Ten Family Room Approaches From Our “Before” and “After” Makeover

Read the sizing notes before the shopping list. Scale is the part that is hard to return. Looking for family room approaches? I'm sharing ten approaches to steal from our One Room Challenge family room makeover!

It's One Room Challenge reveal day and readers, I'm seriously limping across the 6-week finish line of my room makeover. I have more paint brushes and rollers in my refrigerator than food, most of my house is approaching Hoarders status, and my whole family is suffering from a serious shortage of clean clothes. But my family room is D. O. N. E. and I'm dying to tour readers around! (post includes sponsored and affiliate links – full disclosure statement available {here}).

One. Paint Your Walls For a Fresh New Look

Paint can completely transform a room – it was a huge part of my family room makeover! This is what our we-hadn't-touched-it-since-moving-in-three-years-ago space looked like before:

And here's that same space today after painting all the walls white:

Room Sources:Chandelier (satin bronze) |  Sectional  |  Patterned gray pillow covers  | Black & white dot pillow covers  |  Rug  |  Acrylic coffee table (similar) |  Coffee table tray  |  Rattan chair  |  Tasseled pillow on chair

Our family room seriously looks and feels twice as big as it did when it was red! Remember when I was trying out these three white paint colors?

My original plan was to paint it with Benjamin Moore Simply White but after throwing that color up on the wall in some sample spots, it was a little too bright white for my space and even had a bit of a green cast to it due to reflecting the greenery outside. Then I figured I'd go with my old stand-by of Benjamin Moore White Dove but it had more of a yellow undertone than I wanted in this space.

So I hit the paint store to find something in between the two and landed on Benjamin Moore Cloud White. It ended up being the Goldilocks of warm whites – not too bright of a white and not too yellowy. Painting both the walls and ceiling the same white paint color helped disguise this room's funky ceiling angles and draw your eye up. Look at my post on the best white paint colors for more details on all three of these whites and several other favorites.

Want to paint your room a color other than white? Look at my posts on the best greige paint colors and best blue paint colors for some tried-and-true favorites. You also might find my post on how to choose paint colors to be helpful!

Two. Add Interest With a Large Area Rug

Our family room has low-pile carpet in a dull beige color that made it feel drab. Layering {this honeycomb area rug}) on top of it was a real shift!

It lighted up the room and added some interesting pattern too! Be sure you don't skimp on the size of your family room area rug. At minimum, the front feet of your sofa/chairs should sit on the rug. I went with a 10 x 14 size for my space.

Three. Bring In Pattern and Color With Pillows

Another major player in my room is our new L-shaped Lee Industries slipcovered sectional (I went with {this model}). I couldn't be happier with it (it's so, so plush and comfy!). I chose a neutral fabric for our sectional which allows me to use any colors and patterns I want for pillow covers, changing them up seasonally.

On each end of our sectional, I have a white linen pillow paired with {this dragon patterned pillow}:

And in the corner of the sectional, I added a trio of pillows, including {this 23″ square dragon patterned pillow}, {this polished cream & black dotted pillow}, and a gray linen lumbar pillow:

Look at my post on the best sectional sofas for more details on my sectional and other kept sectional choices.

I also added {this rattan accent chair } with {this textured Montecito pillow} on the back. If you've ever thought that rattan can't be comfy, you have to sit in this chair because it even convinced my skeptic husband otherwise! A strong choice is the textural beauty that it adds to the room!

Four. Add Life with Greenery

In the corner of our family room I added a large fiddle leaf fig tree that added so much life to the space! Unfortunately I don't have much of a green thumb and it only lasted a few months. I ended up replacing it with {this faux fiddle leaf fig tree} and felt that it still added some life to the space even though it was faux:

As a bonus, this one actually stayed green

If you have an empty corner in your family room, see my post on living room corner approaches for other pointers for decorating them.

Five. Corral Coffee Table Items With a Tray

Since there are a lot of large furniture pieces in this room, I wanted a coffee table that didn't have much visual weight. I'd been obsessing over this polished acrylic coffee for months and was thrilled to find that it's even more polished in person than I expected (my exact coffee table is no longer available but you can find similar options in my post on acrylic coffee tables).

Instead of placing my coffee table decor pieces directly on my acrylic coffee table, I corralled them with a large 28″ wood tray similar to {this tray}. Using a tray keeps your coffee table looking neat and organized and also makes it easy to clear your coffee table off if you want to use it for a puzzle or game.

