Family Room Teaser

Do you ever get ahead of yourself....

and fall behind at the same time? 

 Chomping at the bit to start a new project, only to look around at all the unfinished one's? 

So that be me...and my family room. 

The hangout. 

The hub.

The place where the family congregates.

The place where I have no chance at the TV remote, and just lovingly smile through another episode of How's It Made with my husband.

But see this is where I get ahead of myself, wanting to show you the latest changes to the space without sharing the history and the "few" transformations of the room.

Oh and before I forget...did I tell you that this space that we all cuddle up on the couch on, was not even intended to be a family room and rather a screened in porch?

See after a "favorable" builder blunder, meaning we were actually glad that he screwed up, we were able to create a fully functional room by putting in windows and some solid flooring.

And just as fast as that remote changed the TV, so did the colors and styles of the space. We installed a wood burning stove and  years later an air conditioning unit, so until then, the room was primarily used in the fall and winter months....

Thus my fall like color pallet.

So after installing the air conditioner and feeling cooler, we quickly realized that we wanted to make better use of the space,  but not until I decided to lighten it up and change out the furniture for a  more "sun room" feel.

 

I think it's when we found a solution to move our TV into the room, that we began to use the term "family room" more freely to describe the space. So walls were painted, furniture cycled  it's way throughout the house and all was good and cozy, until.......

  I found this $10.00 coffee table.

  More on that, my stone floors and the latest room changes coming soon. After all..... I don't want to get ahead of myself, now do I.
So tell me , do you ever get ahead of yourself too?

Grateful for~

A loving husband of 14 years.... that I wish I knew my whole life

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Finding Home Online
Between Naps on The Porch
Savvy Southern Style
The Everyday Home Blog

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My Next Kitchen Assistant?

You know, I am still not sure I have what it takes to transform my

kitchen from this.....

to my inspiration kitchen...something like this

image credit

So it just so happens in my town of 500, there's not only a Piggly Wiggly around the corner but a Home Depot within driving distance.  And not only does Home Depot sell replacement cabinets but they also do cabinet refacing and refinshing. The three R's.

Be sure to check out the video below and see why Home Depot may just be my next kitchen assistant!

  

PS- You can see all of my kitchen ideas on my inspiration board here

Grateful for~

The chance to be apart of my kids end of school year activites.

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Office Evolution

They say good things happen to "offices" who wait.  Really they do.  

See, it only took my office a few color schemes over the course of several years, and several gallons of paint to get to this point.

     From Meadow Green a few years ago, to which I blame that color choice entirely on my pregnancy hormones, with twins.........

 so it was slightly elevated

 

To a much more soothing beige that had me unfortunately uninspired and always wanting more.....

To my now peaceful, calm and serene workplace.

Months of colors thrown on a wall

while contemplating the right decision 

 All to get to this point.

And every time I hear that old cliche that good things come to offices that wait , I have to smile...... 

and so does my office.

Are you working on any room evolutions right now? 

PS- To see my about my office journey click here

Grateful for~

The comfort of prayers and love from friends of Top This Top That

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Between naps on the Porch

DIY Showoff

Savvy Southern Style

DIY By Design

So Much Better With Age

Tatertots and Jello

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My Home Office and Some Marriage Advice

Do you realize that this office took me longer to complete then a handful of celebrity marriages?

Kim Kardashian to Kris Humphries .....72 days

Pam Anderson to Kid Rock....122 days

Renee Zellweger to Kenny Chesney....225 days

Carmen Electra to Dennis Rodman...9 days

and Brittany Spears to Jason Alexander...55 hours

Time to complete this office 365 days, 20 hours and 11 seconds.

To see where the marriage of the office started click here

 I am truly sorry that these "harmonious and "loving" relationships didn't stand the test of time like we all thought they would, but perhaps a bit more planning and thought like I put into this office makeover would have created more lasting and beautiful results for them.....I am just sayin!

And just by chance that any of them are reading my blog today,
 I would offer this advice to them.

 Maybe next time before you rush into anything as big as marriage, you will sit down on this chair that I got at World Market, in front of my lap top and Google "The Five Love Languages" or "Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus" and read 
them on my reader ....
in it's entirety.

 I believe it may offer you some help for the next round.

