Laundry Room Additional Storage

We knew we wanted to add even more storage to our Laundry Room, because you can never have enough storage in a home.  And we are definitely limited for storage in this house.  So the Laundry Room was going to be the best place to add some more need storage.  Check out this post for the other storage we already added.

We all know that sometimes our vision for a room doesn't always work the way we thought about it in our heads.  Well this is what happened after we put together our new Ikea Billy bookcase with Billy Ydre doors.  {doors are $20 each + bookcase is $59.99 for a total of $99.99}  We thought it might be nice to hide the washer & dryer since the Family Room is right there.  That is the sofa at the bottom of this picture.  It looked ok from this side, but not so much from the other side.  Boo!!!

Yup, I was not thinking that the backside of the bookcase wasn't white.  Well we talked about putting wrapping paper or wallpaper or we even thought about painting it, but it just wasn't working for us.  All my visions for this room just went down the drain.  Plus we felt that it made the room look a lot smaller.

So we went to plan "B", which was putting it behind the door.  Thankfully it fits.  That made me one happy girl, which means hubby was happy too.

I already put supplies in it.  More on what we store in this room soon.

Here is some of the details that will be going into the room.  I wanted this room to be fun, so I wanted to inject some fun pops of color to the room.  A Laundry Room is a great place to go bold.  Have fun with it.  Why not right?

Stay tuned for what I will be doing with this shelf liner.  It's not what you think.

Things we need to finish up in the room.  Hubby finished the sheet rock around the new back door.  We need to sand, prime & paint.  Plus we need to finish painting the water pipes so they blend in more to the wall and ceiling.  Door trim & base trim need to be installed.  Then some finishing touches.  I love this part.  Putting all the details into the room.  Oh and I can't forget about hiding the ugly furnace & hot water heater.  Stay tuned for all the details.  We are almost done with this room.

You can also check out this post to see where we started with this room.  Ack.....it still gives me chills to think about what this room used to look like when we first bought our home.

Thanks for stopping by.  I would love to hear from you, so please leave a message if you want.  Have a great day everyone!!!  :)

What Inspired Me for Our Family Room

For inspiration I always start with the internet and some magazines.  Here are sites & magazines I love to check out.  Decorpad is usually the first place I start.  You can just scroll through the pictures or you can search by color.  Coastal Living is a great place to check out if you are looking for that modern yet beachy room design.  BHG is always a great site or magazine to check out for inspiration.  I would also do Google searches for images to look through.

I just kept saving everything that inspired me, to my computer and then as I found other pictures or ideas that I liked more, I would just deleted the ones I didn't want anymore.  It was a great way for me to organize my thoughts and plan for this room.  Most of these pictures are from Decorpad.com.

In these pictures I loved the dark and light colors in the room.  They feel welcoming, casual, light & airy all at the same time to me.

I was inspired by almost all of this room.  The white furniture, the window treatments, the casual feel to the room, the flooring, the rug, the ottoman....it was all about the dark & light color and textures in all of these rooms.

Then I came across this picture and that is where the blue in the room came from.  Again with the dark and light colors in this room.  I was draw to it, so I knew that I had to have it.  When you are searching the internet or magazines for inspiration, you usually keep finding inspiration that is similar to each other.  Really look at each picture you have saved and there should be common themes in the pictures.  Pull each picture apart and write down all the things you like or don't like.  Great way to figure out what you want in your own room.  The paint chips on the right are from Valspar.

This is how I found my ceiling.  I was looking around for ceiling ideas and came across Armstrong's website.   See our ceiling here.

I found my inspiration for our sofa here.  Plus which flooring to pick.  We went with the top one.

Some other pictures that inspired me.  We bought almost the same table & chairs, but it was from Ikea and for a lot less.  Check out this post for the details.

I put together a Mood Board for our Family Room.  As I collected images and ideas for the room, I had to put them into one place.  It really is a great way to see a room come together, before you buy anything.  For any of you Young House Love fans, yes that is their old Living Room.  I was inspired by their window treatments and of course their light and airy home.

I hope I have inspired some of you in some way.  I love to inspire others to decorate their homes.  Remember that most of the time there is a cheaper version of what you might love that is too expensive.  Search around.  There are so many great places to buy decent furniture for great prices and you can also pick up inexpensive decor in all of these places too {JCPenny, Ikea, Target, Home Goods}.   Happy shopping everyone.

Thank you for stopping by.  I would love to hear from you, so please leave a message or send me an email.  Have a great day everyone!!!

