Family Room | It's Great To Be Home

Our New Sofa Table

March 19, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 9 Comments

Notice anything different about our den?

Maybe a different angle will help. :) Check it out!

The last time you saw our den the back of the sofa was looking a little naked:

And that’s just inappropriate, so I had to do something about it.

The solution was a sofa table – I’ve wanted one forever, and had been looking for the perfect candidate for ages. I almost jumped on a gorgeous one from West Elm, but in the end I realized that it’s dimensions were all wrong (too tall and not long enough). So I eventually made my way back to Ikea’s Hemnes sofa table – and I’m so glad I did.

It’s been perfect! Or, at least, it is now. :)

The first issue was entirely my fault – I got all the way to this point in putting it together . . .

. . . when I realized I did the very first step incorrectly. Boo!! Round 2 went much better. :)

The second issue was something that I anticipated from the start. The one thing that I didn’t like about the Hemnes sofa table was the fact that it is divided into a jillion little compartments (which you can see here). All of those little compartments were a problem because (a) I wanted the flexibility to store larger items in the table, and (b) I didn’t want to be forced to use Ikea baskets and storage components since I didn’t want people to think “Ikea” the second they saw the sofa table.

So I decided not to install the two vertical dividers on the lower shelf. I wasn’t worried about stability problems since there is a third divider that runs from the top to the bottom of the table, but I knew I’d have to camouflage the dowel holes for the missing dividers (you can see them in the photo below). No worries, it was nothing that a few Q-tips and a little stain couldn’t fix!

(I didn’t include an “after” photo since it just looked like a piece of brown wood. Exciting stuff.)

I’m totally digging having a console table behind our sofa. Look, lamps! What a luxury!

More places to put stuff! An even bigger luxury!

( This is the first attempt at styling – nothing set in stone, we’ll see how it goes. )

I’m especially excited about having a place for baskets – they’re currently empty but I know they’ll come in handy once our little girl arrives in May (I don’t know if you’ve heard, but babies come with a lot of stuff).

(Ooh, and did you notice that the stars have made a new appearance? I used this trick again for hanging them on our wood paneling.)

I also get to display lots of goodies that I’ve had stashed away for ages because I had nowhere to put them. Like this antique box! My mom collects them, and she gave me this particularly gorgeous one that has an intricate inlaid brass detail.

It’s great for storing all of my cords and connectors, girlie necessities like hair bands and Chapstick, and there’s even another compartment underneath that holds my camera and a tape measurer. So handy!

Oh! We also moved the secretary over to this previously-blank-spot by the kitchen. I’m digging that I can drag the aluminum side table over there as a makeshift seat for writing notes, etc. – not that I’ve done that yet, but I could. :)

Now that we’ve had the sofa table for a few weeks I can’t believe it took me over 3 years to add one to our den! Have you recently added anything to your home that you’re kicking yourself for not thinking of sooner?

Before & After: The Family Room

August 19, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 29 Comments

Alright guys and gals, now that you’ve seen the befores and afters from the kitchen and dining room it’s time to scope out the family room!

For all you brown paint haters out there, let me warn you – there is more of the same brown paint in this room, so brace yourselves. :)

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

Here’s how the family room looked 2.5 months ago . . .

. . . and here’s how it looks now:

We kept the paneling for budget reasons and I’m actually really thrilled with how it turned out after some fresh paint!

I personally really like the beams, but they were a little lacking in their medium-tone stain and that fan wasn’t helping matters . . .

. . . so we darkened the beams with brown paint (!) and brightened up the space with some recessed lighting.

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

We also liked the brick fireplace and the set of French doors, so we kept those . . .

. . . but we installed new windows because the old aluminum ones left a little something to be desired.

Hardwood floors instantly added some much-needed pizazz.

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

There were bifold doors on the doorway to the hall as well as to the entryway, so we removed those to make the room feel a little more updated.

Also, do you see those scallops on the built-in bookcases above? Those suckers had to go.

We used the same staging furniture throughout the house that we bought for our last flip – luckily everything fit into this home perfectly!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

That’s it! This is a giant room – I can imagine the new owners having lots of fun movie nights and having friends over. Can you?

P.S. You can see more “before” photos of this flip here.

All photographs taken by me, unless indicated as “Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography.”

Meet My Secretary

February 4, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 33 Comments

Do you spy anything new in our den?

Well, it’s not really new, just new to me. We are now the proud owners of my grandmother’s secretary desk!!

Isn’t it beautiful? I especially love the curvy drawer fronts.

This piece has lived in my parents’ house for a long time, and I nabbed it a few years back when my parents let us kiddos pick a few of our favorite pieces. I didn’t think that we had room for it so it’s been in my mom’s living room ever since, but after Christmas I realized that we actually have the perfect place for it!

( I don’t think I have any pictures of it, but we used to have an oversized armchair there, along with a side table. It kind of looked how it did in this post, except the sofa and armchair had switched places. Not sure if that makes sense. )

I still need to find the perfect chair to go with it (right now we’re just using a spare from our dining room). Any ideas?

In addition to all the sentimental value that goes along with this secretary, it’s also ridiculously useful. See?

I’m really digging all of the storage – I hadn’t realized it but we didn’t have a single drawer or cabinet to stash stuff in our entire living room. A travesty!

Look, lots of cubbies!! It’s perfect for stashing all of my stationary and thank you notes, magazines and books, my laptop, and the cozy blanket I crocheted for Jason back in law school (FYI, it’s the snuggliest blanket EVER).