Family Room Makeover: Part 2

So, back to our family room.

Here's the state of affairs as they stood:

Not much to take in. We bought the furniture when we moved in 7 1/2 years ago. We painted the walls approximately four months after moving in. Nothing has since changed. Except the picture of the four of us on the wall in the back.

Tracy had suggested I talk to her neighbor who was really good at decorating and loved it. I thought that was a great idea and Tracy called to say Chrissy was on board and ready to start...that day.

In the meantime as I had mentioned I had been shopping to Homegoods with my mom and we had picked out a ton of things for the walls in a color scheme I thought would work with our furniture. Chrissy came over that night and was all business.

1. The chair had to go. That threw me. I hadn't ever thought about the chair leaving the room. That was our napping chair and I wasn't sure that was going to be negotiable with Mike. Well, with me either, but definitely Mike more. I hemmed and hawed on that one.

2. Chrissy walked around our first floor to get a feel of what our style was like. I wasn't really sure we had one, but off she went.

3. She looked at what we had already purchased and said she liked one of two paintings and the rest didn't really fit into the style of our house. Tracy agreed with her. This wasn't hard to take. I liked the stuff we'd bought, but the more it sat there, the more I thought it was a little too formal.

4. Was it really going to be that hard to get rid of the chair because it really had to go. The plaid was too much to work around.

5. We definitely needed to get rid of the chair.

As stated last time, Mike wanted no part of this. So, after about 15 minutes of this discussion he realized he had pressing work to do in the basement. Chrissy looked at me and said we should go to Pier One right then. So, Tracy left with her crew and Chrissy and I headed out shopping.

Upon entering Pier One, Chrissy bee-lined for the back. This was a woman on a mission. She pulled out all sorts of pillows but nothing was really jumping out at me. I finally told her I thought they were all "too modern". I'm sure I sounded about 80 years old. Chrissy just looked at me and said, "I just don't think they are modern though." She was probably right...but the graphic pattern on some of them made me think modern and I couldn't love them. We looked more. I thought I was pulling out some great plain colored stuff to throw together. Chrissy came back and nicely but firmly told me that I was off base. Big surprise. But, she held up this awesome pillow and we both agreed that was "the inspiration" for the rest of the room.

And really? I thought, "I actually have a room based on an inspiration piece." Seriously...this was turning out like those HGTV shows that I never get to watch.

We headed back to our house and Chrissy got to work suggesting a few furniture moves here and there. Then she asked if we could just go ahead and try some different moves. So she and I lugged around my giant, overstuffed couches. Chrissy is not a big girl, but again - woman on a mission. I'm pretty sure she could have moved all that stuff herself.

But I liked what she was trying to show me. And yes, the chair was going to have to go.

Chrissy left. I called Mike up from the basement and asked if we could please move this chair to his office. There's a reason I taught Maddie at the age of four to ask her dad a question and bat her eyes at him. It generally works. So we hoisted that chair downstairs and it now resides in his office. It's way too big for the space but it's not the room I'm currently working on and not the room I'm giving too much worry to right now. Besides, Mike could see that the family room was looking better without it.

And it's still a great napping chair. I took one in it last Friday while Mike was on a conference call. His talking didn't bother me one bit.

Part Three coming tomorrow.