Monday Decor: Family Room Fun

by Samantha James


Hola. Como estan ustedes? Thanks for checking in on this MLK Monday, which I hope is a weekend day for many of you. It is for Lou, so she's helping out with projects today. And dare I say we'll finally write our Christmas thank you notes? One can only hope. Since it's Monday, and since we've been working on it, I thought I'd share some shots of the living room as it stands today.

Living Room Progress

Living Room Progress

As a reminder, here's where we were two weeks ago:

Family Room Initial Progress

Family Room Initial Progress

I've been crossing things off our family room to do list since I last checked in on it a couple weeks ago. I should go ahead and say that I still expect this room to evolve over time, and even have some ideas for the end end result, but I like how things are shaping up for now.

Family Room Progress. Look! Art on the walls!

Family Room Progress. Look! Art on the walls!

Family Room Progress

You can tell that we're not quite finished yet. I finally hung some art up yesterday, and I'm not done. I liked some of the result, but not all of it, and I didn't feel like forcing it, so I just have things as they are for now. Last night, I had a different painting up between the windows.

Windmill painting

But I wasn't totally sold on it, so I switched it out this morning for the smaller (too small, really) print you see above. I love that windmill print - I got it for Bret for his birthday one year (he works on clean energy projects and we're both sort of climate nerds) and a real person actually painted it and everything. But I still didn't love how it looked here, so I'll keep working on it. I'm also not super crazy about the initial letters on the bookshelf, but know who is? Lou. She really enjoys messing with them/styling them, so I've kept 'em up for now. No matter how things end up, it's worth noting what a difference hanging art makes in terms of "finishing" a room. And how adding additional curtain sheers really bulked up the windows and made them seem more done. And moving that little bookshelf to between the windows, from beside the couch where it had been, also  makes the whole place seem a little cozier. For those counting, there are three poufs in this small room. Overkill maybe, except that we use them on a daily basis. I mentioned how much we're enjoying not having a bulky coffee table, and it's really true. It's easy to pull up a pouf and a pack of Uno cards and get in some fam time. Still,  I'd like to switch out the poufs, which are a bit short for use as footrests or impromptu tables, for a nice air of ottomans that we can move around at will. I'd also like to replace the rug with a larger, flatter weave, but those are the long-term visions I was talking about earlier.

So there's a quick Monday decor for ya. I have every confidence the art situation will change before long, and you know I'll keep you in the loop. But, as usual, we're making incremental progress on a bunch of fronts, so we'll share that stuff this week. Have a great day, and see you tomorrow.