House Tour: Family Room

Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style

I’ve mentioned before that our furniture is being almost entirely rented to the family that took over our lease in our old house.

We stopped by and picked up a few things during our first week back in North Carolina, but for the most part, we were really starting from scratch here.

And, of course, it’s complicated by the fact that we’re only in this house for six months, so we don’t want to kill ourselves to make things perfect for this house when we’ll be gone so soon.

But I also am not the kind of person who can just be happy living in something that looks like I picked up everything on the free page of Craigslist and with a new baby, I knew I’d be spending a lot of time at home, so I wanted at least a few rooms to feel pretty finished and be functional for our family.

I met several members of the Wayfair team at Alt Summit last January, and I worked with them on some of the furniture, which was pretty much the best thing to happen to our house.

It was pretty thrilling to go from a completely empty living room to see it fill up bit by bit into a really useable room.

Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style

This room is at the back of the house, by the kitchen, and we spend most of our time here.

It’s an enormous room and kind of weirdly split, so this section is the family room section while the other part is the play area (I’ll share that in the next couple of weeks). I love that this area doesn’t feel too childish while still being so near where the toys are.

Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
We also moved all the picture books onto the bottom two shelves of this bookcase so they are easily accessible and now that we actually have somewhere to sit, we spend a ton of time reading books on the couch.
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
Also, this room has beautiful natural light, with two big windows, but at night, it’s like a CAVE. This floor lamp made a huge difference (as did unscrewing the ceiling light to discover that not only was one of the bulbs burned out, but the other one that did work was a FIFTEEN WATT BULB. Who puts a 15-watt bulb in a room this big?).
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
We went around and around on what to do under this low window, and I’m delighted by how this bookcase worked out. Not only does it provide some good toy storage, but it also provides a little extra seating and a place for the girls to play. You can almost always find Ani using it as a changing table for her doll.
 
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
 
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
 
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
 
The kitchen looks into the family room, so it’s great because the girls are much more likely to play while I make dinner than they ever have before in their entire lives, and when we have company over, they can sit down and I don’t feel like I’m left out of the conversation.
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
 
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style

 

Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style

It’s been a total dream to have such a functional living area, and I’m so pleased with how it turned out.

I really gravitate toward fairly minimalist rooms, but I also like some bright color, and for me, the balance is just right.

And on afternoons like yesterday, where I sat on the couch and read while keeping an eye on the girls feeding bread to the birds in the backyard through the big window, I thought, “It is going to be really really sad to leave this house behind in July.”

Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style

 

Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style
Sources:
Large Bookcase: IKEA (I can’t find that IKEA sells a 5×5 anymore)
Low bookcase: IKEA (similar)
Toy Basket: Ross
Pitcher: Target (on clearance)
World Map: made by me (tutorial here)
Rug: c/o Mohawk
Mantle Plant: Home Depot
Black pillows: Ross
Blue Pillows: Made by my mom
Library Basket: Ross
Bookshelf plants and pots: IKEA
Kid-friendly family room with grown-up style

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17 Comments

  1. That's amazing! Such a blessing to be able to work with those companies. Will you be able to take the furniture with you when you move?

    1. Hopefully we'll find a place to live before we move so we'll know what we have room to take and what we need to sell before we leave Durham. Crossing my fingers we find somewhere to live that isn't a shoebox!

  2. I can't believe what you've already accomplished in such a short time. I love the pillows your mom made. Such a great combination of patterns!

  3. Beautiful room! Love how light and bright it is. I'm similar to you–I like to keep things fairly minimal and neutral, but I do love a bit of color here and there. It feels easier should you decide to change color schemes or styles someday if you don't have TONS of color to switch out. And I think I need to meet these Wayfair people too 😉

  4. How was it buying couches online? A comfy couch is almost as important to me as a cute one, so I don't know if I could buy without sitting on it first. Tips?

    1. It turned out fine. I wouldn't say it's the MOST comfortable couch in the world, but it's pretty good and I wasn't as worried about comfort since our other couch is more the loung-y type of couch.

  5. I love your style: so clean, happy, and crisp. I'd love natural light like that in a main, working area. All of my living rooms have been on the darker side. And I'm cracking up about that light bulb, bless!!!

  6. your room is beautiful. I love the natural light. How are you planning on keeping the chairs clean with your cute girls? I love white furniture but Im afraid of it.

    1. I know – I'm not sure what we were thinking! But so far (we've had them about a month), so good. And I think stain remover would get out most things if we do have trouble.

  7. You wrote (I think?) that you'll be coming west to the bay area. We don't live in the city since its far too expensive but live in one of the commuter towns out here. You'll love it! I, too, like the bright pops of color with low key everything else. You'll get lots of sunshine over here!

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