Obviously like most people, the most common “lived in” places in our home besides our kitchen is our family room. And like most people these days, we have both had to implement “working from home” for a bit over the past two years. Therefore, while we were touring the house, a thought process wasn’t a long one when we saw an extra room on the first floor just off of the entrance area to the house: a home office. I was elated though when I was told it could be my office where I could have creative freedom in the design and what went in it. Our family room would be a combined effort on both of our styles beings that both of us would be spending a considerable amount of time in there, hopefully together. The good news is that as I’ve noted in other posts, our style preferences are pretty similar.
So when we first toured the house, that room off the entry way that I spoke of, caught my attention. With having two small steps down into it and a charming day bed in it, it was a sweet bedroom that had the potential to be a lot of things. The room had a closet, therefore classifying it as an official bedroom according to some states. The house luckily had four bedrooms upstairs, so neither of us felt that another bedroom was needed, especially on the first floor. I had truly thought Randy would want to jump at a home office, as he was consistently working from home more often. But after it was determined that we would officially be moving in together, an office for me with all my schoolwork and writing made more sense to him.
With Randy not being one to sit still often, he was good with not having a “dedicated work space” and would be happy floating around the house based on his mood. I was elated as I’ve never had an office before. This excitement was amplified even more by the fact that it had built in shelves already in the room. Something that might be obvious but I have not mentioned on here is that I have an extensive cookbook collection as well as a lot of other books. I was a bookworm as a child and that has transferred over in my love for them as an adult. And although I don’t read nearly as much as I would like, I love referring to them and learning new things. I had two book shelves at the top of my stairs in my old house but had outgrown them in recent years.
Randy started by redoing the floors with our luxury vinyl flooring that we put in all the rooms that didn’t have the natural hardwood flooring. This included all three bathrooms, our foyer, our laundry room and our sunroom. Once this was done, he got to painting. Navy blue is my favorite color and I knew I wanted to incorporate it into the look. The bookcases made the most sense and really gave the room an extra level of class.
Beings that I adore all things British, I really wanted a bit of an English feel. So to contrast the navy blue, we went with a very light and faint grey. Our house, thanks to many huge trees outside, doesn’t get a ton of light in certain spots. The office is one of them. So I didn’t want the entire room to be dark.
As Randy was painting, I had an idea. The built in shelves were close but not connected. Knowing how my little cat, Jersey, loves to be in the room with me while I’m doing work, I asked Randy if it was possible to connect the shelves with a window seat. Handy Randy to the rescue! He thought it was a totally doable, and a good addition to the room.
He easily added wood to join the two shelves, sanded it down and painted it, resulting in the area looking like the seat had always been there. I got some pillows and talked to my Mom about creating a cushion for the seat. However, as some time has passed, our little lady does like getting up on her hind legs to look at the window. Beings that her claws are a bit long, we have decided to forego a cushion so that he it doesn’t get pulled and messed up.
Randy’s last house gave us a few “treats” when we first came in for the flip. The previous owners left us a captain’s steering wheel chandelier, a dungeon sign over the basement door, and a red leather chair. While the other things were trashed or donated, the red chair stayed. Before we made the jump to the current house, Randy admitted that he didn’t mind the chair and it stayed. We both agreed once the British feel was decided that the perfect home for the red chair was in the office.
My desk that I had purchased in my last home was a perfect fit for the office, as was the area rug that I had in my living room. A few pillows were purchased, a new accent shelf, and a set of lamps and we were good to go.
My first floor in the last house had black and white photos of New York City all over it. I switched up a few of them with London ones and everything was hung.
I literally can’t love this space more. Being a big fan of Beauty and the Beast as a kid, I dreamed of one day having a library of my own. While this is not a library, it’s closer then I honestly ever thought I’d get to one. It’s cozy and stylish at the same time. There’s room to display some of my more “fun” and “nerdy” things on the shelves along with all the other books. Jers loves her window seat to watch her “birdies”. Randy uses the office actually more lately because of working from home more often. It’s a space I’m so thankful for.
When it comes to the family room, things were not such a fairy tale. After stripping, sanding and finishing the natural hardwood floors, Randy stripped the wood paneling off of the walls. What a lovely surprise it was to find that there were no walls underneath those panels, just the studs of the structure. Thus began our several months with no walls in the family room.
We also found that the sliding glass door that was in the family room leading outside to our backyard was not very structurally sound. The floor had signs of past termite damage, showing that it was a bit weak and softer in some spots. Therefore, it was firmed up underneath in our basement by “sistering” the floor boards with other pieces of wood.
The door itself was not sealed entirely and we knew early on that it was going to have to be replaced. Thanks to our friend Pat for stepping in again and assisting Randy with what would be the first sliding glass door that he installed.
Thankfully there was no issues, there was no rain and when it did rain, there was no leaks. It went in really nicely with no major hiccups.
Floors, check. Door, check. Now we needed walls. Aside from a minor back injury Randy sustained while doing the door/dry wall installation, this also went really well. We got by with more help from our friends and the dry wall went up for our new walls. We got those settled and decided on a paint color.
The last house quickly turned into a “50 shades of grey” situation. Now, when I say that, I don’t mean the overly sexy book series. I mean that we actually had about 5 different shades of grey throughout the house. While we both agreed that grey was a great neutral color, we didn’t want it to be the only color option on the palette. We chose a light grey color for the entire room, with big plans for the focal point of the room: the fireplace. More on that later…
The color was great, it felt good to have walls (which actually turned out to feel really weird after almost 6 months of none) and paint was settled. As much as we both enjoy raw bricks and the look of it, an idea came off of Pinterest to kick up the fireplace a notch and make a statement. I found a photo of a fireplace painted dark grey with a natural wood mantle. We had a natural wood mantle already and knowing that we both love the clean, modern look, I felt like this would be perfect. I showed it to Randy and he immediately liked it. We chose a dark, bold charcoal based color and ran with it.
As soon as Randy started painting it on, I was in love. Painting was done, color was locked in, the wood didn’t need to be touched but we decided to change the face plate of the fireplace itself.
Neither of us liked the brassy gold looks of the 90’s designs. We changed it out with a basic black faceplate and that was it.
One other item that was added in the room was a barn door off of the laundry room which came right off of the family room. I’m going to save that for a miscellaneous post with a few random things we are going to add in later. With furnishings being moved in and a couple new pieces added, the room was set.
Both Randy and myself are so proud of how the family room turned out. The style, the color, the hard work that Randy put in. All of it. This has become the room we hang out in the most along with our kitchen. With the fireplace going, it’s super cozy and comforting.
Both of these spaces have their own feel and their own style, both are completely different. The house is coming together so nicely and we can’t wait to share it with you! It has become somewhere we both love to be and are happy to move forward with more progress as well. So stay tuned!!!
