Family Room Shenanigans

After staring for months at the patch of wall in our family room that I painted yellow LAST YEAR to see if I liked it, I finally decided that yes! I think I do! Maybe? and committed to painting the rest of the room. One thing led to another, and now my husband and I are in the midst of a full-blown redecoration . . . wait, it's more than that. Renovation? No, it's not quite that involved. We're not knocking down walls or anything. Re-do? I guess that's what you'd call it. We're painting, swapping out light fixtures, putting in crown molding and trim, etc.

If I were a good blogger, I'd offer up a complete BEFORE and AFTER post, but I'm currently in the MIDDLE. I should wait until I have a finished product, but I can't stand it. I've got to show you bits and pieces of what we've done so far.

The first thing we did was paint. I quickly realized that all yellow would overwhelm us with its sunny brightness, so I used green on accent walls.

Then, we replaced the fluorescent lights with these modern fixtures (still fluorescent). I can't show you a picture of the old lights, because my husband already disposed of them, so you'll have to trust me that these are a great improvement!

Next, I headed to the fabric store, while my husband stayed home and replaced the almond? bisque? off-white? outlets and switches with clean, white panels pictured above. I love this paisley material and will use it over the windows.

Right now, we are in the process of painting crown molding and trim that we will install ourselves.

The most exciting part of the new look should be the flooring. We currently have a speckled? mottled? multicolored? carpet about which I used to proudly crow, "It hides a multitude of sins!" The family room is the one area in the house, other than the dining room, where we allow the kids to eat and drink. Unfortunately, after years of four children eating snacks during movies, the carpet is no longer hiding anything. The stains are gross: chocolate milk . . . juice . . .  ground-in gold fish crackers . . . urine from the dog—at least I hope it's from the dog, but with my girls, who knows? We've ordered maple hardwood flooring, which should be here in 2 weeks? 3 weeks? 6 months? This is Alaska, so I won't hold my breath. It'll get here when it gets here. Until then, try to visualize the glory that will be my family room floor:

Tell me you love it. Especially the yellow walls. They make the room feel like a cheerful and airy sun parlor, not a kindergarten classroom on crack. Right? RIGHT?!






Dinner last night: leftovers