Our Family Room

Luckily for us, we were able to furnish most of this family room with the pieces that we already had. We even had space to add more! However, I really didn’t want to rush this process and wanted to be very intentional about what I was adding to this room.

So the only way that I could really do that was by living in the house for a few months before making any major decisions about what I need. And then on top of that, I needed to apply a few of my own design principles to the furniture and accessories selections.

After a few months, I realized that we needed a small informal breakfast table in the space. And shortly after that, I knew I had to have a coffee station in the mix to feed my coffee and fancy iced latte addiction.

So after 2 years of collecting all of my goodies, this room is finally at a place where it feels pretty complete.

The Thought Process

I love mixing the old with the new! Some of these pieces are brand new, some I bought years ago, and others I picked up second-hand. All of the sofas and the navy recliner are from West Elm and are now over 10 years old. I had the smaller sofa, the Henry from West Elm, recently reupholstered in a lighter textured fabric, and then redesigned with a bench cushion and a lower back frame. It’s so much more comfortable and just looks a lot prettier, sleeker and current.

Planning out your furniture is so important. Not only do I measure multiple times, but I also make it even more difficult by purposefully not using sets. It just feels a lot less contrived and less like a showroom if you mismatch.

I then tweak furniture to suit the room that it’s going in or buy for the room. I add colors, pick fabrics and textures depending on what I feel needs to be added to a room. This is when sticking to a color palette and having larger neutral pieces can work in your favor – they go with everything.

When originally picking out my color palette, I knew I wanted to stay in the blue/green/gray family. However, my color choices have changed in recent years. I gravitate towards warmer colors now, so rather than changing everything, I started adding warmer tones in various accessories and reupholstered my smaller couch (that used to be gray) in an off-white color. Then I started adding warmer wood tones and even cane furniture for texture.

The white oak laminate flooring also helps tone down the cooler colors.

Spaces like family rooms are the perfect opportunity for your family to express their personality. This room begs for items that are meaningful! Family pictures, favorite books, art pieces, and any items with sentimental value, its own history or with a really good story are ideal in here.

I love our media unit for this reason. I picked it up second-hand a few years ago (it was already over 15 years old at that time) for about $65, had it restained in black and added a few Restoration Hardware pulls that I had shipped in. I just love that the color change and handles were able to give it new life. I have a blog post all about it and you can read about the process here as well as who did it for me.

The other piece that I absolutely adore is a second-hand dresser that now holds all of our entryway related items as well as stores other everyday things (lighters, batteries, etc.). I am the fourth owner of this dresser – how cool is that?! It’s such a beautiful mid-century modern piece. All I had to do when I got it was to re-stain it in a warmer walnut-ish tone and voila! It’s a beauty.

While my rug is not new, it is a very special purchase for me. I spent at least a year or two lusting after it. When I finally decided to get it, I flew to Lahore, Pakistan, to see it, pick it up and bring it back with me. My family is ethnically from Pakistan and I really wanted to have a piece that represented that part of me, so getting a Pakistani made product was a great way to bring in a bit of sentimentality and meaning.

The rug is an 8×10 ft., however, this room can definitely handle a 9×12 ft. as well. 

There are 2 custom pieces in this space – the dining chairs are from Gradient Home in Bahrain and the shelving unit was a piece by Desert Designs that used to be in my old office. I love that the bookshelf has such a light look to it. I’ve filled it with my favorite books, these seaglass beads, an old H&M bowl as well as a beautiful vase made by my Mama! I purchased the dining table from Pottery Barn and it was the perfect fit for this space.

Ah my beloved coffee station. It gets used every single day – my favorite addition to this room!

I have a painting by Hassan Massoudy on top of this station for now, but I do hope I can find a better home for it eventually. I have a whole post about my coffee station that you can check out here.

I bought the curtain rods from Amazon (they only have the double rod option available right now) and the pinch pleat curtains were custom made by a local upholstery company (Contact: Ali, TEL: 050-494-0359). I really wanted a pinch pleat versus any other kind as it gives a bit of a casual and yet slightly formal look.

One of my favorite design elements is using plants. I use them to warm up spaces. It’s seriously such a game changer when you pick the right one – it just feels different. You can see all the plants that I chose for my house here.

And when the plants aren’t doing it for me, I make sure to buy some flowers to help enhance color and add a bit of luxury to my room.

I haven’t been able to tackle the closet in the back yet, but I have big plans for that too. I can’t really remove it since this is a rental home, but I think I can work with it…

Hope you enjoyed my very first home tour!

Paint Color: Sherwin Williams Alabaster

Laminate Floor Vendor: Magic Flooring

Local Upholstery: Ali, TEL: 050-494-0359

Furniture/Accessory Sources: Navy Blue Recliner, Henry 2-seater Sofa, White Marble Coffee Table in Light Bronze, Rug (available in 5×4′), Media Unit (custom made), Floor Lamp, Round Marble Side Table(not available), Mirrored Side Table (not available), Glass Lamps (not available), L-shaped sectional (not available), Round Marble Bistro Table, Dining chairs, Bookshelf (custom made Desert Designs), Coffee Station Console, Basket, Curtain Rods (temporarily unavailable in the single rod and double rod version)

If you’d like similar items for the sources that are no longer available, please check my Shop My Home page very soon for updates! 

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