Our Family Room Tour - THE BIG REVEAL

I'm so excited to share this room with all of you.  It took a year to do this room from start to finish.  It was the largest & longest project we had ever worked on in our lives.  It was awesome to see my vision for this room turn from inspiration on the computer or magazines into real life.  It's a room that makes me smile every time I walk into it.  We are very proud of all of our work.  We are so glad we did it all ourselves {except for the recessed lighting & the cement work}.

Introducing our Family Room.  :)

This view is from the bottom of our stairs when you first come downstairs.  Bright and airy, just the way we wanted it.  I was going for a more modern cottage beachy look.  The accent wall represents water and the rest of the walls represent sand.  We wanted to keep most of the furnishings light, but I knew I wanted some darker pieces.  So we found a sofa that has dark leather and a medium microfiber material.  We love it.  Then we knew we needed to go with a medium tone laminate flooring.  Some of the accents in the room are oil bronzed to continue the darker accents in the room {curtain rods & sconces}.

Here is the view from the other end.

I added in green, orange & blue accents in the room in small amounts, just to bring in pops of color.

Next to the closet door is the door to our Laundry Room.

The sofa we wanted was a sectional.  All you do is pull over the large ottoman and then it's a chaise on the end or really it can be a chaise anywhere along the sofa.  But sometimes we just like to move the ottoman part aside and make it a separate piece to also sit on.  Two people can fit on that ottoman.  Bonus extra seating.  :)

Here are some of the before pictures of what is now our Family Room.  The pervious owners were using this area as 2nd bedrooms and a hallway to the Laundry Room.  It was very "make shift" to say the least.  Most of the rooms were just 2x4's with paneling over it.  No insulation between the walls either.
1st Bedroom.

2nd bedroom

When the walls came down!!!

So that is our Family Room Tour.  So I have to know....do you guys like the way the room turned out?  If you have any questions about the room, please feel free to ask me.

I will have another post about what inspired me for this room.  And you can check out the rest of this project here:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9.

I hope I have inspired some of you in some way.  I love to inspire others and that is why I started this blog.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!!!  I would love to hear from you, so please leave a message.  Have a great day everyone!!!








Link Parties

Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday

Our Family Room Tour - Part 9 {The Details}

Our Family Room....well the details.  The Big Reveal is next.  ;)

I collected all the decor pieces for the Family Room while we were working on this room for a year.  We only worked on the room mostly on weekends.  As you can see from all the past posts {here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here } there was a lot of work to be done on this room.  I shopped a lot.  Kept looking in different stores or online until I found what I wanted.  I'm so glad I bought stuff as I saw it on sale, because most of the decor would have been gone once we actually finished this project.  If you see something you really love, whether on sale or not {if it's a good price and you love it} and as long as it goes along with your vision for the room then get it when you see it.  I would have kick myself in the butt if I hadn't bought certain things when I saw them.  Just sayin'.  I kept it all in our office upstairs until the room was done.

Picture frames from Ikea {link-$13.99}, Console Table from Ikea {link-$199}, Lamp Base from Target {I bought it at the time for $20}, & Lamp Shade from Lamps Plus {link-$59.99}.  At first I thought that the lamp shade would be a pendant type of light that was going to hang over the sofa in the corner, but then we didn't want to screw the fixture into the new ceiling tiles. ;)  So it became a table lamp instead.  I love it this way actually!!!  And I also thought I was going to hang these picture frames, but I changed my mind.  I really like the look of them on the console table right now, but that might change down the road.

These shelves are from Ikea {link-$14.99}, the picture frames are from Ikea {link-$3.99 for a 2 pack}  {pictures themselves are from our honeymoon in Hawaii, Maui & Kauai}, the Star Fish & the blue vases are from Michael's {clearance} & the ship wheel looking piece is actually from my Grandma's house, which is a nice remembrance.  It tells you the weather.

The letter "Z" is from Kohl's.

Here is the whole wall.  {the candles & candle sticks are from Ikea, link-$14.99}

Here is the mirror that at first I wanted to be 4 smaller square mirrors {2 on top of each other & 2 on top of each other to make a square}.  Then I saw this large mirror at Ikea and it was ours. {link-$99.99}  The scones are from Kohl's.

Vases from Ikea {link-$10, link-$8, link-$5}.  Console table they are on is from Home Decorators.  Check out this post here to see the console table.

