Perspective Design and Decor - Family Room Assesment And Furniture Placement

As last year was coming to a close, as I was looking forward to a new year, I felt a familiar itch... the one that feels like I need to do something new.

Some are fine doing the same old, same old.  I'm not that person!
I have a short attention span, love trying new things, am always in motion...
Being this person, that itch is a familiar one!  It's time to try something new.

So, at the end of last year I told my man (bless him for dealing with my constant motion, movement, ideas, messes) that I wanted to try something new this year.
I want to try my hand at event planning, or decor, something along those lines.

Just a couple weeks later a friend approached me, she and her family recently moved into a new home, a bigger home, that they wanted filled, and decorated.
AAAAAND, she wanted me to help her with that... really!  ANNNNNND she would pay me!

WHAT?  Was I just talking about this?



Sometimes I still have to practice my Lamaze breathing, because I get so excited I feel like I may explode... breathing helps me not spaz out in public!!!

Of course I wanted to do this!
Even if it doesn't develop into anything long term, I really enjoy home decor, and would LOVE the opportunity to work with others, to try my hand at decorating with and for someone else.

Done.  Sold.

She has been great, as we work together to figure out how, exactly, I do this!
The process has been a smooth one and I am loving it... and I think she is too, at least it looked like it as we finished her living room and both sighed a happy sigh.
We have finished her family room and are now on to her kitchen, dining and living room.

I thought it would be fun to share the process here, of course!  It is fun to see the before and after, but hopefully the process is appreciated too.

It has been fabulous.  I really would love to continue down this vein!
I mean, with my house there is only so much I can do until it's done.  To be able to do it over and over again for others, with their money = dreamy!

The Family Room

Step 1 - assess the situation, what we have, what we can reuse, what we need to replace (resolve wood in fireplace)
Step 2 - furniture placement

Step 3 - colors - which were already done in this case

We started in her family room because it was the closest to being done.  She already had furniture and a rug for that room.
All of the walls had already been painted.

Here are some photos of the before... this was actually just after we pulled the furniture off the rug to move it closer to the fireplace, but you get the idea.

Our first meeting we made some plans, talked about things she likes and things she wants and needs.  She trusts me, which is great!  We began by rearranged the furniture a bit.

Here is a sketch of the before and after.

It was mostly there, I just adjusted the placement of it all towards the fire place, and brought in the grouping a bit.  This way it relates to the fireplace and actually opened up the entry end.
Now there is plenty of room for traffic flow as well as a sofa table.
We also were able to bring in this cute antique desk... don't you love it?

Colors for this room were already chosen, we pulled them from what she already has in there, her furniture and rug...

It was a great start.
I love the colors, and the brick of the fireplace goes really nice with the color story.
We made plans to paint the center portion.
I think it would be cool to cross the diagonal to make a diamond pattern, but we will start with just painting it... I'll show you that in a different post.

The other item I suggested was a large entertainment center, to balance the window wall and get some weight on that very tall wall.  But they will wait on that.  After all of the other furniture is purchased we'll circle back for that.

Step 4 - fireplace
Step 5 - curtains and rods
Step 6 - additional furniture (sofa table, chair for desk)
Step 7 - accessorize

The first items to shop for were curtains, rods, and a chair for the desk.
After that I moved to finding a sofa table.

The curtain we went with was this one from Target.
The oranges and reds are perfect and relate back to the colors in the fireplace.

I found this chair for her little desk and I looove it!

 

I had so much fun shopping for everything, changing the fireplace, and designing to get this room put together... I could totally get used to this! :)

This process, of course comes in layers, so stay tuned and I will show you how it all comes together.