know washing and drying and recovering every time something spilled would put me over the edge.

(This is me here, and you all know me is a bit cuckoo for cocoa puffs at times, so if you are searching for a new sofa, take that as you will. I’ve heard from MANY who love their slipcovers. They are just much more patient people than I. Me? I.)

Anyhoo, we ended up with the Lansbury from Arhaus:

We were able to configure it just as we needed – the left side of the sofa needed to be shorter to go under the window just so. The right side could be long but not too long. I didn’t want huge arms sticking out taking up space, and lastly – the seats needed to be deeeeep.

Working in the decorating biz years ago, I learned a few things about picking out a quality sofa and that one has stuck with me. This baby delivers on the deep:

I love the side view – isn’t that little curve so pretty?

The sofa is something like 103 inches by 80-something, and it fits like a glove in our family room:

I measured and moved and planned it all out beforehand, and I couldn’t be happier with how it fits in the space. At first it even seemed a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but there’s easily room for six people on there. (Six people who like each other, but six people.)

What’s most important is we (my family) can all pile on and it’s SO comfy. We are in heaven. :)

By the way – it is the most comfy couch I’ve ever sat my tuckus on. It’s kinda firm when you first sit down…and then you sink in and it’s perfection.

I was happy to find that, even though it’s deeper than our old sofa – it still gives us plenty of room for the sofa table and space in the kitchen:

I was concerned the longer section would stick out too much (even though I measured eleventy billion times and it was fine).  But because it goes almost up to the window, it doesn’t go out much further than the old sofa:

It most definitely makes the room feel twice as big.

That’s not the only reason though – the second third 15th happiest day of my life occurred when the surround sound folks came and moved our TV from the crammed spot next to the fireplace to over the craigslist dresser:

OH HAPPY DAY!! I cannot express to you the difference it made in this space. It instantly doubled the size of the room, seriously.

I would have done it forever ago, but it wasn’t as simple as moving the cable jack. All of the surround sound hook ups were on the wall by the fireplace, so we had to have it done professionally.

They ended up moving a speaker (instead of putting in a new one, to save money) and ran everything through the basement. (Hooray for unfinished basements!)

So now this large wall is now the TV wall and it has worked out perfectly:

You might notice the components – the DVR, DVD player and receiver – are all under the dresser. I wanted them hidden away if at all possible and wasn’t sure it would work because of the potential dust under there. But the guys who did all the work kind of laughed when I mentioned that and said under the dresser will be no different than anywhere else. (And I believed them when I saw all of the dust in the old cabinet – YUCKO!)

They made sure there was plenty of breathing room under there, checked to make sure the remotes would still work and arranged everything for me just so. (We love Ovation in Indy – they always do an incredible job!)

(We did consider rigging the dresser and putting them inside, but I worry about the heat, and we use every bit of that dresser space for toys. :) We don’t even notice them under there anymore.)

The only issue that we’ve had (that I already knew would happen) is that we can’t watch TV from the left side of our kitchen (basically the island). It’s not a big deal, but come football season, (i.e.: parties) it may be. The solution is pretty simple though – we plan on changing out the TV wall mount for one that swings out. (Someday…not a priority!)

Right now we’re just loving how moving the TV has changed the room!

I can’t wait to show you more about this project too:

:) Love it!

Because the TV console was gone (whoo hoo party hardy God bless America!!!!!), I had a new spot with the potential for new seating. I waited till we got the sofa to make sure everything would fit OK, and then I checked out HomeGoods.

I have had so much fun changing up things a bit in this space – the chair is a bit contemporary but I LOVE IT:

I knew I wanted something with legs to balance out the upholstered sofa. I also wanted something just a tad more sophisticated.

The little lumbar pillow in the red, blue, green and cream fabric that I showed you here adds a bit of casual, and the little candlestick turned itty bitty table fits perfectly next to it!

Having that console right up against the fireplace drove me mad. The chair still sits right next to it, but it’s a cozy, warm-by-the-fire-with-hot-cocoa kind of feeling now, not a the-TV-console-is-going-to-catch-on-fire kind of feeling:

I LOVE looking at this angle now.

LOVE. 

(Yes, the poppy print is staying where it is. Not moving it, at least for now -- for numerous reasons, but mostly because we like it where it is.)  :)

This wasn’t my most thrifty room, to say the least. But after years of paying off a mound of debt, we got to splurge and it feels awesome. I can’t wait to show you more of the accessories and art I DIYed in this space though – I’ve got some thrifty projects to share!

This is my new view as I blog every night and I couldn’t be happier:

What is it with my flip flop shots lately? Sorry about the feet thing.

It took seven years (did I mention that?) – but I finally feel like our family room feels as big as it really is. This new set up just works.

Here’s a couple of before and after shots for you – earlier this year when I removed the loveseat and just left the sofa:

We lived with that one sofa for six months and it worked OK till the end – then we kind of missed being able to lounge together in the room.

And don’t get me wrong…I’ve always loved the warm, comfy space this was. I don’t think the before was bad or anything…it just never worked quite right.

Now it does:

You’ll notice I took the drapes from the dining room. :) (More on that later.)

And a before before with both the loveseat and sofa and the TV console:

And how it looks today (the light was not great – sorry the pics are a bit washed out):

Up till recently, I thought having the sofa in front of the window would bug me. But I actually quite love it – it creates a weird cozy/open feeling all in one. (I did try our old loveseat in front of the window and it didn’t work – those big arms took up a ton of space!)

The sectional was the only way to make it work:

One final before (again, I don’t personally think this is a “bad” before):

And the after shot…at dusk. ;) Cause I love the evening shots:

I. am. thrilled. I’ve done quite a few happy dances over the past few weeks. ;) It was SO worth the wait. Really.

Thanks for letting me share and thanks for being patient with me!! I’ll be back with more details on some of the projects soon!

For now, can I get a WHOO?????