Family Room Before and In Progress...

I thought that I would take a break from my sitting room for a bit and show you some before and afters of our Family Room. When you enter our house you enter into the Living room/sitting room which winds you around to our kitchen. Well there is a semi surprise of a room just past the kitchen. It was a nice surprise too when we first viewed the home. It's a very large family room with nice gas fireplace and a half bath built on. It also has lots of nice big windows that are still curtain-less by the way. Let's take a look....

 Above is a shot looking into the room from the kitchen/dining area. Notice the very green olive walls. It wasn't a bad color it was just a bad painting job. Since the house was a foreclosure I felt like the bank came in and slapped paint on certain walls to make the home more appealing. Just wait till I show you befores of the kitchen!

 Below is the view as if you were standing in front of the fireplace. You can see the door to the first floor/ basement and a glimpse of the dining room. The ceilings are not vaulted like they are in the entrance but the previous owner added a fan to this room. I like the idea of fans but this one is a mini fan that belongs in a kids room not in a big room like this.

 Here is a peek into the half bath. Oh yes and there is that lovely vinyl flooring. When we redo the kitchen floor it too will make and exit from this home. Sometimes I think the previous owner ran out of money when they built this house. There are some really nice features like a jetted tub then there are things like all brass fixtures and vinyl flooring. This house was built in 2006 which means that a lot of the fixtures were super outdated even then. (Side note... I just read a blog where they painted all the fixtures themselves to a darker brushed oil look. The fixtures turned out looking AMAZING! I really want to do it now, however I need a sunny day where I can spread all the fixtures out on our driveway. I live in Astoria so I might be waiting a long while. Boo..)

Ok so here we go... The Before....

And the After..... Nice huh...?

Look how much brighter the room looks with the yellow paint (this is the cheap recycled paint that I have talked about before) and the white trim.
Below you will find our fireplace and mantle. It is a corner mantle and I don't know what to do with it or how to decorate it. If you have any ideas I am all ears. I also, as you can see, got side tracked one day while painting the trim and painted the brown tile around the fireplace white. I love it... white...

Someday I want to knock that tile out and put in a cool shaped tile on all three sides of the fireplace. I also want to add more of a mantle. I've been looking at thrift store but damn mantles are spendy.

This is a view of our TV. We have found an awesome entertainment center at IKEA but it's like $900 so we are saving our beans. We really need something for the TV.  I think it's kinda an eye sore and Lucy loves to stand up and bang on the screen. Cole just LOVES when she does this... yikes

 My white moulding....

And then there is this...The bathroom door and moulding that I haven't finished yet. It gives me the stink eye every night while I watch TV because it hasn't been loved yet....

 Oh yes and I have to share this because it lets you know I am a real person who rarely has a clean house. This is the store all corner for Lucy's toys. I never thought I would be a person with baby stuff everywhere... I am totally one of those people. I need to find a better system to store her toys. Yes that is also a large pile of laundry. I cannot take credit for it because Cole does all of our laundry.. I love him to pieces. And Hurley's butt... Sorry for that.

Ok so lets end on a high note. Here again is a picture of my Family Room in progress. I like it. It is a comfy room that invites anyone in to rest, nap or play.