Family Room in a Small Cape gets a Major Makeover

I remember the first time I saw this home I had tears well up in my eyes, because I knew I would makeover this entire home. It wasn’t an accident we met them, it was a gift to us. We first went to this charming little cape, because Rachel (the mom) had written to us when we asked for local kids rooms to makeover. We selected her son Luke, to do a makeover for. Rachel wasn’t home when Kevin and I went to see Lukes bedroom, and looking back, it was a blessing she wasn’t. Rachels friend let us in to measure Lukes room, then she asked if we wanted to see all their home. It just needed some love. Which Rachel and Jeff didn’t have a lot of free-time to give to the home. They both work full-time, with two cutie boys, one with special needs and one a busy athletic teenager. We ended up making over Lukes room, Patricks room and Rachel and Jeffs room. But I REALLY wanted to makeover their family room, I was just waiting for the right opportunity and time.

Raymour & Flanigan reached out wanting to collaborate. We have bought furniture from them before and been so impressed with the quality and the variety of style options so I was thrilled to work with them again. I told them I didn’t need new furniture, but I had a wonderful deserving family I would like to give the furniture to and makeover their family room. First I confirmed that Rachel and Jeff were open to me taking over their family room and they said YES! Then we went shopping at Raymour & Flanigan for the perfect pieces of furniture for them. I did go back home and put together a design board to make sure everything would look good together. Then we stopped by the house to see if there was wood floor under the carpet….and there was!!!!! 

Thank you Raymour & Flanigan for sponsoring this post

Family Room Design Plan- 

Navy Sofa   //8×10 Rug // Coffee Table  // Sideboard  // Bookcase  //  Leather Chairs

I knew I wanted to do a darker fabric sofa with the busy boys, and was thrilled to find that perfect navy blue sofa. The leather chairs were way too nice to pass up for this family! And the the tall cream sideboard for their tv would be a nice change from the short tv stand they had. The tall bookcases were great, but I ended up not using them because they were just slightly too small and I wanted more of a built-in look, you will see what we did instead….

Family Room BEFORE-

Before I show you the after I want to just point out why we made the changes we did. First of all we tore out the carpet, underneath was perfectly imperfect hardwood floors. There was really no need for carpet when you have a rug and this was actually a major traffic zone, you had to walk over the carpet to get to the rest of the rooms. Next notice how everything is basically the same height there was no contrast or focal point. Everything is the same color, make it feel really one-note. The piano was really too big for that space. And the chaise was not Rachels favorite. She felt like (and I agree) it isn’t conducive to conversation and casual entertaining, more for lounging. 

Family Room After-

Can you handle it? Because Rachel and Jeff can’t! They keep texting me saying “I can’t believe this is our home! It feels like a vacation house!” 

The carpet was much easier to take out then I thought! Kevin cut it down in sections so we could slide the furniture around once a section was complete. SO MANY of you asked “why would anyone cover up wood??” I asked Rachel and she said that when they moved in the previous home owner had carpet here so they just replaced it and kept it! The first carpet they put in was a white shag that looked awful right away. They had it replaced with this brown carpet right before they had Patrick. She always thought the wood floor would need too much work done to it and was nervous to try it! Happy we could help them let the carpet go!!!!

Another before and after of the family room-

TV Console- (here)

I decided to swap the furniture placement and add some height to the blank wall. Also where they had the tv before was a window, way too tight for that space. So really the only logical place for the tv was the wall they had the sofa. Rachel told me that was one thing they really wanted to keep in this room, the tv. So that helped me narrow down the priority. 

 I hung art around the tv to add some interest and complete the space. The bottom art Rachel inherited from her mom, and had never found a place to hang it. I grouped it with a piece of art I had at my house, that was thrifted! 

Area Rug- (here)

Coffee Table- (here)

Sofa- (here)

As we mentioned before the sofa with the chaise wasn’t great for a room that has to do double duty as a the place for conversation with visitors and also a place for lounging to watch tv and relax. The new navy sofa was affordable for such great quality. I made sure that it had a tall enough back to lay your head back. Love that it came with some cute contrasting pillows to pull out the lighter colors in the rug and furniture. 

Floating Shelves and Removable Wallpaper-

Bamboo Shades-

Paint Color- Benjamin Moore Cloud White

Keep reading to see the rest of the rooms we made over for this deserving family- 

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