Simple Coastal Family Room Makeover

There’s nothing like putting your house on the market that motivates you to finish up the rooms you’ve had eighty percent complete for months on end. Our farmhouse/coastal family room was a work in progress for over two years. How pathetic is that? But I did manage to get it (mostly) finished just in time.

Here is a photo taken a few years ago. We actually had an entertainment center, but I forgot to take a photo before we got rid of it. We only lived a day with the tv precariously perched like that, promise.

One of the biggest changes we made to the room was to fill in the “window” between the family room and my craft room. You can see it on the left side of the room. I hated it that you could always see into the messy craft room! We hired a contractor for that part, because I don’t do drywall.

After the wall was filled in, I painted the entire room (plus the kitchen) Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. Such a lovely color! Then I was able to put up a fun gallery wall.

I bought that cool mirror at a thrift store and painted it with white chalk paint. The curvy frames are from Cut It Out, everything else was purchased at the dollar store or the thrift store and painted.

You can see how I made the shutters behind the television in this post. I love them. I was in such a hurry to take the photos that I didn’t notice they were crooked till it was too late. Argg. The vases and flowers I bought at Hobby Lobby.

The mantel was actually my first project in the room. It was originally oak, but I painted it years ago. I wanted to see how well it worked before I tackled the kitchen cabinets. The white made a HUGE difference! For years I struggled with how to decorate a corner fireplace, but I eventually got used to it.

My sister in law picked up this vintage window for me, and I hung a cotton wreath on it with a piece of burlap ribbon. It was actually the very first decoration I put up in our new house!

This couch was my one splurge for the room. I saved up for over a year for this thing. I wanted a light colored couch, so I knew I would need slipcovers. We also needed a custom size that would give us the most possible seating for the space. I ordered the couch from Pottery Barn. It was HARD for me to spend that much money, but I love being able to wash the slipcovers every few months.

I went pretty minimalistic with the pillows, because every pillow at my house ends up on the floor.  I swear my youngest thinks it is her personal quest to throw every pillow on the ground. Every day. Is that normal? It was either eliminate some pillows or attend a pillow recovery support group every week to vent my frustrations.

Truth be told, the pillows were what held up the whole room makeover for so long. I had the turquoise pillows that I wanted to match. I searched and searched and could not find pillows or fabric that I loved. I finally found some fabric at Joann, and whipped up some slipcovers. I use the down pillow forms from Ikea, and I highly recommend them. They are soooo comfy!

A dear friend made this shelf for me a few years ago. I originally hung curtains from it, but after we covered the deck behind it, I wanted to let in all the light I could, so I got rid of them.

Here is a shot of the family room taken from the kitchen. Looks like I forgot to turn the lights off. Oops.

Our house actually sold so fast that we only enjoyed the finished family room for a few weeks before we moved to our new home. Hooray!

Here are a few projects from our coastal family room:

Book Page Wreath
DIY Indoor Shutters
Painted Oak Mantel