Before and after - family room

Still some things to add/change, but I thought I'd post a before and after, now that I've hung my mirror and frames.

I had to turn the lights on to get a decent shot, it's late in the afternoon and very overcast today....

And here's the rendered image again of how it's supposed to look:

Nearly there!

Family room progress

It's been a while, but I'm finally back to doing some decorating - hurrah! We had our new couch delivered yesterday, so (at last!) I'm getting on with the family room makeover.

Last year I had a design consultation with Kristine from Lemonbutter Furnishings & Interiors, and I've been working away at collecting bits and pieces for the room ever since.

This is what we started with:

Much as I love my colours, the old navy couches made the room look so, SO dark and gloomy. So I had in mind a warm white modular couch, to lighten things up. Kristine suggested a large silver-framed mirror as well, to reflect extra light and make the space appear a bit larger. Here's the computer mock-up of her suggested layout:

The colour palette revolves around the wall colours (dark teal and olive-beige), the warm white of the couch and the chocolate of the ottoman (which I don't have yet):

And she suggested accents of silver and olive drab:

The silver adds some glamour and is reflective too, so again, should lighten things up a bit.

Snail's pace decorating

My family room re-do mission is going slowly, but I am making some progress. So far, I've collected a few items, amongst them...

1. A mirror with a mirrored frame. It's similar to this, but I did NOT pay over 2000 pounds for it, which is the price tag on this one:



I'd been pricing large silver framed mirrors, both online and in numerous shops and they ranged from $250 to the ridiculous price above. Then, when I was shopping for something entirely different, I spotted mine in Lincraft. It was a reasonable-ish $140, but thanks to a special they were running, was marked down to $90. My ideas of scouring op shops for a suitable frame, painting it silver and getting a mirror cut to fit were immediately discarded and I grabbed that baby off the shelf faster than you could blink.

2. A couple of these faux leather cushions, also from Lincraft. THESE were the reason I was in the shop, after I spotted them advertised for $9.99:



3. My potted palm... which I've shown before. That cost me about $40 for pot and plant.



I'm going to add some styrofoam pellets topped with pebbles to hide the black plastic inner pot.

4. Some vintage botanical prints. Well, freebie downloads anyway. I'll have to choose which four I want to use, get them printed to the right size and grab some frames from K Mart or a $2 Shop or somewhere.





5. A few decorative odds and ends. These, I mostly already had, but I spotted this silver lantern for $9.95 the other day, and plan to grab one in the next couple of days:



I still need one of these:



There seem to be plenty around, but I'm not paying $700 for one. It has to be chocolate, but can be real or faux leather; I'm not fussy. And I prefer one with legs.

I also need something like this to use as a side table, which is going to be much harder than finding an ottoman:



These only come as a set of three, and the price is a bit steep, so I'm still looking (pleeeease help me out, eBay!).

I need to scour all the furniture shops in my area this week while I'm on leave. I'm also planning an expedition to a few fabric places, since I can't seem to find any cushion covers that are remotely like what I want. And the lamp? I decided I didn't like the op shop offering after all, so I'm still sans lamp. I may just go buy one from Freedom after all. ;)

The couch fund is slowly growing. I may be able to think about ordering the thing after Christmas. Fingers crossed.


Oh, and here's my inspiration board again, just to show you I'm on the right track...

Family room design consultation

As I mentioned before, Kristine of Lemonbutter Furnishings & Interiors did a design consult for our family room. I'm now sloooowly working on finding the furniture and accessories I need to bring her beautiful design to life.

I'm not going to post all the details and pictures from the 20-odd page document, but here's a visual overview -

Inspiration board:

Textiles & textures mood board:


No painting to do (thank goodness), but a couple of big furniture items are required, which was our intention all along. After all, the old couches and the IKEA side table aren't quite the look I was going for.

The crucial part of the whole design is the couch. Which unfortunately is going to cost some big bickies. I did the rounds of furniture shops months ago and I know where I'll get the best deal, but it's still going to be a hefty slug. So saving madly is my priority for now.

Most of the rest, I ought to be able to do on the cheap - Kristine has given me some great suggestions for finding bargains or working a bit of makeover magic. Last weekend I sourced a palm tree and painted a cheap pot to come up with something that looks surprisingly like Kristine's image. (It still needs some pebbles to hide the inner black plastic pot):



Today I spotted a really ugly lamp in an op shop that's a likely candidate for a makeover... I just didn't have any cash on me and they don't take cards, dammit. Let's hope it's still unsold when I can get back there on Thursday.

I have a money-saving plan for the silver-framed mirror ....and the framed prints. If I can track down the perfect fabrics, I can make new cushion covers. I could just go out and buy those smaller things, but that would make a dent in the couch fund, so I'll be doing them on the cheap.

That leaves me a new blind to organise and a few pieces of furniture to find, but I'm being patient(-ish). Don't they say "Good things come to those who wait"?