Makeovers are fun. Especially ones done a smidge impromptu, just to see what a space would look like after a few tweaks.
We're coming up on 5 years in our home, and the family room has been a central part of our everyday. My girls read here after breakfast and produce song-and-dance shows for us at night. My baby girl (now 4) and I spent much of her first months here together -- nursing, reading, and exploring with Gilmore Girls playing in the back. I've styled the built-ins a dozen-plus times, partly for practice but mostly to find that "feels right" look (finally there!). After supporting us through the baby, toddler, and little kid years, our family room is seeing a transition from picture to chapter books, TV time to movie nights, and hopefully soon, extended gatherings with family and friends. It's time to transform this space to reflect the present us and what we're loving.
furniture flip + swap
Our family room transformation physically started with flipping the furniture layout. If you want a room refresh but don't want to spend a dime, reconfiguring your furniture will do the trick. It'll change the flow and feel, and let you see and appreciate your space and what you have in a new way.
Our family room layout changes from 2017 to early 2022.
After the flip, we swapped out our well-used IKEA BESTA TV stand for this lower profile one (different color) with concealed storage. My husband and I fell in love with the more modern, minimal style it brought to the room. It speaks to both of us and really helped connect to all the little detail changes we're making to the rest of our home. We didn’t totally ditch the BESTA, though. If you didn’t catch my last post, check it out here to see how I repurposed and put it to better use in our girls' playroom.
With the new stand and furniture flipped, our long standing IKEA POANG chair was looking a tad sad in the corner. Sooo…I did another impromptu swap with a handsome pair of striped armchairs we originally intended for our home office. Here, they add sociable seating, frame our fireplace so well…I think our family room is where they were meant to be. Keep reading to see!
tv gallery wall
Masquerading your TV as artwork is genius, but I'm not in the market (or budget) to buy a new device just for that purpose. Instead (and maybe even better) I decided to blend our TV into the background by creating a gallery display around it. Plan A was to design a wall of family photos. I went through a bunch of iterations using Keynote (Mac’s version of PowerPoint) to see what combination of pictures would work well with the frames I had on hand. I landed on a nice arrangement, but it wasn't "it". All the faces and frames felt too busy. I wanted the gallery to draw us into the space, not thirty pairs of eyes staring and scaring us out! Thankfully, waiting for our TV stand’s replacement piece (I’ll spare that ordeal) put the makeover on hold for a couple of months, which gave me a chance to step back from the gallery design.
The original stand was too small for our TV and stood out (in a not-good way) against the blank background.
Waiting wasn't easy but definitely worth it.
Once the new stand was assembled and in place, I started imagining a curated gallery design to match the sophisticated, streamlined style.
Plan B is for Better.
A few close-up family shots in black frames mixed with oversized landscapes in gray wood frames created a beautifully collected arrangement. The west coast views are photos my husband and I captured years ago, so the entire wall reflects us and each image is a story to share. For the seascape, I already had two 16x20 frames. I digitally split the original landscape into two 12x18 portraits and had them printed by my favorite local print shop for $4. I love the subtle blue gradient sky over the water and, if you look closely, my love and our first daughter are off in the sand!
For the 'moody mountains', I didn't have the best resolution to enlarge it, so I printed it at 4x6, scanned it at 600 DPI, then added an oil paint filter in Photoshop. Scanning a print at a higher resolution allows you to enlarge the image without sacrificing quality (for more info, read this insightful post by Artifact Uprising). The filter was my own addition to give it the look of an oil painting without the matching price tag (I printed it as a 24x36 poster for $16!).
I'm in love with how this gallery wall turned out. It's balanced, ties the room's color palette together, and just looks so good! This was the last piece of our family room makeover and, ironically, what really launched the idea of refreshing this room. Seeing it in front of me now and sitting together in our new family space makes me so, so happy.
Here's what our made-over family room looks like after all the updates!
what's your favourite update to our family room?
You know what mine is. "I'm still blown away by the wall," is what my love keeps saying, so I think the gallery is clearly his favourite, too! I'd love to know what yours is AND if you've ever tried masking your TV in this way. Leave me a response in the Comments, and to all my mama readers out there, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! I hope you spend today in whatever way feels good to YOU.
Always,
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