Family Room Part I: The Shape of Things to Come

It has been 15 months since we purchased our lovely home… and a few rooms have already been under the knife (errr…hammer…I guess? Paint? I don’t know. Anyway). Next on our “to-do” list is our ‘family room’. 

                                                                **Current Condition**

Now, this room was not part of the original house. It was constructed years before we moved in…in fact; I think it was constructed years before we were even born. The room is semi-oddly shaped, houses two windows (including our largest and most expensive window) and a standard ‘off center’ door (that is, sadly, a little too centered) which leads to the backyard. Oh, the backyard…now that’s another blog entry in and of itself. Hideous.

Back to the current project; the room is roughly 20’x15’, however, if you think back to about 15 seconds ago (depending on the rate of speed with which you read) you will recall that I used the term ‘semi-oddly shaped’ to describe the room. What’s more is that you enter the room by stepping down (two steps) at an angle. So, rather than having one space that is a little too big, you have two spaces that are a little too small. If you’re confused, the picture below should help clear things up.

                                                                                 **bare bones**

In addition to the odd shape and dead center point of entry, one of the other challenges with the room is its massive blank walls. Now, I am certainly a fan of a nice well-timed piece of wall art (paintings, photos and what have you), but there is a lot of wall space… and I don't want the room to look like Arron Brothers came in and threw up. Also, art (not to mention frames, matting, etc…) can be expensive! Thus, our frugal solution to the big empty wall conundrum is to revert back to kindergarten…and throw paint everywhere. At the moment, our idea is to paint a square tile-like pattern, using 3 shades of gray and one very unsaturated color (to be determined). This design will go on the long wall with the aforementioned largest most expensive window. Hopefully, it will look something like this!

                                                                                   **minus the black lines**

Chris has already conquered a pattern-paint project once before in our hallway wall (post to come), so we feel pretty confident. I guess painted wall patterns are becoming a motif in our home as well as a money saving accessory. 


Well, I feel like I've bad mouthed our family room enough for one day. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to put a curse on the seventies contractor that built it.