Our Finished Family Room | Extras

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Dear friends, thank you so much for your kind comments and for your interest in our family room redesign!  As I was working my way through your messages and emails, I thought it would be easier to answer some of your questions regarding paint color, fabrics, lighting etc in a blog post rather than individual replies. This way all sourcing info will be available in one place and, if you see something you like, you can refer back to it at a later time. While I cannot always share sources for client work, I am very happy to share what I use in my own home. To add more clarity to my previous post about our family room, I also included a couple of sketches of the floor plan, just to give you a bird’s eye view of the changes I was telling you about in THIS POST. I hope they will better illustrate my descriptions and clarify some of your questions regarding the placement of the new doors and windows.

The first sketch shows the original layout – with our living room + spare bedroom sharing a solid wall. The second sketch (below) illustrates the changes we’ve made – the placement of the interior French doors that connect the two rooms, the exterior French doors (aligned with the interior ones) and the repositioning of the windows. It also includes our current furniture placement for the family room, which can give you an idea of just how tiny the room is. (A correction to my previous post: the original room was 11’ x 11’, not 10’ x 10’ as I initially wrote 🙂 ) Anyway, 12” can make a lot of difference in a smaller room and, in fact, that 12” around the perimeter allowed us to have bookshelves enveloping the four walls.

Some of you expressed an interest in seeing different angles of our family room (which I found very sweet, by the way) so I snapped a few photos with my phone earlier today. I didn’t have time to get fresh flowers from the grocery store last week so I used some faux ones I had around the house. I use them whenever I’m out of fresh greenery, which is quite often during the winter months. Like many of you, I’m sure, I prefer real over faux, but for me faux blooms are better than no blooms at all, and they can cheer up a room instantly so I don’t mind them. (And they don’t trigger Sofia’s allergies, which is always a concern when I bring in certain fresh flowers.)

Here’s a sourcing list for the family room. We cast a wide net to get it built and furnished, using items old and new, trying to problem solve space and budget issues along the way. The furniture and fabrics are mostly vintage – lucky Facebook Marketplace finds that magically fit our vision for the room. The exterior French doors were a custom order from a local showroom, to match the design and 48″ width of our existing interior French doors.

Paint colors: 

Walls & Builtins: Wythe Tan, by Benjamin Moore (semi-gloss)

Ceiling: Simply White, Benjamin Moore (eggshell)

Beams: Linen White, Benjamin Moore (matte)

Lighting: 

Swing arm sconces: Dorchester Swing Arm, Visual Comfort & Co

Ceiling light: The sconces were a splurge; The ceiling light I originally wanted was a lantern I had found at Eco Building Bargains in Springfield, MA, but in the end I went with this charming, yet inexpensive, ceiling light from Home Depot.

Architectural changes:

Interior French doors: 48” wide doors from Home Depot 

Exterior French doors: 48” wide, custom order

Windows: Andersen Series 400 Woodwright from Home Depot; (the removable interior grilles made all the difference in the look of the windows and the quality of the light in the room.)

Beadboard paneling: Home Depot

Window treatments: 

Bamboo shades

Textiles:

vintage Ralph Lauren from eBay 

              Sister Parish Desmond in Coffee

Furniture:

Sofa: vintage, Facebook Marketplace find

Wingbacks & ottoman: vintage

Rug: Natural fiber rug from Overstock 

Vintage Turkish kilim from Nomadic Trading found at Brimfield last spring

Tables: Two vintage Arts & Crafts oak side tables from a local antiques store (my favorite in the family room)

Two small tables from Facebook Marketplace

It still surprises me just how small this room is and yet how accommodating and cozy it feels to live in.  At a little over 11’ x 11’, it fits built-in bookcases on all four walls, a sofa, four tables, two large wingback chairs, an office chair (a Windsor style chair I found on the side of the road last fall) and an ottoman. It’s become my favorite room in the house, the place where I start my days, where we all hangout, play games and watch a bit of TV. Thank you for letting me share it with you.