Show us your family spaces!

Good Monday to ya! Hope your weekend was lovely! I’m kicking off the week with our next room in the Show Us Your House series of linky parties – this one is family rooms and I’m really looking forward to seeing these links!!

First up, I’ll share our space. This is one room that just did not work for us for years…and it’s completely my fault. ;) When we built our home I chose a corner fireplace instead of the normal spot between two windows. I’ve gone on and on about what an AWFUL IDEA THAT WAS, but I won’t blabber on anymore about that. You’re welcome. ;)

I finally figured out a way to make that corner fireplace work better in the room last year and I am SOOOO much happier with it:

Last summer we also moved the TV stuff to a different spot in the room and that one change opened up the room tremendously.

We finished paying off an insane amount of debt early last year (I can’t believe that was only last year!) and our first real purchase (paid for with “cash” of course), was a super nice sectional from Arhaus:

This is hands down one of our best purchases ever…if not the best. This sofa is so darn comfy and has held up great! The cushions aren’t flat, spills wipe up easily…it’s fantastic. I swear it looks like the day it was delivered!

You can see by that pic that I put the Rugs USA rug back in the family room – that old rug was in such awful shape I decided to try this one again. At first I didn’t think the drapes and pillows worked with it, and I still don’t think the drapes work great…but they are fine for now, I’m not worrying about it. I wasn’t about to try to rework the whole room for the rug. Maybe later, but not now. :)

I found a couple new pillows from Target (earlier this summer) that incorporate a lot more of the colors of the room. Before I had solid red pillows in here – these pull in the rug much better. I also pulled some knit pillows from our bedroom, because let’s be honest…we all know I never make our bed. I mean…really.

So at least they are being used in the family room instead of sitting in a pile next to the bed:

Last summer our fridge went kaput (almost exactly a year ago!) and when it went kaput our laminate floors went with it. So insurance paid for new floors and we kicked in a little extra for real hardwoods throughout our main level:

OH MY GAH, I love them so very much. So. very. much. There’s no way we would have been able to do this without that lovely fridge melting down on us, so now I’m not nearly as upset about it. ;) Living in a mess for two months was not so fun at the time though.

When we moved the TV stuff last summer, I turned a Craigslist dresser into our entertainment center:

(That rug is showing as bright blue there and I’m not sure why, it’s really more of a charcoal blue color. See pics above.)

The components under the TV work great by the way! I LOVE having them out of the way. I loathe electronics and cords and stuff…I am always trying to figure out ways to hide them if possible.

I do have some plans for this room – new art, new paint and perhaps a new wall treatment? I’ve got the color picked out but I’ve been mulling over the wall treatment for awhile now. It will happen as soon as I want to do all that work. Which could mean about a year. ;)

I love how this space has been transforming over the years but my favorite part is how much more open than it used to be. Moving that TV (it used to be to the left of the fireplace) over across the room has made a HUGE difference.

You can find all of the posts about our family room here!

Now let’s see your family spaces, your living rooms – whatever you call the room where your family chills and relaxes!

Don’t forget the schedule for the rest of the year!:

September (basements/rec rooms), October (bedrooms), November (foyers), December (mud/laundry rooms)

I ask that you link back to TDC in your post, especially if you’d like to be considered for a feature in a recap:

<div align="center"><a href="http://simplehomeinteriordesign.com/" title="Show Us Your House" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/image34.png" alt="Thrifty Decor Chick" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Go ahead and link it up and have fun!