Family Room Makeover-Week 2

It’s Week 2 of the One Room Challenge.  A huge thanks to Linda of Calling It Home for hosting this bi-annual challenge.  I shared last week  all the before photos of our family room and mentioned my plans. In a nutshell, I’m changing our home from a Persian Palace look to an Urban Country feel.

The one feature that really bothers me about this home is the fireplace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fireplace had a very ornate feel to it that we didn’t like – not our style. The fireplace is definitely large for the size of the room.  A fireplace is typically the focal point in your room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But in our case, we are blessed to have this amazing view from our family room window and that should be our focal point.  Okay, I’m cheating a little because this view is from the bedroom up above, but you get the idea.

We’re wondering if the previous owner upgraded the mantel since it doesn’t look like your typical builder grade mantel.  To compensate for the oversized fireplace, we will tone it down in style and color and it will fit in quite nicely with the rest of the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started to tackle the fireplace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slow and steady, the “do-dad” put on from the previous owner was coming off nicely.  But I made the mistake of telling Mr. Add Value that it was a slow job and it was going to take me alot longer than I initially thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Mr. Add Value comes along with a hammer and crow bar and shows me how it can be done it minutes (lol).  He was right! He did it in a third amount of the time that I was taking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But unfortunately some of the wood of the fireplace came off when we were hacking away at it so I we need to repair it.  But I am VERY relieved that it did come off.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect. So next week with alot of filling & fixing a hole, sanding and painting, I hope the fireplace will be the Urban Country look that I’m creating.  We have a fair bit of work to go on this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tested out the paint color, Behr’s Cream  Fraiche and I quite like it.  It will lighten up the current gold color and will be a fresh backdrop to the rest of the room.  It will also co-ordinate with the hallway paint that is currently a light beige that I don’t want to paint right now. I’ll get Mr. Add Value to paint this since I’ll be busy repairing the fireplace (smile).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to tell in this light, but the fresh Creme Fraishe will definitely down tone the current gold color.  And speaking of light….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no light in the family room! There are only 2 small table lamps which is obviously not enough light as you can tell from the dark pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like the light that is currently in the eating area – well after I put my hands on it that is.  I was planning on spraying the chrome a satin gold, removing the shades, put in Edison bulbs and move it into the family room for a cool urban country chic look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But unfortunately my plans went awry again when I removed the shade and found the socket has threads around it so that the glass lamp shade can be screwed in place.  It makes sense so that you don’t have falling lamp shades but it means I’m back to square one.  Off to the thrift stores next week looking for lights that I can make over.

Unfortunately I didn’t get as far as I was hoping to this week with it being a long week-end, our Canadian Thanksgiving, and we were finishing an outside project since we are on our last days of painting outside  I we did have some set backs this week but that happens in every makeover.  It’s good to find these things out early on in the process so I have time to come up with plan B.  Be sure to come back next week to check out all the plan B’s.

 

Be sure to check out the other featured Designers HERE, along with the other designers/bloggers (like me!) HERE.

 

Related Posts:

Family Room Makeover – Week 1

 

 I’m Debi Collinson. Designer. Stager. Real Estate Investor. In 2006, at the request of a realtor, I staged my very first home. Staging houses was just starting to become popular. I was very nervous staging my first house, but the sellers liked their newly redesigned home so much that they turned down an offer for full asking price. I went back to design school and have never looked back. Since 2006, I have been staging & styling spaces to make them look like they belong in a magazine page, and buying “fixer uppers” to fix up & either sell for a healthy profit or to rent them out. I’m currently living in my 8th “fixer upper.” Sign up to receive my e-mails of how to make your home stunning, how to sell your house for top dollar AND how to become financially independent one fixer upper at a time!