Family Room Redesign

When D and I moved back to RI from Indiana, we sold our living room furniture, and trashed the 23+ year old couch and love seat that were gifted to us from D's parents.  They had seen much better days!  We were going to be living with them, and didn't need living room furniture, plus, most of the stuff was hand-me-down and mismatched anyways.

Now that we have our own house, we ultimately need to furnish it! But, right now, my parents are living with us, so we are able to use their furniture for the time being.  That's been a great thing on our wallet, but we know that they won't be with us forever.  So, since we closed on the house, we've been saving up for furnishings for when our "roommates" move out ;)

I recently sat down and started brainstorming how to furnish and decorate the Family Room, which will be the first priority when they move out.  I am really inspired by The High Low Project, on HGTV, where the host, Sabrina Soto decorates a room with no budget, and then tries to recreate it for under the budget set by the homeowners, which is typically around $3-5K.  Considering that we are starting with absolutely nothing, no couch, no chairs, and no TV, we are going to try to stay under $4K for the whole project.

Here's what I've come up with so far!

I fell in love with the Henry set from West Elm, but the three pieces that we wanted, the couch, oversized chair, and ottoman, would immediately be more than half the budget!  After searching high and low for some modern looking gray living room furniture, I finally found a really nice looking set at a local furniture store, called Bob's Discount Furniture.

Skyline Collection from Bob's Furniture

What you need to know next is that I have an obsession with IKEA.  It's bad, and I know it.  Admitting that is the first step though, right?

Anyways, this room wouldn't be complete without something from IKEA, and there will be plenty, but the first piece will be an Expedit.  I know. Everyone has one. But, we're going to use it as a TV stand, and I'm going to hack it.  I have plans to remove the middle divider on the top row so we have a place to put the TV receiver/DVR, and I also plan to add legs to it so that the TV is a little higher off the ground.  

IKEA Expedit in High Gloss White

As I was searching for rugs, I came across this absolutely gorgeous and dark purple color, and immediately knew that I wanted that in the room.  It's a high pile rug, which I am kind of concerned about with having cats, but I think it will be alright.  

Image via Surya - Wilde Rug in Boysenberry

You may have seen this pin on Pinterest, and I knew that I wanted to recreate that look. But, I searched and searched, and couldn't find any metal trash cans that were pretty enough to do this, so I started looking at actual side tables and found this one from Target! Later, after some research, I found out that the table in the inspiration picture is actually a table from Target and not a trash can, so I guess it was meant to be.

I have plans to spray paint it our accent color - primary yellow!

Three Hands White Metal End Table

Lastly, a few DIY projects. I love love love the look of poufs, but I really do not like the price tag at all. So, I'm going to DIY my own.  It will also be primary yellow, although I am having a hard time finding thick enough and cheap enough yarn or something to make it from.  I was recently thinking about how I could use rope, or even a bedsheet though.  We'll see what I decide.  

Image via Pickles

We currently have a 2' wall clock in the family room, but it's a much more traditional style, and we're looking for something a bit more modern.  Without getting into the hundreds of dollars, we are going to DIY our own clock, which will end up being just over 3' in diameter.  We're going to base it on this design, but make some modifications to it that we think would better fit our space.

Image via One Way Furniture / Ashton Sutton Sunburst Mirror Clock

There are more pieces of furniture that we have chosen, and some accessories, but this is the plan for the most part.  Also, for the DIY items, I'll be sure to write up the directions and do a post for each one.  I'm really excited for the project!   So excited, in fact, that I put everything into Photoshop to see how it would look together.

Items shown in pictures taken from Ikea, Surya, Target, Bob's Furniture, Pickles, and One Way Furniture

I think it's looking awesome so far!  I can't wait to actually get it started!  What do you think?