Family Room Blank Slate

One perk of redecorating our family room just before the holidays is that we have been able to skip over regular accessorizing and jump right into Christmas decor.  However, I want to share this room in its blank slate phase before any posts with stockings and reindeer pop up.  The room's new hardwood flooring, white curtains with bamboo shades, AirStone fireplace, IKEA cabinets for our games, new TV stand, natural fiber rug, and gray sectional couch make up the bones of the room.

 

After installing the flooring, Mike got to work on the shoe molding, and the room really started to look complete.

 

On the windows we put up bamboo blinds and white curtains.  We put the same blinds on the French doors and above windows around the sink in the kitchen to unify the open space. The sisal rug in the family room also coordinates well with the blinds while contrasting with the other surfaces in the space.  I'm enjoying the warmth that the textures have added to the room.

With twice as much square footage in this house than our last one, we were prepared to add some new furniture once our updates were really under way.  Up until now our sectional couch and Sophie's bed were all we had purchased.

 

To add some storage and to play up the symmetry of the centered fireplace, I went on a long hunt for some free-standing cabinets that would coordinate with the ones in our kitchen and not overshadow the fireplace.  I am pleased that the most proportional and attractive option also happened to be the most convenient and affordable for us.  What would we do without Ikea?

We keep our games in these cabinets, and this family room has come even more to life now that games of Sequence and Othello occur there regularly.

The old dresser we used as a TV stand for the last couple of years never quite functioned the way we had intended, and since we were adding furniture to the fireplace wall, I thought a more open and visually lighter piece would look better.  The weathered wood, dark metal accents, small drawer, and back panel to hide cords drew me to this new one.  I saw it first on Overstock.com but ended up getting it from Target.  I didn't intend to go cheap on the furniture out here, but I just kept finding affordable ones with good reviews.

In that mostly online shopping I also found a new round glass coffee table from Wayfair.com for our living room.  In the family room we still have the round black one we bought years ago from Pottery Barn, but I'm considering a swap with that glass one to lighten up the arrangement. Some accessorizing will break all that darkness up as well, so we'll see.

Here's how the room looked when we moved in two years ago:

This wasn't bad...

...but this is way better, don't you think?