Jute & Cotton area rug is from Lowe's.  And they still sell them at our local store on Long Island.  Nice and soft on your feet because of the cotton in the rug.  Otherwise Jute by itself isn't that soft.  This rug is by the seating area of the room.  Sorry I can't find a link to them online.

Here is the matching runner also from Lowe's.  Both rugs are very affordable.

Here is our dining area part of the room.  Chairs, table {sits 4-6} & cushions are all from Ikea.  {table-$249.99, chair-$59.99 and cushion-$9.99}

Couch is from Ashley Furniture, throw from JCPenny & the pillows are from Target.

Next up is the Big Reveal of our Family Room.  I can't wait to show all of you.  We love this room.  It's everything we wanted it to be.  Well the hubby would have been happy just with the couch & TV, but everything else makes me really happy.  ;)

Thanks for stopping by.  I would love to hear from you so please leave me a message.  If you have any questions just let me know.  Thanks!!!  Have a great day everyone!!!

Our Family Room Tour - Part 8 {More Storage}

We tried to put as much storage options into our Family Room right now, so that in the future when there are {hopefully} little ones, we would have places to put extra stuff.  Plus what house doesn't need extra storage even if you don't have children. ;)

I bought this storage ottoman from here.  I had a good experience with this company.  It was a little bit more money then what I wanted to spend, but I couldn't find what I really wanted in the stores.  Love the colors!!!  It's made out of Seagrass.

We actually have a nice big closet in our Family Room.  It was already part of the room when we bought the house.  It was a bedroom when we bought the house, but before that it was the garage.  You can check it out here.    So I knew the one place we had to go to get the right storage for this closet.....Ikea.  These are actually pantry storage systems, so I knew it would work well for what I had planned for this closet.  It was going to be a pantry downstairs since we have a really small pantry upstairs.  We use this closet for all the "extra" pantry stuff.  We can buy in bulk because of this closet, plus we use it for storage of outside BBQ stuff {plates, platters, table cloths}.

Here are the great drawers that you can get with the system instead of just all shelving.  We love it.  They have that "soft close" feature that so many of Ikea products have or you can put it on as an extra feature.  They are deep and hold a lot.

Yup, no closet would be complete without a small frig right?  {ha ha}  We love it.  This frig is very close to the back door, so it's perfect during the nicer months when we are outside and want something to drink.

A couple of months ago, we added some more storage to the closet.  Since we do not have a hall coat closet, we needed more space for our coats.  We only have 3 closets in the bedrooms upstairs and lets just say we have already out grown the closets.  Yup I have some work to do in those closets, but that is for another post in the future. ;)   So we added two coat hook racks.  We bought them at Lowe's.  We still haven't brought all our coats down yet, but this is a couple of them.

I bought this console table at Home Decorators.  Make sure you check out their "outlet" section, that is where I found this piece for around $150.  Nice deal right!!!  This holds our cable box, hubbies DVDs and some beach towels.  I'm sure over time this piece will change with what we store in it.

And of course our cubby whole under our stairs.  You can check out that project here.

 

You can check out the rest of the Family Room projects here, here, here, here, and here.

Thanks for stopping by.  I would love to hear from you, so please leave a message.  Any questions, let me know.  Have a great day everyone.

Our Family Room Tour - Part 7 {How We Hid Our Electric Boxes}

We hid them in plane site actually.  Here are the electric boxes in our Family Room and of course on our feature wall, so we had to hide them somehow.  We thought about making another nicer boxed out front for it.  See the orginal boxed out front here.  But I really didn't want that.  Then I thought about a canvas piece of art.  Now I just had to find something that fit the size I needed and we had to figure out how to hang it so we could still get to the electric boxes quick enough.  We didn't want to lift off the art each time we needed to get to the electric boxes.

So we figured we could use hinges to hang the art.  And it worked out perfect.  I believe the art piece was a 30x30 inch canvas that we bought at Chiasso.  They don't carry this piece anymore, but they do have some other canvas pieces.

We needed to build a frame around the electric boxes because they were not flush with the wall.  We used 1x2 inch pieces of wood all the way around the electric boxes first.  Then we attached the two hinges on the right side of the wood strips and canvas.

Close up of the hinges we used.

Then we had to figure out how to keep the canvas door closed.  Yup that is velcro.  Works great.  We just stapled it to the canvas and the wood strips.

No more electric boxes.  YAY!!!

You can check out all the work we have done on this room here, here, here, here and here.  We are getting really close to the big reveal of the Family Room, so stayed tuned.  Just one or two more posts and then the big reveal of the room.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!!!  Have a great day!!!  :)