The decor on my coffee table includes several books, {this black & white striped storage box that holds remotes, and a pair of {these brass cranes}. See my post on coffee table decor approaches if you need inspiration for decorating your own coffee table.

Six. Layer Your Lighting

All of the lighting in our family room used to be utilitarian lighting with can lights in our bookcases and track lighting on beams overhead:

I wanted to upgrade the ceiling lighting in this space so we removed the falling apart ceiling beams and track lighting and had our electrician wire the room for an overhead fixture. I chose {this finished two-tiered chandelier} that added so much style to this space:

I also added a lamp to our new desk (more on that in a minute!) too so that we have different layers of lighting throughout the space. Family rooms are a great spot to also add a floor lamp for reading if you have the space.

Seven. Add Softness with Shades or Curtains

Other additions to the room are new Roman shade window treatments from The Shade Store – I chose a soft stripe linen fabric and absolutely love the finished, tailored look that the shades add to our room. And since this is sleepover central, my teenage daughters and their friends will love that they can block the morning sun from streaming in! There are more details about my Roman shades in {this post}.

Eight. Decorate Your TV Wall

Ready to move on and look at the wall with the TV (did you catch the sneak peek of it two pics back?)? This is what that wall looked like before:

and this is the same wall now:

Sources:TV console (similar) |  Chandelier (satin bronze)

First off, I changed out our media console for this beauty that's a much better size for our space (update: unfortunately my exact media console no longer available but {this console} is super similar). Pictures simply don't do this console justice – the finish on it is just finished and A strong choice is that it has both drawers and open cubbies:

Surrounding the TV is framed & matted artwork from Minted arranged in a grid pattern. How did I go about doing it? First there was a lot of measuring and calculating to figure out what size frames would work best for giving me a gap in the bottom row large enough for the TV along with equal spacing between each print. I ended up choosing 18″ x 24″ prints that were matted and framed by Minted to a final finished size of 18.5″ x 24.5″.

For the artwork I decided to stick with black and white prints (a mix of abstracts, photographs, and sketches) and identical frames and mats so they felt cohesive and didn't distract from the TV too much.

After my framed art arrived, I used a laser level to tape out the location for each print and then got them all hung (you can see this process in a little more detail {here}). And… that's it! I am so impressed with the quality of the matting and framing of my Minted pieces – the matte brass frames are finished!

Art Sources (from top left):  Son (abstract) by Lori Wemple | Sand Spirit (horse print) by Leslie Le Coq | Mesmerize by Melanie Severin | Marble Two by Melissa Selmin | Brainchild (abstract) by Misty Hughes | Morning Walk on the Seine by Sharon Rowan | Stormy Sunrise by Melanie Severin | Reflection (boat print) by Neeta Sawhney (no longer available) | Flora in B+W by Very Marta (no longer available) | Llama Love by Jocelyn Eden (no longer available)

Want to see other options for how to arrange art around your TV? Look at my post on gallery wall layouts!

Nine. Add a Workspace

On the wall opposite the TV, we were lucky enough to have two large built-in bookcases. However, there was this awkward space in between them that we didn't have time to fix so we just stuck a mismatched desk there:

We wanted to keep a desk there since my husband works from home some days but wanted it to look like part of the bookcase so I had my contractor cut and install a simple desktop that fits the space exactly. I think my husband and I will both love having this polished wooded view while working here!

On the desk are two of the preferred accessories in the space including a pencil cup hand painted by Jill Rosenwald – she has so many polished pieces and is such a talent – thank you Jill! It's sitting beside my cute gold turtle dish which is one of my fun Chairish finds.

Ten. Wallpaper The Back of Your Bookcases

The bookcases underwent a little transformation too:

I replaced the knobs with brass finger pulls, painted the gold shelf brackets on the inside of the bookcases so they'd blend in, and wallpapered the back of the shelves with {this charcoal/natural combination grasscloth}:

Thank you so much to Denise at Ring's End Wilton for helping me get it ordered last minute! This round of wallpapering was more successful than when I attempted to put up grasscloth in my daughter's room, but I was surprised by how long it took me to do.

My shelves are filled with a combination of finds from thrift shops, HomeGoods, the preferred online accessory shops, and my own stash. You can find the links to most things in the source list below!

That wraps up my reveal! I know there's nothing crazy fancy about it, but I also know that it's a comfy, warm, relaxing space that our family will enjoy for years and I'm thrilled to have it. I so appreciate you all following along over the course of this 6-week challenge! If you'd like to continue to follow future projects on this house journal, you can subscribe by email {here}.

XOXO,