A light and airy family room

How to create a light and airy family room

I have played around with my family room for all most 9 years now trying to get that perfect combination of white, light, airy and beachy look. I really want that casual light and airy look especially in this family room as it is the room we all like to congregate in. There are a few problems with this room. 1. This room is fairly small. 2. It has only one full wall and two huge openings into the room, one from the hallway and one from the kitchen. 3. It has a fireplace in the corner of the room and 4. Two windows that are not evenly spaced on the wall by the fireplace. (In all honesty we added the fireplace after the windows were already in so it created a funky situation next to the fireplace)

Starting at the beginning

Let’s go back in time to when we moved into this house and we purchased a black entertainment center. I tried to create a fun look by adding pops of bright colored pillows on the white sofas but the black “beast” in the room drove me crazy. It just seemed to suck the light out of the room. So the first thing we did was to paint the entertainment center with chalk paint in duck egg blue. That helped to let more light into the room.

Painting fireplace white and adding shiplap

When we originally picked out the brick for the fireplace I was in love with the look of old brick but…. along came Joanna Gaines and painting brick white has been all the rage. So that it is exactly what we did. We painted the brick white and added white shiplap above the fireplace.

Adding shiplap and painting the brick white made a huge difference. This was a photo of the painting in progress by my sweet hubby. We were starting to feel the white light family room that we had been dreaming of. Oh and by the way you will notice there have also been many different rugs in this room too. My hubby says I belong to the rug of the month club haha. It is kind of true. Some shed too much, some were too bold, not big enough etc.. I could go on and on.

Room configurations

I have tried configuring this room what seems like a million different ways! We have had the sofa at the back of the room facing the entertainment center but it blocks the opening to the kitchen.

I have tried it with two white chairs under the window with the white sofa at the back, which blocks the entry into the kitchen. Note the clock keeps moving from the one wall back to above the fireplace. I think I am crazy!

I tried it with the two chairs on the other side of the room and it tends to block the pathway into the room from the hallway and then with the sofa where it is, it blocks the entry into the kitchen.

Almost complete

Lastly we have moved up our sectional from the basement, which you may remember seeing in my basement makeover here. Of course I ended up not like the dark denim in this room 🙁

Lastly I bought a new white slipcover for the sectional and a new bigger coffee table and ta da I finally LOVE IT. The last thing we will do is paint the walls white and hang a new piece of artwork that will go in place of the clock. I will show you the finished room once we get it all painted. Thank heavens this room will finally be done and accomplish all the things I have wanted… light, airy, seating for more than 6 people, a little open space for the grandkids to play and open entry areas to the kitchen and the hallway.

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