Family room re, re, re, re~do!

Holy cow it's been a long road to get to this point.

This is the official ending of the family room transformation chapter (original post here).

Just to get everyone up to speed, we've lived in our rental home for 3 years. The home was built in the late 1930's and probably hasn't been updated since the 1980's or so. We obviously don't want to put much money into the home itself, so my focus has been on updating only the stuff we will take with us whenever we move on. Of course if we owned this home we likely would've gutted every room by now.

The influence of the homes in my neighborhood motivated me to move away from dark and masculine home decor to light, white, and neutrals.

I had to take it slowly and as you'll see below, this has been a full 3 years in the making.

We sold the leather sofa and chair on a whim, which put everything into motion. Having an empty family room for a few days was the perfect opportunity to paint the accent walls a much lighter color while we decided on a new couch.

This was also the perfect opportunity to scale back on the accessories a bit and clear out the clutter. This included ordering special cables to move our television system off of the mantel to clean up this big focal area. I ordered a long white cord cover and it just arrived yesterday so you can see it looks a bit better in the pictures later in this post.

I've received quite a few emails from readers who are also trying to change the decor style in their homes without breaking the bank. I'm a budget conscious person in general and travel is top priority for my small family, so we weren't able/willing to sink too much into revamping our decor. While much of it came together in these past few months, it's been a 3 year process of painting stuff that would fit in, getting rid of stuff that just wouldn't cut it, and purchasing some new things along the way.

I've shared the prices and sources of the newest changes in the family room below and I'm happy to say that we were able to finish the final phase of the transformation for right around $1500 total.

~$599 Linen Euro Chair from Wisteria (here). It's normally $799 but they had a sale the week before Easter and we snagged it for $200 off. This was my bday gift from the family this year. ☺

I still have some editing to do on the bookshelves but I'm dreading it too much to make it a priority. Anyone want to come over and help? There's lots of wine to drink while we work! ☺

The paint made such a difference in this room. Gray was hubby's idea and I knew exactly which shade to use.

~$40 Fieldstone paint by Benjamin Moore (here).

~$200 Aiden end tables from World Market (here). These were on sale for $129 plus we had coupons.

I love the added industrial touches to this room. These tables helped inspire me to zinc-ify the console table in my dining room.
We considered getting a nice, high end sofa, but after feeling stuck with a high priced leather sofa for years, I felt better about spending less, just in case our taste changes again in the next 7 years. Plus, I had read so many good things about the Ektorp that I had to test it for myself. We are very happy with it and the quality for the price just can't be beat (thanks for helping me with this Holly!). As I was putting it together (about 5 simple steps to set it up from the box. Putting the slips on took much more time than setting up the sofa), I saw a few goose down feathers floating about which made me excited. It's quite comfy!

~ $399 Ektorp sofa from Ikea (here). We also purchased an extra slip cover set for $50.

Here's the reality shot of the sofa, with protective blanket thrown on for 'Max' protection.

Thanks to the savings on the sofa we were able to splurge a bit on the lamps.
~ $400 Aiden Gray table lamps (here). Thanks for your help Laurie!!

~$20 cotton cord cover (here) to cover the 8 feet of cable running from the mantel to the wall behind the hall tree.

Talk about service, I had the cord cover within a couple days of ordering!

It's still not the prettiest look hanging off of the mantel but it's the best solution I have for now.

The archway to the left leads upstairs or straight ahead into the kitchen.

One of the grain sack ottomans from Round Top now sits between my two DIY white linen chairs.

A glance through the French doors at Monique, spending long, lazy days in the sun room.

The trash to treasure chandy in the left corner and the large, personalized, Morning T clock are both much more at home with soft, gray walls.

The Chinese shutters above the couch make a clean statement while balancing the big tv opposite, and the color flows with the sea grass rug and mango wood table tops. Again, the cord situation on the floor to the right of the tv is now taken care of so don't mind the plant in the basket (hiding the long coiled up cord) and the black wire on the floor.
The view towards the front of the room from the landing.
This little area is just a floating/extra seating area. I'd love to put this small wine tasting table here in place of the chest and different chairs, but I'm afraid I'm cut off for a long, long time.

I hung one of my daughter's sweet drawings here and a professional photo of her from kindergarten. Painting the room and building my Ektorp sofa. ☺
The brown wall looks much more faded in this 'before' picture than it actually was. Ah, the 'after' is a breath of fresh air to me.
As I went back and added the post back links throughout this post I realized that I really have shared just about every long, b.o.r.i.n.g. step of this transformation with you. Thanks for hanging with me all this time and for all of your support. Without dream~interior inspiration from Joni, Linsey, Brooke and Holly AND without the hands-on help and expert advice from Laurie, I never would've gotten to this final point.

The biggest thank you of all goes to Mr. Morning T for humoring me all along and finally giving in to painting those dark brown walls. He even helped paint~ ha! ♥

So what's next for me and my little house? Well the upstairs of course. I'm so ashamed of our upstairs that it's off limits to everyone but family. I have a few projects started so stay tuned.

xo~
T