And if it gets late and turns dark before you are done you can turn this neat hanging pendant on that I got at Lowe's to light things up for you. Please feel free to close the curtains that I made behind the desk with a fabric by Waverly called Silver Lining,  particularly if the sun puts a glare on the computer screen. 

I'm sure some of my own books on love and relationships on the shelf or pictures on the wall of my own happy, loving union just may inspire you as well, particular my wedding picture right behind the desk.

In fact if you happen to see my husband while you are in my office, he will tell you that I am the best thing that has every happened to him...and him to me! 

Because really, and I truly mean this from the bottom of
 my heart.........

 I want your next union to last for a lifetime or at least a lot longer then the 365 days that it took to finish this office.

All my best to the above mentioned celebrities and to you!

PS- Someone should tell Kim that she needs to get a divorce from Kris before she marries Kanye.
PPS- You can see my office  journey here.

Grateful for~

A loving, lasting marriage .


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French Country Cottage
Between Naps On The Porch 

Emily A Clark The 36th Avenue

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I am on a Quest.....

For brightness, not necessarily whiteness. Let me explain.  With a house of more windows then I care to clean and more then the number of football players on a team , my core kitchen is still not very bright. Sounds crazy, but it's true. Windows are situated across the room and not in this immediate area. You can see the entire kitchen here. 

 So my quest began......

About 2 years ago when I changed  my butlers pantry to a creamy distressed color. FYI-  this piece use to be black.

Over the course of 10 years, four different changes to the wall color in my Breakfast and kitchen area .  FYI- the previous colors have been school house red, a gold, a green color and now the current color called Polished Pearl.

Changing the mantle color to Old White

and the built-in cabinetry

 The latest in my quest for brightness was painting the mantle above the cook top so that both mantles shared the same color scheme.  I may decide to paint the entire cook top cabinet so that it gives it a more cohesive look.

So what else is next you ask in my master plan of changes.

Well, because I don't have any interest in painting all of the cabinets in my kitchen and I like the combination of painted and wood cabinetry, I will paint the island. At this point I have not decided exactly what color I will use, but it will be light and not white. 

I am also going to replace the back splash with a creamy white subway tile.

 I think incorporating these minor changes will help to achieve the brightness that I want in the kitchen, and even after all of the changes are completed one thing will remain the same- I still don't like to cook but at least it will be brighter!
Have you been on any quest's lately?

Grateful for~

A husband who does!

PS- you can follow along on my quest here, here, here and here

Sharing at~
Between Naps on The Porch

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The Rest of the Story of the Breakfast Area

This poor room had been through a lot... I actually felt sorry for it.
A lot of paint changes, color changes, rug changes, accessory changes and furniture changes.
All for good reason though....see this poor room had a case of mistaken identity. 

When we first built our home, this room was designed as our Family Room. It was right off the kitchen, central to the house and has a nice big fireplace to cozy up on the couch. It completely made sense to us and made us comfortable on that couch in front of the fire, over the course of 7 years in the house. 

And then something happened as we entered into our 8th year. It occurred to us that maybe the room was a design blunder, that maybe it would be better served in the room that was originally designed as our sunroom. You can read about that here.  So we began the transition of creating what once was our family room into an extension of our kitchen, which is now our breakfast area.

During the last few years I have tried to make a space that really wasn't intended to be a kitchen seem like part of the kitchen. Truthfully it wasn't easy. Color was a huge challenge and after four  changes (here) I am confident that this color is meant to be in this space. This was the space with the previous color.

 Next it was time for the mantle (here) and built-in cabinets (here) to get freshened up with a lighter color as well. The contrast between the wood floors, ceiling beams and the lighter cabinetry just works in this space.

This is the view looking into the kitchen. I am working on a few other "minor" changes that will help to create more brightness in that area. You can read more about my "quest" for brightness not necessarily whiteness here.

Looking back from where we started, I am beginning to think that this blunder wasn't so bad after all.

 In fact if blunders can look and act this good, maybe we can hang out and do things more often.

Grateful for~

A husband that just goes with the flow with changes like this. As long as he has a chair and a remote he doesn't care where the family room is!

Sharing at~
Between Naps on the Porch
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Savvy Southern Style
French Country Cottage
Thrifty Decor Chick

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