When we renovated the family room, it was on a tight deadline. I liked it- we liked it- but after living with it for a year, a few things cropped up that I wanted to change. It's hard to describe, but I wanted it to feel a bit different, cozy yet bright maybe? I talked about brightening it up with a rug in this post, but let's take a look at the other easy ways I completely changed the look of this room. If your room needs a refresh, start here!

First, swap the rug. Depending on the size of your room, this is an easy and affordable way to change the look. If the rug I'm replacing is in good condition, I sometimes sell it to offset the cost of the new rug. And something I do often (and is free) is move rugs around. Our dining room rug has been in several other rooms at some point. I love how cozy this rug makes the room feel. It's incredibly soft and perfect for my rambunctious kids to roll around on. 

throw blanket  |  striped pillow  |  olive fringe pillow  |  black "Dahlia" pillow

Secondly, swap or add throw pillows. I love Xasmin Interiors and Jasmine (the owner and a friend) was so kind to help me choose beautiful pillows that would compliment the new rug. Highly recommend her shop! 

Lastly, change the art. The old art was beautiful but always felt a bit serious for the room. I swapped it with this beach art- Shallow by Lauren Neilson- which is perfect for our beach-loving family. The room already had some coastal elements in it so this art fit in perfectly.

Another thing to consider is changing your shelf decor- Sometimes, I'll change shelves by shopping my home and rearranging things without spending a dime. Small furnishings are also a great way to give a space a fresh look. In our case, our coffee table had broken (An assembly error on my part- I loved the old table and recommend it) so I grabbed this generously sized coffee table. It's real wood, under $350, and quick ship. Can I get an amen? 

By changing these few things the room looks brand new. This is also a great way to work around a large furniture item you're not yet ready to replace like a sofa, dining table, or bed. In fact, I talked about refreshing a dining room inexpensively here.

What do you think? Do you prefer the new more neutral family room or the old one with the moody art and colorful rug?

If I missed anything, comment below! You might also like these posts:

A Fun Family Room Loft That We'll Want to Hang Out In

How We Added Storage and Style to Our Neglected Family Room

Thank you Juniper Print Shop for sponsoring this post.

 

I have so many thoughts on adding art to your home that I'm having trouble knowing where to start...Ironically, that's exactly how I felt about art two years ago- I barely had any art in my home. When I'd peruse art, I'd feel overwhelmed. I'd think of all of these "rules," like the art should be meaningful...it shouldn't match the room...it should move your soul. At the same time, with a limited budget, art that "moved my soul" just wasn't a helpful parameter.

I wanted to do a budget break down of the DIY built-ins for 3 reasons. 1- They were a lot of work and took a lot of time. I will never again question a quote from a carpenter. Beside time and materials, the knowledge someone has gained over time is so valuable! 2- They weren't cheap. So like, how much did we really save?! and 3- I kind of lost track on how much we actually spent. ha! I'll use this as an opportunity to get it all down and share it with you in the process! So here we go (I hope you sung that in your best AJR voice)

Guys! We did it! We made it to week 8 of the One Room Challenge™! This room includes the biggest DIY Joe and I have ever tackled, a smaller DIY I love, tons of work, aha moments (Wait! The built-ins NEED to be beige!),  unique finds from friends (this console!), and so many more fun/hard/crazy moments that brought us to a completely finished family room. It started as neglected, lacking storage and style, and now? It's our favorite room in the house. As the room we spend the most time in as a family, it sure deserved the attention we lavished on it over these past 8 weeks. There were times I didn't think we'd make it- I feel like I painted for like 1000 hours, Joe was running up to the loft during work breaks, the kids were feeding themselves... you get the idea. But here we are and I couldn't be happier with the result. I'm not going to chat much because I know you're here for the photos of our completely renovated family room! So let's get into it!

Guys. ONE WEEK until the reveal. I can hardly believe it. Somehow we turned a corner last week and are feeling ready to wrap this thing up! This week we thought we'd walk you through how we built the shelves. I'm using "we" loosely although I did put in hours of sweat equity toward the end- but more on that later. This won't be a tutorial per se, but we'll share the tutorials we referenced, our steps, and things we wish we'd done differently. Hopefully if you're in the research phase of built-in options (hire it out? Buy ready made? DIY it?), this post will help! Also there's a tiny sneak peek of the styled shelves at the end! So here goes...

It's week 3 of the One Room Challenge and the shiplap is complete. I repeat the Vertical Paneling in the Family Room is complete. Phew. There's so much left to do but adding a wall treatment and hiding cords (something that's been on our list for like ever) is a big to-do marked off. We've installed shiplap twice- here and here- but never shared a step-by-step tutorial for installing vertical paneling so keep reading for that plus a peek at what's hidden behind ours. I'll also add that this is a great beginner project if it's just one wall- there's not a lot of math or woodworking involved. You can do it!