Our Family Room

Before I show you pictures of our family room I have to tell you how my decor came to be. My husband and I lived our first seven years of marriage without purchasing a single piece of furniture. We had hand-me-downs from everyone under the sun. We were so grateful but we were ready for something new. We had saved money and bought a leather sofa and couch in a carmel brown color. After we had purchased those pieces my husband insisted on buying a black, leather, reclining, "man chair". He has never, ever, ever, never, ever had an opinion about our decorating. All of the sudden, he had to have a black leather recliner. It could not be brown or carmel like our couches it had to be black. So I was freaking out. We can't have carmel colored couches with a black recliner!! But he would not give up. He said this is the only thing he cares about when it comes to our decor. He lets me make every decorating decision so how could I say no?

So we bought his black chair that he loves to this day. I looked all over for pillows that had black and the carmel color in it. I could not find anything. I went to every fabric store in the Portland area looking for something. In fact I went to one fabric store that is 20,000 square feet of fabric --and nothing! (Mind you this was 4 years ago - you can find it all over now). I had everyone on the lookout for something. Then I got the magical phone call from my friend Shannon.

"You need to get to Burlington Coat Factory now, I found pillows that will work with black and carmel!" I jumped in the car and drove to BCF and grabbed all the pillows in question and ran up to the register doing a happy dance. They were perfect. They had a beautiful bluey-turquoise color and red in them as well. Awesome! So that is how I ended up with the color scheme - black, carmel, bluey-turquoise, and red. Thank you Tim for making our color scheme what is is today -I really do love it.

So here is our family room now 99% complete. It only took 4 years to look the way I wanted it to. Thank you Shannon for finding the pillows and helping me pick out paint color. Thank you also for the cute little creme chairs. Jen- thanks for the Snuggler recliner and helping me arrange my furniture to work for our family.

I love, love, love our flatscreen on the wall in the little niche...no cords hanging out everywhere -- it is completely flush with the wall.

The tall floor lamp I found at a yard sale for $5 and changed the shade to match the lamp I refabbed. I still want to make a little table skirt for the table. I don't feel like the legs have enough bulk, especially with the skinny lamp next to it.

Yes, we have A LOT of furniture. We entertain fairly often and I wanted to seat 10 people comfortably. The room is large so I don't think I have too many pieces. When you are sitting you can see any other seat in the room which I love for intimate conversations. Tim gets his black chair facing the television so he is happy.

Here is the sofa table that I picked up for $15 at a yard sale last year. It is functional also with little baskets underneath to house Kayla's diapers. I want to look for cuter ones but the little white sterlite ones are working for me right now.

Those two paintings on the wall have an interesting story. When we first moved to Indiana we received one of those "welcome wagon" envelopes with a bunch of coupons in it. There was a $50 coupon to Deck the Walls. I called to make sure it was for real and they said it was. Then I figured everything in the store was $500. But I decided to go to the store and found one of the paintings on clearance for $50. Score! So I purchased one. Six months later we moved to our current house and got another one of those magical "welcome wagon" envelopes with another coupon. And lo and behold no one had purchased the matching piece. BOOYA!! (Maybe that is why they are going out of business..yikes!) The scrolly iron thing above it is from Hobby Lobby. It was brown and I sprayed it with Canyon Black.

The secretary desk in the corner belonged to Tim's great grandmother. It was beat up from the ten times (literally) we have moved it and I painted it black since then.

Here is the only before picture I have of it...

A little Canyon Black spray paint with some crystal knobs...gorgeous!

And do you see the fabulous lamp on top of it....I am in love with it. :-) After Jen helped me rearrange the furniture I looked again to see if I could find the fabric (I did 4 years ago when I purchased the pillows and could not find anything) and I found it. At $10 a yard I was happy. So then I covered those canvases next to the Acanthus Cut-Out plaque.

So that is our family room...if you want to come over for a glass of lemonade and bask in its beauty come on over. I have room for ten. Hugs!